Anyone rock a veggie garden?? (pics)

So not really a bbq post though my last pic is of a corned beef brisket I'm smoking for some pastrami (my new favorite thing to smoke) that I've been cooking as I planted today .

Before I ventured into bbq'ing I started another hobby of growing my own veggies. I wanted to see if anyone else out there combines these 2 hobbies/obsessions??

This is my 3rd year growing and each year my garden has gotten bigger and bigger. First yeat I started out with some upside down planters I made along with 1 raised bed. Last year I only did raised beds and I added some more this year.

It is finally warm enough here in GA to plant warm weather veggies so I put in about 70% of my tomatoes and peppers today. I also have zucchini, yellow squash, and will put in eggplant and probably some melons on a hill I have. I'll probably have close to 90 pepper plant (all varieties), around 15 tomato plants and then other veggies I mentioned.

So wanted to see if anyone else has anything to share and if anyone has started yet this year, favorite things to grow, etc. Would love to see pics too, but comments are great! I love this time of year.

Not finished with the mulching yet. Most of these beds are new this year.


I had these 4 beds last year. Still some room to fill. Couldn't do it all in 1 day .



Here is the corned beef.

expatpig said:

Well, I still have a foot of snow in my yard, I can just now see my raised beds. We can't plant here until after the first week in June. I plant a lot of garlic, I make my own garlic powder and granulated garlic.. Peas and pole beans do very well, pumpkins and any squash do ok. Peppers not so good, hot or sweet. I've never been able to get a full size ripe tomato.Root veggies do well here but I don't waste my garden space on them. Our season is short here, but the days are long.

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You must be way up north or maybe alaska/canada. I do feel lucky that we have a pretty long growing season here in the south. Our spring and fall are pretty short so I have to stay away from the cool weather crops as everything would bolt quickly. Was excited to plant today and hopefully should get some tomatoes and peppers in about 60 days. Thanks for the comment.

1_T_Scot said:

I tried a garden once...The chickens didn't make it. Not sure If i planted them too deep or watered too much?#$#?

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Yeah those damn chickens are a finicky bunch :becky:. I gave up after my first try.

QDoc said:

I'm wanting to make raised beds. Any recomendations on the retaining walls?

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I haven't had to put in any retaining walls though thought about it for the hill I have in my backyard. I have about zero skill in the landscaping category .

BMantlow said:

How does that irrigation system work?

I need me some raised beds.

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I actually document a ton of my garden and bbq adventures. Another hobby I guess . But i made a few video's and put em up on youtube. The vids are fairly detailed on the setup I use. I'm no expert. Learned most of my gardening skills on youtube and the web.

Part 1
YouTube - Drip Irrigation Installation: 1 of 2
Part 2
YouTube - Drip Irrigation Installation: 2 of 2

Also a vid of how I make my beds.
YouTube - How to Make a Raised Bed - Easy Method / My Method

Hoss said:

I dabbled a bit last year.The garden has grown 50% this year.Plannin on 3 acres of sweet corn and maybe 8 acres of watermelons and cantaloupe this year.Still too early here for anything but Early season stuff,which don't sell well at the market.(Learned the hard way last year.I had celery,brussel sprouts,cauliflower,broccolli,leaf lettuce)Most of it went in the compost pile. This year will be the "staples".

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Dang that is huge. Looks awesome. I'm guessing you sell some of that . I haven't tried corn yet, so maybe next year on that one.

jimithing78 said:

Wow Hoss, that looks pretty good. Wish I had some land like that to expand my garden. Not to sell it, just to grow more of my own food. Last year I made a single raised garden that's about 4'x8' made from plans on this site. Here's a pic from last year

Learned quite a bit from it - grew things that took up too much space for a 4'x8' plot and tried too many different things. This year I'm keeping it simple. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, green beans and trying watermelon. I started my peppers and tomatoes indoors in the middle of February and put them outside about a month ago. Kept them covered for a couple of weeks and now everything is uncovered and taking off. Also added a drip irrigation system this year. Last year my tomatoes got a little blight because of my hand watering. Hope that doesn't happen this year with the drip system.

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Looks great. I had the same issue my first year where I had zucchini basically shade out almost my entire bed. So I had to take it out.

I also tried too many things last year that I didn't end up using a lot and even though my garden was big I never felt like I had a surplus. So I'm keeping my veggie selection smaller this year to the things I'll use the most. But you really have to try out a bunch of different things in the beginning if you aren't sure exactly what you want. All part of the process I guess .