Yes, there ARE mountains in Jersey! Just not as big as out west. LOL.. (we've got them all in the NW corner of the state LOL).
Anyways, I'm from the "Garden State" so I might as well step up my game. What started for me as some simple landscaping around the house has evolved and taken on a life of its own..
For starters, I got into hot peppers because of my hostas. Yes, you read it right.. Hostas! The deer love them as their salad garden, but I prefer to have a landscaped yard without the deer fences, so what to do? A little research, and I found a recipe for a repellant that you had to mix habaneros with some water, glue, oil and soap, and spray it on the plants. VOILA! It worked! Side benefit was, I found out I liked to make my own salsa with the added heat, and well, it snowballed into a small veggie garden last year, and this year I'm in over my head.
The small veggie garden started out as an 8x16 semi-shaded garden.. Not the best conditions, but we managed a few harvests and set our sights higher. Last fall I cleared an area for a 16x32 veggie garden, and from the looks of things, that wont be enough. So, I will be adding to the 16x32 fenced garden.. Cleared an area about 100x100, and now I need to pull stumps.. One caveat is there was a black walnut smack dab in the middle of the 100x100, so we'll see how the garden does with the juglone from the black walnut, but lots of plants arent affected, and raising the beds helps as well.. Mind you, both the 16x32 fenced garden and 100x100 proposed garden are in an overgrown "field".. (as a kid, there was chest high grass there, in 25 yrs of nobody maintaining it, its become a young forest now with a ton of black walnuts and poplars).. I had to clear about 20 small trees from the area (next winters firewood!) but its coming along..
So, this summer the plans are for a much larger garden.. Prized plants and anything I dont have multiples of will be in the fenced in garden, and all overflow will go to create the unfenced garden.
Even more strange, is I really don't eat veggies! I'm a die-hard carnivore, love my meat and potatoes! But I enjoy growing things, and once I made my own salsa, the game changed.. My friends bust my chops because I don't eat half of what I grow, but then again, they get the produce, so maybe they shouldnt bust my chops. LOL.. BUT! since I made my own salsa and loved it, and love all things hot n spicy, my garden is predominately tomatoes and peppers, some herbs, and then the other veggies are more for fun..
Looking forward to learning all I can here (I'm a sponge for info), and sharing what I know as well...
Anyways, I'm from the "Garden State" so I might as well step up my game. What started for me as some simple landscaping around the house has evolved and taken on a life of its own..
For starters, I got into hot peppers because of my hostas. Yes, you read it right.. Hostas! The deer love them as their salad garden, but I prefer to have a landscaped yard without the deer fences, so what to do? A little research, and I found a recipe for a repellant that you had to mix habaneros with some water, glue, oil and soap, and spray it on the plants. VOILA! It worked! Side benefit was, I found out I liked to make my own salsa with the added heat, and well, it snowballed into a small veggie garden last year, and this year I'm in over my head.
The small veggie garden started out as an 8x16 semi-shaded garden.. Not the best conditions, but we managed a few harvests and set our sights higher. Last fall I cleared an area for a 16x32 veggie garden, and from the looks of things, that wont be enough. So, I will be adding to the 16x32 fenced garden.. Cleared an area about 100x100, and now I need to pull stumps.. One caveat is there was a black walnut smack dab in the middle of the 100x100, so we'll see how the garden does with the juglone from the black walnut, but lots of plants arent affected, and raising the beds helps as well.. Mind you, both the 16x32 fenced garden and 100x100 proposed garden are in an overgrown "field".. (as a kid, there was chest high grass there, in 25 yrs of nobody maintaining it, its become a young forest now with a ton of black walnuts and poplars).. I had to clear about 20 small trees from the area (next winters firewood!) but its coming along..
So, this summer the plans are for a much larger garden.. Prized plants and anything I dont have multiples of will be in the fenced in garden, and all overflow will go to create the unfenced garden.
Even more strange, is I really don't eat veggies! I'm a die-hard carnivore, love my meat and potatoes! But I enjoy growing things, and once I made my own salsa, the game changed.. My friends bust my chops because I don't eat half of what I grow, but then again, they get the produce, so maybe they shouldnt bust my chops. LOL.. BUT! since I made my own salsa and loved it, and love all things hot n spicy, my garden is predominately tomatoes and peppers, some herbs, and then the other veggies are more for fun..
Looking forward to learning all I can here (I'm a sponge for info), and sharing what I know as well...
from Minnesota 
