If so, what do you grow? How do you keep pests and animals away from it? Do you use organic methods to grow your fruits and vegetables? If so, what do you use?

I know this is late to start to plant stuff, but I want to get a garden going soon. I do not want to use any pesticides.

Unfortunately, nothing this year, the pool is where the garden was. However, when I did grow veggies, I grew carrots....they were very fun, and mine needed no pesticide or anything special, just loose soil. Green beans also went very very well, and no pesticides were needed.

I would buy the plants that are already growing in a pot, at the store, and plant those. You will be that much ahead in the growing process if you are concerned about it being late to start.

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When I've had a garden, I've grown peppers, tomatoes, and squash (zucchini and yellow).

I didn't use pesticides. I'm not so much anti-pesticide as blessed to not have lots of pests. The previous owners of our house had been huge gardeners and apparently brought in manure twice a year. They'd lived in the house for 17 years and so that dirt was black and could be and was extremely fertile. Rhubarb and horseradish came up year after year, as did strawberries.

My favorite thing is to let the peppers stay on long enough to turn red or yellow. Green ones always seem to be relatively inexpensive in the grocery stores, so I let as many as I can turn sweet and multi-colored, and then slice and flash freeze them to use all year, supplementing with store-bought fresh green peppers as necessary. A single red pepper is $2 here right now, so having a year's supply for fajitas and such was wonderful.

A few years ago, we grew some vegetables. I am not sure if we will try it again this year or not. We do have apple and pear trees, but not big enough for fruit yet!

I am growing tomato and pepper plants in buckets. I'm also trying to add to the soil by mixing in coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable peelings, etc. . Don't know if it will do any good, just trying it out.

Are your fruit/vegetable beds raised? If so, how high?

We are growing tomatoes, lettuce and beans this year. I planted the lettuce (4 different varieties and blends) this past weekend. Two kinds will be ready to start picking in a month and the other two in two months. The lettuce is in a raised bed (about 4-5 inches high) with a fence all around. The other raised bed inside the fence will have some beans planted...we are planning on drying most of the beans we are growing (7-8 varieties) for soups and stuff. The rest of the beans we are planting up at our neighbor's house, he has huge gardens and we'll plant some extra beans for him and he will give us potatoes and corn that he has planted. Our tomatoes are going into a large garden (not raised) we have but without fencing, I told dh we may have to put up a fence so nothing eats our tomatoes before we get a chance to! We also use a special dirt from a local guy, it's so rich and dark we call it Chautauqua Chocolate (I live near Chautauqua Lake). But I swear my plants (flowers, fruits and veggies) all do incredibly well in this soil.

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Friends are like butt cheeks.
Crap might separate them,
But they always come back together.

If you have squirrels, they may eat your tomatoes. My daughter planted some the last few years and she rarely ever got to have many because the squirrels will take a few bites and leave them on the vine. It sorta takes the fun out of gardening.

I'm actually worried more about the deer eating my tomatoes. We do have a few squirrels but they seem more than happy to eat the bird seed. I'm sure dh will put up a fence, cuz I know the deer walk right thru where we are planting the tomatoes this year. AND to help keep our lovable yellow lab out of there as well, she goes crazy if she's in dirt that she can dig!

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Friends are like butt cheeks.
Crap might separate them,
But they always come back together.

We have an apple tree and 2 peach trees (one of the dogs jumps up and picks and eats the peaches). So keeping this in mind about the peach eating dog, this year we are growing in containers on the back patio, up on a table, tomatoes (we already have baby tomatoes growing on them), strawberries (been picking some for 3 weeks now), blueberries, green beans (which I hope to transplant to the ground when they get bigger). In the ground we have potatoes (which one of the dogs has dug some of them up) and onions (dug up only one of these). I plan on getting a plum tree and cherry tree and a couple of grape vines so we will have those in the future years. I grow everything organically. My first batch of potatoes have been in the ground for over a month, I am going to plant more in a different area this weekend and will just keep planting more as we dig them up when they are ready.

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I have a similiar problem with birds and probably other small animals.

Thank you all for your responses! Keep them coming.

Bluejays LOVE peaches. We had two peach trees and there's nothing more demoralizing than to reach for a perfect peach and the other side has been pecked out by a bluejay! Grrr!

Does any one have a greenhouse or a screenhouse to keep out pests, animals, kids, etc?

I was on the Home Depot website and they had popup greeenhouses...got me to statt thinking...might be a good solution.

I saw those and thought they were so cute. I'm debating about getting one for fall and mybe next Spring planting. Then when not in use it would fold up very nicely.

I'm starting tomatoes, green beans and peppers next week. Something else but I don't know what. My SO is giving me edtra room in the garden that I wasn't expecting.

Guess how I am spending mothers day?! I had to wati for the last frost.

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Laura
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I have tried to grow various fruits.

The only ones that have truly been successful are blueberries and Asian pears.

The blueberries were great and the bushes are pretty.

They need sun.

The Asian pear tree I bought did not have a variety name on it. It just said Asia Pear. It is wonderful. Fireblight has not bothered it and the pears stay hard enough and the skins are tough that the birds and bugs leave them alone. I have to bring them in and let them sit for a while to get soft enough to eat. I also have to peel them. They are wonderful and make really great pie or crisp.

I planted several varieties of tomatoes, squash, peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cantaloupe , strawberries, blackberries and watermelon. I would like to put onions, lettuce, radishes, green beans and potatoes in before it gets too late in the season.

The only thing I use to help promote a healthy yield is Miracle Gro plant food. I use MG about once a week.

I never use pesticides for the following reasons:
1. I don't want to contaminate the ground water
2. It costs money.
3. I believe it's healthier.

I have pests, such as deer, birds, bunnies, gypsy moths. For the larger pests, I will put up a temporary fence around the perimeter of the garden to keep them out. For the smaller ones, I only have to worry about the broccoli (which attracts those lovely little green worms).

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