Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sydni Moser on April 28, 2010 at 7:13am

Community Land Sharing

SharedEarth.com was created by Adam Dell after personally experiencing a successful relationship between himself as a landowner and a gardener whom he met on the internet. After enjoying fresh fruit and vegetables from his new garden, he envisioned an online matching site to link land with gardeners in the community, and SharedEarth.com was born.

Permalink Reply by Cheryl Pantano on April 28, 2010 at 9:53am

Wow, if my garden only looked like that. My problem is I don't get sun all day. Maybe about 8 hours a day. That limits what I can grow. I have good luck with herbs like oregano, lemon balm and mint. These tend to be difficult to kill. They grow like weeds. Any suggestions on other things I can grow in a part-sun/shade garden. I never have much luck with veggies. I guess I never pick the right ones. Living in Northern Michigan, the weather is cooler and a shorter growing season.

Permalink Reply by Chuck G on April 28, 2010 at 10:22am

1) Squashes and Zucchini do okay with only part sun. The Native American Indians used to inter crop squash/pumpkins with corn, the squash liking the partial shade under the corn. There are smaller bush-type varieties if you are space limited. Forget growing corn though, it's not practical, unless you've got lots of space.

2) Peas should do well for you, and an interesting thing I've discovered this winter here in Texas(the season you grow peas down here), pea greens, or pea sprouts, are really good. They're very trendy, and you might find them as an add-on in high end sandwich shops. So even if you don't have enough sun to get actual peas, the greens are terrific too.

3) When I lived in Alaska, people used to grow tomatoes in temporary greenhouses made with clear plastic and cheap furring lumber. Alaska summer days rarely get warmer than 70 deg F. The idea is to trap enough heat to keep them happy(80 -90 deg F), but leave a flap that can be pulled back, if it gets hot inside. With a low wattage heat source, like the old fashion X-mas lights, the kind that have screwing bases, where each bulb is 5 or 7 watts, also very cheap, especially right after x-mas, you can push the growing season longer, starting them more than a month before the last frost, which for you is probably early May, so you might be able to set them out in early April. Tomatoes do not need more than about 5 hours of sun, if it is otherwise bright.

Permalink Reply by Cheryl Pantano on April 28, 2010 at 11:03am

Thanks for the info Chuck. I did not know that tomatoes do not need more than about 5 hours of sun. I have good soil in my garden. I am always adding dirt from my compost.

Permalink Reply by GOPI KANTA GHOSH on April 30, 2010 at 10:46am

Great