Hi

[VanillaGorilla]

Dave, from Fresno here. Just wanted to say thanks for such a great website. :D

[plantoneonme]

Hi Dave, tell us a little about yourself and gardening experience:) Kim

[gardengirl72]

Welcome and thanks for your support!

[VanillaGorilla]

Kim, Patti,

Thanks for the welcome.

Kim,

I'm a newbie to gardening. I've been a competitive powerlifter and private strength trainer for about 10 years and I eat like one (a powerlifter that is...lol). I've decided to try to improve my diet by adding more veggies to it.

I was at the grocery store with my wife Kat recently and I was actually paying attention to the scanner for once as everything was being rang (rung?) up and I noticed that my favorite veggie, tomatoes, came up to just a few cents under $12 for a half dozen of them.
I thought to myself that it was kinda nuts to pay that much and since I have a huge back yard, I might as well give it a go growing my own goodies...so here I am.

I'm about a month into it and most of my garden is from transplants that I bought at a local store. I had to limit the size of it to just what I could fit inside of an 8x8 dog kennel because I have a pot-bellied pig that would love to root it all up if she had the chance.

Since finding this site and learning about the raised beds, I've been able to double my garden's size by elevating a raised bed on top of wall bricks high enough to keep her out of it....I may add a couple more beds next year if it goes well.

Hopefully my thumb turns out to be more green than black, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. I can't wait to cook something with my own veggies...really looking forward to that.

Anyways, that's the basics of why I'm here and who I am. If you've got any questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks again for the welcome.

[ecogirl]

Welcome!! Nice to meet you!

[Sinfonian]

Welcome Dave,

Great to see you taking the initiative and growing your own. I agree tomatoes are pricy, and tasteless. Unfortunately you'll spoil yourself on home grown.

Great idea raising them higher than your pig can reach. I'd love to see pics.

Maybe Californians can chime in here, but I believe you have two tomato seasons if you utilize staggered plantings and a mix of short, mid and long-term varieties.

Good luck and enjoy your garden!

[plantoneonme]

Oh Dave! You have no idea how much I would love to have a pet pig!!! I have been fascinated with pigs since I was just a very young girl. Some people decorate their kitchens in apples or other quaint things but me...well it is decorated in pigs. I also thought it would be fun to have a pet chicken with a pet pig and call them Bacon and Eggs:D

I hope you have a lot of success with your tomatoes...I have to say I am a tomato fanatic and would be crushed if I could not get fresh tomatoes. Once you get hooked on growing them, you will find so many varieties with lots of incredible flavors. Kim

[VanillaGorilla]

ecogirl,

Thanks :D

Sinfonian,

Pricy, yes...but not tasteless (I'm thinking that was a mistype, I make 'em all the time myself...lol). Either way, thanks for the welcome and the encouragement. And, did you mean pics of my garden or of my pig?



and


Kim,

My pig actually is named Bacon, lol. To me, she's a just another one of our dogs. I call her my potweiler. She runs along the back fence with our bigger dog trying to immitate her barking at people when they pass thru the canal that runs behind our property...it's not much of a bark, but she tries. And if someone new goes into the yard that she doesn't know, she'll try to chase 'em back into the house. Great guard-pig....lol.

She's a great pet but they're not for everyone. It takes a lot of patience, especially the first couple of years. She's a very smart animal. She knows where food is kept and knows how to open the fridge. She doesn't go for it so much now when we're paying attention to her, but if she thinks no one is looking, she'll slowly make her way for it. She sleeps inside at night in a large dog crate and is house broken. When we let her spend time inside, she'll go to the door and try to slide it open when she needs to take a potty break.
But if we didn't stay on top of her when she was younger, she'd be a real handful now. lol.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7312/baconn.jpg (http://img6.imageshack.us/my.php?image=baconn.jpg)

[MoniDew]

For a gorilla, you have a charming way of expressing yourself. I'm getting the giggles, reading your posts.

BTW: Gorillas are the strongest land animals, and are 98% vegetarian. Your instinct to add more veggies to your diet are right on the money!

Happy growing!

[VanillaGorilla]

Thank you Monica, I appreciate that.

And, yes, I have also read that about gorillas. I've always been facinated by gorillas and carried that over into my sport with me, naming my team after them (Gorilla Barbell). I'm a big monkey of any kind fan really (much in the way that Kim is a fan of pigs). Anyway, unlike the real gorillas, I can't lie and say that I've ever really been anything close to a vegetarian, but I have started to appreciate them a lot more in the past few years...I guess I've just aquired a taste for them slowly. But better late than never tho...lol.

Thanks again for the welcome. :D

[VanillaGorilla]

Well, we added a couple of chicks and a bunny to our collection of creatures....(sorry Kim, we didn't name either of the chicks Eggs to go along with our Bacon but we did name them after food....Kiev and Marsala).

We plan to have the chicks for eggs and since it's just my wife and I, the amount of eggs we should get from 2 birds should be plenty. Their poo should be good for my garden too, so there's more reason to have 'em.

My wife just couldn't let me get out of the store without the bunny...the bunny hasn't found a name just yet.

[kristim23]

Hi Vanilla Gorilla!
Hey I just joined the forum yesterday and am addicted already. I am also planning on doing some gardening, on my deck in containers. Never grown anything other than flowers, so maybe next year I'll plant in the ground! Any way, good luck with the tomatoes!
Also, a friend of mine used to have a pot bellied pig. Her name was Phillis and she wore earrings, and was hysterical!

[VanillaGorilla]

lol...that's great. They really are such awesome pets if you've got the time, space, and patience. So much character in them.

Anyways, thank you and best of luck back at you with your own growing. :D