Well I envy that. All the things I have tried to grow goes really nice until disease, fungus or pests kills it.

I'm sure Kate help you. She dug lots of holes!

My tomatoes have been hit or miss. they did well this year, but did pretty bad last year

We have trouble growing things because our yard is in most to full shade all day during the growing season. I tried carrots in a patch of "partial sun" (according to a gardening light meter). I got beautiful greens with a string for a root. Perhaps I could have marketed them as carrot strings -- put them on a salad like bean sprouts. Most things go that way for us -- everything the plant can do goes into the parts we're not growing to eat.

So, anyway, those carrots like plump and delicious to me ^v^

Have you tried mixing anything in with the soil?

Oh, yeah ... it's definitely not the soil, it's the light, or lack thereof. My neighbor who has been quite the adept hobbyist organic gardener in previous locations just finished his 3rd unsuccessful year next door to us for the same reason. And he got quite clever -- building some racks out of bamboo poles and planting everything so he could move it around. I had to compliment him on his ingenuity, but alas, it availed naught.

On the positive side:
- we do have a small sunny space about 3 feet by 10 feet where my wife had me build some planting boxes in which she has successfully gotten some peppers and herbs and a few other things.
- we only have to mow the grass (what little grows) about 3 times a year
- I dumped some savings into a few acres of inexpensive, secluded rural land that had been cut viciously for timber about 8 years ago and is now mostly scrub. It's about an hour drive from my house. It's always sunny over almost all of it, and I'm hoping to get a big garden in there this coming spring.

We'd really like to get as self-sufficient as we reasonably can for as much as we can reasonably handle. I estimate a 50% chance of at least being content with our efforts within 10 years. ^v^

Sounds good to me. I'm hoping to become somewhat self sufficient myself

I've wanted to plant apple trees in my yard so I can grow my own apples, but my yard is too small for even one or two. Might possibly have some flowerbeds on the one side of the yard by the neighbor's fence in the future and might even have an outdoor pond.

Cool, sounds like a plan. You could plant rasberries too if you like them. They require almost no care because they grow wild in the area

Well lately I have been growing spider plants indoors as you already know, but the one is already having three or four babies starting to grow on it, but I don't know whether or not to give them away or keep them.

Yeah, part of the reason people buy them is for the little "spiders" that hang off of them. Leave a few on, they'll actually survive for quite awhile. Or, you can wait until they grow roots and pot them if you want more spider plants. Its the easiest plant in the world to grow and maintain

Yeah, I had to get rid of one that wasn't faring to well, probably because I placed it behind two larger plants that hogged most of the light, it may have gotten root rot, but now I was able to plant one that was in its temporary planter for the longest time.

Yeah I learned the hard way over-watering can be just as bad as under-watering. what I usually do is water if the soil is dry, or if the pot feels light. And yeah, spider plants live direct sunlight. I've had several die in shady locations

I do the same thing now if the soil looks dry, usually don't have to water them from a couple days to a week at most. Now I've just have them in the windowsill of by my kitchen sink and they seem to be growing pretty healthy, just hope the one will get better now that it is a pot.

Should do good now. Mine perked up when we put them back on the porch