This week’s freebie is a gardener’s bonanza that comes just in time for spring, sunshine and a sizable outdoor to-do list! I don’t know about you, but I’m jonesing to play in the dirt. I can’t wait to build a couple of raised beds for salad greens, squash, tomatoes and cucumbers. I’m also going to hang some baskets of nasturtiums and strawberries from the front porch. Oh, and I can’t forget my herb and cut flower garden.
We’ve partnered with the organic seed company Seeds of Change, a staff favorite, to hook-up a winner with all of the trappings of a multi-family or community garden. Seeds of Change is giving away 250 of the highest-quality organic seed packets (a mix of veggies, herbs and flowers), five bags to tote your seeds and other gardening essentials, as well as five custom bowls to display your hard work come harvest time. This is enough loot for your and four green-thumb friends to create joint gardens and share in the spoils. Answer this week’s question before 12/11c Monday, March 21, to be entered for a chance to win.
This week’s question: There’s nothing like enjoying the fruits of your labor. What’s your favorite veggie or fruit to eat fresh from the garden? Heirloom tomatoes? Juicy strawberries? Or are you all about fresh cut flowers?
Learn more about organic seeds and gardening at www.seedsofchange.com and www.seedsofchangefoods.com. And join HGTV’s Family Gardening Club and dig in the dirt with your kids!
Tomatoes, definitely. The flavor from home grown tomatoes cannot be bought at the store. But, it isn't just the flavor that makes me enjoy them…growing tomatoes each year also evokes fond childhood memories. I remember helping my mother plant & pick tomatoes each summer. When we'd go inside, she allowed me to play "restaurant" with the smaller tomatoes. Imagine a little girl will all her dolls sitting at the kitchen table, her taking "orders", pretend plates for each, and her serving each doll tomatoes…that was me. Then, I'd gobble them up when it was time to clean up. I hope to do this with my little girl someday.
Strawberries!
Tomatos and basil……and I love blueberries off the vine!
Sorry, can't pick just one favorite =) Growing up, my parents always had a big garden and lots of fruit trees. It instilled such a love for gardening in me. There is an insane difference in taste (and therefore nutrition) between home-grown and store-bought. If I had to narrow it down, I've always LOVED fresh strawberries and zucchini right off the vine. A new favorite is fresh green peppers dipped in hummus, YUM!
I love tomatoes the best! I like to eat them just with a little salt and a fork.
I also love the strawberries…
I love to eat peas right out of the pod!
I am most proud of a butterfly bush that has grown from a twig. Really. It was maybe 16 inches when I planted it. Last summer it was about 6 feet tall and fed butterflies all summer long. I really enjoyed watching them from my seat on the porch.
Green Peppers! I am going to have a garden on my deck, all in separate planters. Yummy & cheap!
The best to eat right from the garden or raspberries! I grew up in Michigan and we had a raspberry patch in the back yard along the fence that divided the property. I couldnt wait until those raspberries were a nice deep red color; it was then that I knew they were at their best… Ummmmm
Most of the time they never even made it into the house.
Very tough question! I love raspberries for a fruit, but fried green tomatoes are great too. The flowers are what win me over themost though.
Our favorite vegetables are fresh picked tomatoes, especially with a few basil leaves from the herb garde. Most years we grow leaf lettuce in the cooler Spring, beans, zucchini and herbs all summer and of course several kInds of tomatos
There is nothing like eating fresh strawberries!!
My favorite edible garden item is grape tomatoes!
I love zuchini and yellow neck as well as tomatoes and jalapenos!
Although I love everything that I pick from my garden, my favorite has to be strawberries. Buying berries is often disappointing because they're never as ripe as fresh picked from the garden. Homegrown strawberries are so much sweeter and flavorful – plus, no moldy fruit like you sometimes get from the supermarket.
fresh tomatoes warmed by the sun and bell peppers that's the ticket right there
We are such big salad eaters, I would have to say leaf lettuce. Tomatoes would have to run a close second.
There is nothing like the smell of tomato plants in the summer to get you excited about gardening! Tomatoes are my favorite fresh from the garden, as well has green beans and carrots. Oh, and you can't forget about onions and brussel sprouts! I guess I enjoy everything I plant fresh from the garden!
Herbs are easy to grow and yummy to enjoy! Basil, particularly.
Love spring. My husband plants cherry tomatoes, cucumbers that hang from a fence, sweet potatoes that have grown to be 6lbs (he didn't find that one), peppers, peas, string beans, lettuce, and watermelons. So good. We have enough to feed family, too. But I have to say the cherry tomatoes are the best.
I am a newbie with gardening. Last year I did a small container garden with tomatoes, bell peppers, and herbs. This year I'm going BIG! I am going to build a raised bed and planting, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, pepperocinis, snap peas, grean beans, cucumbers, and some flowers. My bell peppers were my favorite to eat fresh last year!
I think raspberries are my favorite garden fruits. When I was little we used to go pick them in the wild. Now that I have some domesticated plants the raspberries never seem to make it inside the house. I love any kind of gardening whether it be vegetables, fruits or flowers. I love it all.
I love veggies fresh from the garden. And you can NEVER have too many flowers in the yard. Every year I look for new places to plant. We put veggies in whiskey barrel tubs to expand our vegetable garden space.
I love seeing our flowers pop up, after a long, hard winter. It feels so "rewarding". This year, we are going to plant a garden at our new house. Looking forward to whatever nature provides for us. Hopefully, some nice blueberries, tomatoes, and aspargus.
Spring me into spring! I too am going to expand my raised beds this year … My favorites are sweet 1000's !! Just POP them in my mouth and my blueberries too!! I want to grow some new things … what are easy and fast growing veggies or fruits?
Juliet tomatoes–they are firm, juicy, and just the right size to pop in your mouth!
I love eating fresh green beans right off the plants. Only half make it back up to the house.
Nothing tastes better than a tomato fresh from the garden, still warm from the sun. I can eat them like an apple they are so delicious!
Without a doubt my favorite veggie to eat fresh from the garden is peas! I cannot wait until the peas are bulging out enough for me to pick them, pop them out from beneath their pod, and into my mouth! I am starting our first school garden and am excited to introduce our K-4 students to fresh fruits and vegetables!!! Our food service director is going to host food-tasting demos in classrooms and serve the fruits of our harvest in our school lunches – is so awesome!
I'm growing snap peas, Brussels sprouts, red peppers, and tomatoes.
Fresh spinach and tomatoes and green beans are my favorite thing from the garden….there is nothing like a fresh salad for dinner.
I love eating a juicy sweet watermelon. This year I'm going to try ground cherries for the first time.
Tomatoes! are the favorite in our house!!! my 6 year old picks & eats them before they make it into the house for salad.
Absolutely heirloom tomatoes! Still warm from the sun with lots of salt and fresh ground pepper. Mmmmm
I like tomatoes and green beans but flowers give me great joy
I love to eat tomatoes right out of the garden. A juicy bite-sized one that explodes with a burst of flavor in my mouth, or a large one eaten like an apple with such intense flavor that it even tastes red!
My favorite is the newest – golden rasberries. They are sweeter than the wild blackberries growing at the back of our yard. We found them by going to a nursery and all the workers were sampling them off the bush. They are so good we had to grow them ourselves. The kids love them too.
I love fresh veggies from the garden, especially potatoes. However, I have to admit, I am all about the flowers too!
Oh, I am all about fresh-from-the-garden blueberries! I just love blueberries in my garden-they are pretty in bloom and have delicate, pretty leaves as an ornamental, then the fruits I can pick and eat right off the bush for weeks in the fall! Love, love, love my blueberries!
We love having a range of produce and flower from the gardens.. Tomatoes, Strawberries (which we fence off from our daughter rather than any critters
) Squashes, Lettuce, Spinach, Broccoli, Swiss Chard, Peas, Blue Berries.. My wife love having Zinnias to cut for the house… Cilantro, Thai Basil, Lemon Grass, Thyme, Mint, Oregano in the herb beds…
The kids and I love to pick grape tomatoes and eat them right off the vine. Mmmmm!!
I love gardening I wish I was a lot better at it!
But I love tomatoes and strawberries pretty hard to say one is a favorite.
pomelo! So sweet and juicy! Love our pomelo tree
Does anyone else get excited when the first garden catalog arrives. For me it's better than any gift giving holiday. I am SO THANKFUL. My only disappointment is my Rosemary. Blueberries, Meyer lemon didn't make it. The lemon was inside – yuck. I will try again, they were 3yrs old.
I would love to put in some raised bed and try something new. So far I've only had about 5 tomatoe plants, a few different lettuce greens, basil and rosemary.
Green beans are our family favorite from the garden! After eating fresh green beans, there is just no way to eat canned green beans. Plus, they grow fast and are the kids have fun picking them!
Basil is my first answer, but it might change after this season, depending on how well I get my watermelons to grow.
I've love, love, loving my kale this year! Favorite veggie for sure. I've also been squeezing oranges for breakfast for the past 2 weeks, and loving those!
It's a 3 way tie between fresh cut flowers, herbs and tomatoes. In northern VA, deer pose quite a problem. We live on the top peak of Bull Run Mountain – rocks, Rocks, ROCKS! But, that does not deter me in my quest for fresh vegetables. I am lucky to have an awesome deck that I have dedicated to pots of fresh vegetables and flowers during the spring and summer. During the winter and fall, my loving husband built me a greenhouse, complete with radiant heat flooring so that it is toasty warm. This provides the perfect environment and I can grow fresh vegetables all year long.
I so love growing Heirloom tomatoes all throughout the summer! I have never tried seeds of changes so I am so excited to use them this summer!.. Thank You!