Started a garden this year and figured there were some other gardeners out there......just saw my little seedlings this morning and it was exciting! ( or as I told my friend, I may have watered some weeds 😉 ).....Seriously, I have a 3 sisters garden ( corn in middle, beans around perimeter and squash in the corners)......I also have a plot with green peppers, onion and garlic, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, several varieties of lettuce and 4 types of tomatoes ( some seed and some small plants i bought at walmart for 50 cents!!) carrots and strawberries.
I bought some broccoli, cabbage and pumpkins for the fall....
Can you tell I am excited? With food prices as high as they are, I figure it can't hurt and I plan to buy a collapsible rain barrel to save on the cost of watering the garden everyday in the summer. ( Can't remember where I saw them but they were cheap ($30) compared to the $100 versions you see for sale most of the time......I am sure lots of people on here make their own rain barrels as creative as you all seem to be 🙂 )
I'm an avid gardener in SE PA - haven't gotten anything in the ground yet except nasturtiums and sweet peas, and a pot of lettuce outside my kitchen door (easiest way to avoid the bunnies). I hope to purchase & put in my tomato, cuke, & pepp plants next week (I get about 6 plants of each - the tomatoes are from a nearby nursery that sells heirlooms ('Striped Roman' and 'Bloody Butcher' are my personal favorites for flavor; non-heirloom 'cubanelle' pepps and 'bush pickler' cukes also work very well for me), as well as put in my okra seeds (Clemson spineless). I also have an ever-bearing raspberry bush (possibly Carolina?) that produces wonderfully; this summer I plan to divide it and grow it along trellises to save space. I don't have my usual full-size garden as we're undergoing some yard rearrangement. I realize I could have started about a week ago but have been busy with school/final exams.
The only pesticide I use is biodegradable dish soap diluted in water (applied via spray bottle), simply because it is relatively cheap and works well for my particular pests (aphids, Japanese beetles, and stink bugs (they love the okra)).
Does everyone prefer this thread to discuss only edibles? I have an interest in ornamentals, but I don't want to hijack the thread!
We went to the square foot garden method a couple years ago. What a difference in yield. We live on a small 35 acre farm and used to have a huge garden. The weeds were to too much for my wife. I built her 8 - 4'x4' raised beds and used the books' recommended soil recipe. Now she can easily maintain weeds and still can as much as she was before.
Right now she has pea's and lettuce in, seems to be doing well. I can't wait for the fresh veggies cooked on the campfire.
Enjoy your garden.
Flipped the raised bed over last week and tilled the plot behind the garage, still need to work in a little bit of the magic compost and we'll be ready for the veggies. Kate's parents grow a huge garden with four varieties of sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes ,cabage, broccoli, several squashes, carrots cukes and zukes, eggplant peas and beans and a raft of other flowers and goodies. We all help tend it and share in the bounty (along with probably a third of the county 😉 ) Since I get to play with the plants at work everyday, I try to keep it simple at home, enough flower beds and small vegtable production to keep Cora interested but not too much to burn out over. I just got about 300 flats of annuals to plant at work yesterday and by the time we get them in the ground I'm not really overly excited about flowers for the summer.
I'm trying something a little different this year.
In the past I've done a very large garden (sufficient to "put up" 80 quarts or so of tomatoes, and make various jams), lots of work weeding.
This year, I'm trying something new, the square foot method. I'm reading the book and trying to lay out what I want to plant. Looks like it will be some tomatoes, beans, and squash. I received a self-watering patio container as a gift for the gardening season, and think I'll try some patio tomatoes in it to see how they do. I usually do my cooking herbs in a container, which really keeps the bunnies out.
Anyone out there try the patio bags for potatoes? I saw an advertisement for them in one of the gardening magazines and thought they looked neat.
glad to see several of you use the square foot method and seem to like it.....i started to try that but really wanted to get my feet wet and see if i could grow something, (anything!!) successfully first 😉
As far as talking ornamental don't worry about highjacking the thread......I have a bunch of flowers going strong too.....I doubt anybody else would mind and certainly not me.....
As for me, right now I could use some methods of thinning seedlings......One guy suggested using scissors to just snip off the unwanted heads so you don't disturb the fragile root systems......Youtube has some great gardening videos ( I saw one about the potato bag method with a guy who had a neat rooftop garden going).......If you get a minute, check them out!
Oh and there are several other things that will grow upside down according to the internet......can't think of what all they said at the moment but apparently alot of things will grow upside down not just tomatoes.......
Ok, I think I have run out of steam.......somebody else can post now 😉
If you use the square foot method your veggies will grow. I tried to do it the first year with my topsoil (which is good) and it was only so so. I used the recipe in the book and it works so much better. There's no tilling as the soil stays loose. weed pulling is easy and takes no time at all.
I have started to use all organic fertilizer and the benefits for the soil are much better than the chemical ferts. Most garden centers carry everything you need for an organic garden. I don't compost at home but I can get composted soil from the garden center when I need to add a little to the beds.
The best thing about the square foot garden is how little time it takes compared to a conventional garden. I recommend it to everyone that asks about how to start a garden.
Tried the square foot method. Found 4' x 4' is too wide for me to reach all the way to the middle. 2' x 4 to 8' is better. I have a friend who is very successful this way. I didn't like growing tomatoes that way as only one plant per 4x4. Otherwise it crowds everything else out. My tomato plants grow to be monsters by the fall. 2 plants takes over the garden.
I have a 8' x 10' or so spot I rototill (didn't get it done before the rain. Hoping to get it done Monday). I have to fence mine to 4ft or the deer eat stuff off. And have to put chicken wire fencing around the bottom foot or so, rabbits and groundhogs abound and love to get it and chew on my veggies.
Good luck to all the gardeners!
Don't have a deer problem (though they've been seen a few blocks over), but my peas and sweet peas have been decimated by house sparrows and house finches that eat the blossoms. I've given up growing yarrow for the same reason.
Rabbits usually eat the lettuce that I plant in the ground (or when I tried raised beds they would jump up) but this year, I grew the lettuce in pots placed on the driveway (in the spot where the asphalt comes right up to the house foundation). So far, so good, though the pots aren't really that much different in height from the raised beds - maybe they don't like the feel of blacktop under their feet?
Has anyone tried 'Brandywine' heirloom-type tomatoes? I'm going to try them for the first time this year; they supposedly taste great but are prone to disease; I'm wondering what to expect!
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