Vegetable Gardening

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa, your 5'x18' patch is actually pretty big, but that path takes up way too much growing room. I have five raised beds, each 6'x3', totaling 90 SF, same as your current patch. But my 90SF is all growing room. I don't count the paths--my setup is like a mini-GLC setup in the photo above....
I bet you could rearrange your current setup and it would be more efficient.

Well then mine is smaller than yours if I don't count a path either.

I have to have a path in my patch- how else can I get in and garden? the fence determines the area for now, and the fence is essential to keep the varmints out. True I have been planning to turn the slate stones so that they are narrower end to end and a couple will then be eliminated. I'll do that soon, but that'll only give me an extra 6 inch strip of earth or so. It's hard for me to maneuver around in there without at least a foot wide path. I used to have NO path, and it was really hard to move in there then.

The tomatoes are kept well pruned and staked, but even with that they get big and overhang the path by mid-summer.

What I am doing is planting green and red leaf lettuce seed in the areas that will be overgrown by the tomatoes later on- thus getting double duty from those spots. The leaf lettuces can grow, produce, and get yanked by the time those areas are filled in by the other growing plants like the stringbeans and tomatoes.
I've actually planted way more stuff in there this year than ever before....it used to be just a strip of tomatoes only, with a dinky deer netting fence. After both a red squirrel and a bird got tangled in the netting and died , I decided I had to to get rid of the netting and replace it with metal fencing.

Maybe I will go turn those stones lengthwise more this afternoon!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hi Tulip,
Well I pulled 4 of the widest stones out of there and rearranged the path stones lengthwise.
That now gives me a 1 foot wide path instead of a 1 1/2 foot wide path....so I got another 6" strip all down the length of the plot by doing that- allowing for one additional 18 foot row of greens that is 6 inches wide. That's as much planting space as I can squeeze out of it! Thanks for your comment which spurred me into doing what I was thinking I needed to do.

Still, not counting the 1 foot wide path down almost the entire length of my plot, that leaves 4' x 18' actual planting space, which equals 72 feet square- still substantially smaller than your your 90 ft. square planting space.

But I am looking forward to putting in my new big garden this summer! (Now if only I can get those two different landscapers to call me back.)

UPDATE: One landscaper called me back and might come over tomorrow! he's the guy that has done work for us before, so we like him.

[short cut sally]

LIsa, my Dad plants a majority of his garden from seed. He purchases onion sets and potato sets though. He plants his seeds sometimes as late as July. He staggers his lettuce (he does loose leaf-much better luck than with head lettuce) and spinach. That way it's not all ready at the same time. He's been buying his tomato plants over the past few years, there doesn't seem to be good growing weather for them.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Thanks Shelly.

Yes, i created a whole extra 6" row in my patch just by re-arranging the path stones yesterday. I planted more leaf lettuce and a new six foot row of radishes. Radishes and leaf lettuce grow quickly and easily (as long as you keep the rabbits and woodchucks out!). I do stagger my lettuce and radish seed plantings.
I too have to buy tomato plants unless I were to start the seed a month earlier in my basement with lights (which i do NOT want to do!). This week is the first week we can put in tomato plants safely with little threat of frost. I cheated when I put them in about 10 days ago, and was lucky. We've had two nights of 34F degrees since then, but were just barely spared a real frost and the plants were fine.

I'm excited- our lanscape/backhoe guy might be coming this evening and he says he could perhaps get our garden dug and filled within 2-3 weeks! Unfortunately he does not do fencing, so I'll have to get someone else to come in for that. The fencing is a bigger project than we want to do ourselves.

[Tuckervill]

We can get away with a lot earlier planting down here, even if it's before the last frost, because our frosts are rarely to the level of a freeze (we did have a good late frost this year, with snow in April, though). But I use these to protect my 'maters until it warms up.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/im...ku=wallo-water

Usually when there is a late frost, all our shrubs have set blooms already and we all rush out at dusk to cover them with every spare sheet and towel in the house until the morning. I'm not sure that would help up Nawth.

Karen

[spokewench]

I just got my vege garden planted this year. Some of you are lucky and can amend your soil and grow great gardens. I would have to amend my soil for the rest of my life before it would be good enough to grow a tomato! I live in the rocky, forested woods area of Northern Arizona. We have a super short season - high altitude and weird really hot sun, kind of cold nights weather. Suffice it to say, it is a challenge to garden here!

I have 3 raised beds in the backyard. I added some compost already earlier this year and yesterday I got to plant. I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zuccini (green and yellow crook neck); eggplant, green bean seeds, some marigolds, chard, sweet bell peppers. I have all kinds of herbs mixed in with my perennials in the front yard and some vege plants as well. I have planned to try some tomatoes, eggplant, bellpepper, herbs etc in pots this year as well. I have not done this before here in the mountains but decided to try this year.

Now, I was jumping the gun a bit on this planting since we can freeze up till June 15th. Remember the short growing season, but I figure I will cover if we get freezing temps this year. Our driest months are end of May and June. Sometimes, we get absolutely no rain until mid July when the monsoons start. But, what a wonderful surprise I got yesterday after I planted my raised beds. About an hour after I planted, it started raining and rained for quite a while. It is also supposed to rain a bit for the next few days which is wonderful. It is almost like the Pacific Northwest here this week! How Weird.

I'll try to take a picture of my beds so you can all see my new little garden.

spoke

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Some of you are lucky and can amend your soil and grow great gardens. I would have to amend my soil for the rest of my life before it would be good enough to grow a tomato! I live in the rocky, forested woods area of Northern Arizona....

I have 3 raised beds in the backyard. I added some compost already earlier this year and yesterday I got to plant.

Well, we have 'no' topsoil here in our yard....just shattered shale and poor clay stuff. So either way, whether we dig it out or put in raised beds, I will have to have topsoil brought in by the truckload to put in my veggie garden, and will need to buy a truckload or two of composted manure as well. We are talking a couple of dumptrucks' worth here. Not exactly amending- more like totally replacing!
It's going to cost a lot, but over the next few years it'll be nice to know exactly what's going into some of the stuff we are eating. We do pay a lot for organic veggies around here.

Spoke- it will be nice to see pictures of your garden!

[coyote]

The nice thing about raised beds is that you don't have to make them all at once. If the cost or even the size of the project is overwhelming you, try just making 1 or 2 beds this year and a couple more next year.

I started with 2 2x4 beds, then added a 10x10, then this past year we took out the 2x4s and added another 10x10. This enviroment is way to hard on wood (2x4 beds), so we got recycled bricks and made the 10x10 raised beds.