Starting a small garden plot

[ThPantherFan]

There is a thread for raised gardens that I posted this in. I got to thinking that with today's economy more people need to start putting a little extra effort into being self efficient. Do you have a 20 X 50 foot area that you can till up and gets a minimum of 6 hours of full sun. You can grow some good food.

Raised gardens look pretty, but are a waste of time and money unless you live on, or want to plant on a steep slope. The money you spend in making a box big enough to plant and raise anything, and the money spent on bags of topsoil, mulch, manure, rocks for drainage, etc. can be spent on a small tiller (maybe even rent one). Find an area in your yard that is relatively flat and spade and till it. You can mix amendments (mulch, manure, etc.) into the ground as you till. You will have a nice area to work with and you don't have to trip over boxes and spend a fortune trying to put soil on top of soil to grow something.

Now, what do you want to grow? Carrots, garlic, onion, potatoes, radishes, beets and other under the ground plants (root vegetables) need at least 12 inches of loose soil. If you have a 10 foot by 10 foot box you will need several bags of expensive store bought soil to put that much on the ground to grow common root vegetables. If you want lettuce or salad greens you can get by with 6 inches. If you want corn, beans or other heavy crops you will need at least 10 inches. For squash (all kinds including pumpkins) you will need 8 to 10 inches of loose soil. Remember, when you buy a bag of soil and spread it out, it will reduce in depth from settling. A 10X10 box will not grow a lot of produce. You will also need to keep a close check on water as the box will cause evaporation more than if you till down in the yard. Make sure you pick a spot that gets plenty of sun. No less than 6 hours, but 8 to 10 is better.

Gardening is a great hobby, stress reliever number one in my book. A family of two or three can enjoy some good eating and maybe even freeze some vegetables out of a 1000 square foot space. Take a shovel and spade the ground up about 12 inches (shovel head) deep. Rent or buy a tiller and till the ground up to a fine loam. Add organic matter such as leaves, torn up newspaper, paper bags, shredded papers, mulch, manure or what else you may find as you till. Till it in good. The extra time now will save time later. You probably have a place in town where leaves or chips are dropped off by waste management that you can get for free.

Check the soil PH and make sure you add lime, bone meal, or what ever is needed for the proper ph of what you are growing. Most vegetables like an acid soil and NC virgin soil usually has the right ph. Your ph problem will likely be caused by too much lime on the yard. Everyone thinks they need to put lime on the yard every year. That is another discussion. You can buy a ph meter for cheap or get the chemicals as I do to make an overall soil analysis.

Plan it out where and what you plant. Rotate the vegetables through the season. Right now you can be putting in spinach, Chinese cabbages (bok choy) kale, lettuce and other salad greens in a quarter of the space. Get another quarter ready for root vegetables and cauliflower/broccoli when the ground stabilizes at about 50 degrees. Get the remaining half ready for beans and corn. When the lettuce and greens start to bolt, pull them up and plant squash (all kinds including pumpkin). When the cauliflower/broccoli or other vegetables have been picked put in something else such as okra, etc. Beans and corn take a lot of time. Plant some bush beans that mature in about 50 days. You can start eating them before pole beans (more prolific) start maturing. Plant your corn so it will mature about 2 weeks apart. In other words put 2 half rows (side by side for cross pollination) and then 2 weeks later plant the rest of the row. This will keep you in corn longer. Now about those pole beans; after the corn gets up a few inches plant 2 pole bean seeds (state or white half runner) (one on each side) of the corn. Your corn will make a place for the beans to run and you will not have to add poles. Of course you can if you desire, but why take up the space. Notice I haven't mentioned peoples most favorite thing to grown, tomatoes. Don't waste your 1000 foot garden space on tomatoes. Get 5 gallon buckets, put some drain holes in the bottom, put about an inch of gravel in the bottom for drainage and fill it up with some of the garden soil, or you can go buy a bag or two per bucket of top soil (yes it will probably take 2 bags per 5 gallon bucket. I told you it settled.). Put the buckets on the deck or elsewhere you have a lot of sun and enjoy their growing and maturing. Get what you like in the line of tomatoes. Heirlooms are the best tasting, but most people want a perfectly shaped tomato. Those people have never tasted a good heirloom tomato or they could care less about the shape.

Don't forget to mulch around your plants when growing in a small space. You need to utilize every inch you can. If you till the soil as I mentioned, you do not need to work the soil except to pluck a weed or two. I put down landscape cloth in my field (yes it is expensive but it cuts my work down tremendously). If you put a drip irrigation under the cloth you can put the cloth up to the plant. If you water by hose or sprinkler or mother nature, you need to leave a space about 6 inches around the plant so it will get the proper amount of water. You will need to keep the weeds away from the plant. You can also use straw, newspapers (cheap and don't look bad) or mulch with leaves or chips.

I hope this helps. Anyone care to PM me on gardening tips, please feel free. Of course anyone that would like to work in the field at my place and get your feet and hands dirty, sweat like a pig and cuss the dry or wet weather and bugs, let me know. I don't pay anyone for teaching them how to farm. Ha! You have to love it to do it.

[DC Amp]

Great post!

[Shufdog]

After you plant you can cover all of the ground around the plants with newspaper then cover with an inch or two of compost. No more weeds!

At the end of the season the paper has broken down and and you just till the compost up with the dirt. It's great fertiliser and it's cheaper than landscapers felt!

Edit: I've tried running the beans up the corn. It didn't work out to well for me, clutterd up the corn. But, if it works for you...

[Zod]

You might mention that those of us that have had lawn treatments, weed control, and pesticides might be better served going with garden boxes and new dirt, no?

[CharlotteBeer.com]

We did raised gardens last year, but to be honest I was a little skeptical. I mean, I think they're a great way of planting a variety of vegetables in a small space, but I do have plenty of land out here.

I may see if I can borrow my dad's tiller and do it that way this year.

[Hairless Cat]

till the ground up to a fine loam.

there is no such thing as tilling the ground to a fine loam. you either have a loam soil when you start or you dont. all the tilling in the world will never change a soil which is not a loam into one which is. loam is a soil type and there are grades of loam such as sandy loam, clay loam etc.

good luck with your garden

[ThPantherFan]

After you plant you can cover all of the ground around the plants with newspaper then cover with an inch or two of compost. No more weeds!

At the end of the season the paper has broken down and and you just till the compost up with the dirt. It's great fertiliser and it's cheaper than landscapers felt!

Edit: I've tried running the beans up the corn. It didn't work out to well for me, clutterd up the corn. But, if it works for you...

Some high sugar, hybrid corns make short and weak stalks. You need to use silver queen, seneca chief or some standard corns to really work. White half runners or pink half runners can be used with the shorter stalked corns.

[ThPantherFan]

You might mention that those of us that have had lawn treatments, weed control, and pesticides might be better served going with garden boxes and new dirt, no?

You're correct. It gets expensive to make boxes. You have to do what you have to do. Is that too much like, 'it is what it is'? I'm sorry.

[ThPantherFan]

there is no such thing as tilling the ground to a fine loam. you either have a loam soil when you start or you dont. all the tilling in the world will never change a soil which is not a loam into one which is. loam is a soil type and there are grades of loam such as sandy loam, clay loam etc.

good luck with your garden

Excuse the hell out of me :D. Most people don't know a loam from a clay from a sand, but they do associate a loam with a very fine soil. They hear that on many gardening shows. I said add amendments to the soil to make it what it needs to be.

[cookinbrak]

I'd love to have a small garden, but there's nothing but clay around here.

[ThPantherFan]

I'd love to have a small garden, but there's nothing but clay around here.

You can mix peat moss, sand, mulch, newspaper, leaves, fine chips and most any other organic material to make a loamy (I guess hairless cat will appreciate that) soil. If you have old gypsum board around that will even work. It's not as hard as you might think. A little thought and seeking out silt, sand, organic materials can make a very good garden spot. I live in the mountains so there is a lot of clay. I drive around the streets and pick up bagged leaves and put on my field.

[Hairless Cat]

Excuse the hell out of me :D. Most people don't know a loam from a clay from a sand, but they do associate a loam with a very fine soil. They hear that on many gardening shows. I said add amendments to the soil to make it what it needs to be.

excuse the hell out of me because I exposed the fact that you dont know what the hell youre talking about :D - adding amendments also will not change a non loam soil into a loam soil - it just doesnt work that way

[Zod]

ooooh... farmer fight! Grab your pitchforks and get at it!

[ThPantherFan]

excuse the hell out of me because I exposed the fact that you dont know what the hell youre talking about :D - adding amendments also will not change a non loam soil into a loam soil - it just doesnt work that way

Okay, I don't know what I'm talking about. Delete the thread, ignore me, what ever.