It's Time To Plant My Garden....

[flyfisher]

About two years ago I started gardening in an attempt to show my then 2 year old son about how the food we eat grows and takes a lot of work to make it to our plates and also to have fresh vegetables in the summer.  Last year i took it a step further and began canning spaghetti sauce with the intention of having enough to last through the winter, and i was successful.  I use the square foot gardening method which allows you to really pack in the produce and maximize yield.  Each of the small blocks represents 1 square foot and I have about 200 square feet total with a strip down the middle to allow walking through so roughly 180 squares to work with.

 

Well this year i changed up a little bit based on what i liked last season and a few things i wanted to try.  Below is the layout and key for each veggie. I also now have a pressure canner and a vacuum sealer so i won't have to worry about acidity level when canning and i can freeze items without worrying about freezer burn over the winter.  I never thought i would get into gardening but it is pretty cool to grow and not have to buy vegetables for about 6-9 months of the year.  

 

 

 

[J Francho]

Pics when you get it started!

[flyfisher]

Will do..here is what one of the grids look like before planting.  I didn't have enough twine to finish the other side so I will do that tomorrow.

[J Francho]

You're way more organized than me, lol.

[flyfisher]

It's all about maximizing the space.  It was a lot more work the first year getting al let plant stuff on the spreadsheet but now it is plug and play pretty much.  I figure out what i want to plant, add a few new things on to my list and mark off the squares.  Took about an hour of planning and probably 2 hours of prepping the soil and laying out the grid and another hour planting.

 

Once everything sprouts, it is just watering and the occasional weeding, which i hate but my wife doesn't mind doing it and my son likes to do it too so i leave it to them.

[J Francho]

I go more by feel, and aesthetics. It's not all utility for me me anymore. I'm probably more anal about pinching the suckers off my tomatoes than actually weeding, though.

[flyfisher]

I go more by feel, and aesthetics. It's not all utility for me me anymore. I'm probably more anal about pinching the suckers off my tomatoes than actually weeding, though.

yeah i didn't do that my first year but i learned about doing it last year and i was shocked at how much that helped increase the production on the plants.  It is a PITA though...

[Dypsis]

I prepped the garden last week - tilled/graded.  This past weekend I put drip down and plastic on top.  Garden is Approx 60x30'.  Yesterday - planted out my onions, lettuce (Buttercrunch & Black Seeded Simpson), broccoli & kohlrabi.  Sowed sugar snap peas and carrots.  Also, planted out 3 varieties of potatoes.

 

All my warm season crops are looking good and have germinated.  Hopefully that first weekend in May I can plant them out as well as my green beans.

 

Good luck with the garden.  I have an almost 4 year old and he loves to help.  Let me know if you have any questions I'll help you or anyone else out I can.

 

Matt

 

 

[flyfisher]

Now that's a garden!!  I was thinking of getting a set of the drip lines but my puppy, a 9 month old,100+lb rottie and still growing, likes to chew on hoses so i figured i would wait.

[Dypsis]

Now that's a garden!!  I was thinking of getting a set of the drip lines but my puppy, a 9 month old,100+lb rottie and still growing, likes to chew on hoses so i figured i would wait.

 

That's probably a good call.  Do you buy seedlings, start your own, or direct sow?

[Oregon Native]

Looks good.  Been building raised beds are my house as only place to grow is on a side hill so it's been challenging.  Will add every year.  Love a garden.  Last year planted blueberry's and raspberry's and really looking forward to those.  Greens are going in quick...am going to have to look into that clipping the tomatoes...thanks.

[flyfisher]

I have had real good success with all direct sow.  I don't have the room in my house right now to start anything indoors and replant otherwise i would.  It would be pretty cool to be a month ahead of the curve and start harvesting early.  Maybe in my next house i will have the room to do that but for now, direct sow is where it's at for me.

[flyfisher]

Looks good.  Been building raised beds are my house as only place to grow is on a side hill so it's been challenging.  Will add every year.  Love a garden.  Last year planted blueberry's and raspberry's and really looking forward to those.  Greens are going in quick...am going to have to look into that clipping the tomatoes...thanks.

Yeah i learned about it last season and it is basically taking off all the buds that form in the crooks of main stems and removing any smaller stems.  It is a decent amount of work but the results were good for me.  The theory is the energy of the plant is diverted to the stronger stems so the production is higher.  Worked for me last year so i'll do it again this year.

 

I am trying one new tomato called a super sauce hybrid.  It is supposedly huge gets to about 2lbs, and bred for making sauce so very minimal seeds and non fleshy stuff.  

 

http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/paste/tomato-supersauce-hybrid-prod003154.html;jsessionid=7748B226883346803F85FCCE21B0C7D8.node2?cid=PPC&gclid=CJLmqsCS5MQCFUgkgQod6ZQAfg

[Oregon Native]

Think I'm doing my tomatoes in buckets this year to save space in my small garden.  Thanks again

[flyfisher]

Think I'm doing my tomatoes in buckets this year to save space in my small garden.  Thanks again

I tried the container tomatoes and have never had much success.  We are trying some corn that was developed to grow in a container so we will see how that goes....

 

On a related note, i finished all my planting this morning so hopefully in a week or two i will see some plants pushing through and hopefully the rabbits stay away.

[A-Jay]

Between the Rabbits & the Deer - Anything I planted would be GONE in One Night ~

 

They are hungry & very Sneaky . . .

 

A-Jay

[flyfisher]

You probably still have 2 feet of snow on the ground too  

I don't live in a very rural area so rabbits are about the only thing that can get into my back yard.  I would like to believe that our three dogs who have free reign back there would prevent them from doing anything but the two older ones couldn't care less and the puppy, well let's just say he is a good dog but not terribly bright lol

[A-Jay]

You probably still have 2 feet of snow on the ground too  

I don't live in a very rural area so rabbits are about the only thing that can get into my back yard.  I would like to believe that our three dogs who have free reign back there would prevent them from doing anything but the two older ones couldn't care less and the puppy, well let's just say he is a good dog but not terribly bright lol

 

Snows - Almost gone.  A few of my distant neighbors do plant  . . but it Must be inside a very secure 6 -8 foot fence with small gauge otherwise it will get wiped out.

 

Of course there are a ton of farms here.  Those areas are called "good for hunting"

 

I like your set up.

 

A-Jay

[Oregon Native]

Neighbor down the street uses a single wire electric fence just up off the ground.  From what I understand as long as you keep it from grounding out it is VERY discouraging to lil critters.  Deer don't like it either....we will see.  Going to try...from what he says it's pretty low cost.

[Nitrofreak]

Great job , garden looks awesome !!!!!

[SirSnookalot]

We found out something we never knew before.  My wife won a orchid, very popular in our community is tying them to palm trees (we have done that several times), their roots will adhere to the bark.  My wife wants to leave this plant in it's container and hang it, to our surprise we discovered a nail or screw put into a palm will kill it.  Several garden and nurseries confirmed this.

My solution, a scrap block of wood tied to the palm with a hook screwed into the wood, hung it from that.

[Catch 22]

I love tomatoes. To get started ,I cheat. I buy potted plants that are about 3 feet high with buds and even small maters on them.I put a bed of grass clippings about 3" to 6" thick on the base to stop weeds and hold moisture. It really cuts down the need for water. Early on  I  pinch the suckers ,but they usually get out of control. I always have plenty to eat so what else matters. Oh yeah ====fishing

 

$1.00 each is not an unusual price to pay for a single tomato any more ,so  I`m OK with the initial planting  expense.

 

C22

[flyfisher]

Nothing wrong with using the already sprouted plants but around here, the variety is not as good.  Last year i was crazy with the tomatoes trying out a bunch of different types and ended up having 25 plants which was too many to keep up with and not waste.  The one good thing is i now know what types i like and can focus on those.  I really liked the cherry tomatoes but they produced so many tomatoes we couldn't give enough away.  I imagine i will have a few stragglers from the ones that fell on the ground last year.  Last summer i think i ended up pulling 12 or so that sprouted from fallen tomatoes the year before.....gave a lot of those plants away though so it wasn't that bad.

[Catch 22]

_{One of my favorite varieties is called celebrity. Average size with excellent taste.Early girl and jet star plants are in the lineup too.I`m usually eating tomatoes by mid June and a month later,we have to many.}

_{Also one plant of the yellow mini type is enough. I put two  in last year and was over run with them.Sweet as can be ,almost like gum drops.}

[flyfisher]

one of the ones i like a lot is the Bucks County Hybrid.  Big juicy tomato that is almost too sweet.  I haven't seen too many large tomatoes as sweet as these are but they are fantastic cut into thick slices, topped with some fresh basil and then some mozzarella and put on the grill.  Fantastic!!

 

I am not sure of the cherry types we put in last year but they were like candy.  It was awesome to see my so not be 5 year old playing in the back yard and walk over to the garden, pluck a few and a few spinach leaves as a snack and then back to playing.