Starting a garden

[clayton86]

I’ve been tossing the idea around of starting a garden since moving into this house 2 years ago. My dad and grandfather had a big garden and they grew everything they needed tomatoes, corn, peppers, pumpkins stuff like that. I want one for same reason that and not having to mow the giant yard we have haha at least not a acre and a half. 
 

I know it’s to late in the season to start one now and have it produce anything this season. When’s the best time to start one and is there a way to start one without like a rototiller I don’t have any power equipment and sure as hell can’t afford stuff the way it is now a days. 

 

Gotta be some gardeners to share wisdom on gardening here. 

[roadwarrior]

It all depends on what you want to grow. 

https://homesteadingfamily.com/20-vegetables-to-plant-in-late-summer/

 

Rent a tiller

[Jig Man]

I’d start by killing all the grass in the area where the garden will be located.  Then I’d get compost and cover the area with at least 4 inches of it.  Keep the grass and weeds out until next spring then till the ground to get it ready to plant.  

[padlin]

Plenty of time this year if you get going on it. We'll be putting in our 2nd crop of all the beans. Can get in a 2nd planting of peas too.

 

We dig out the grass, shaking off all the dirt. A lot of work, but it does the trick. You can hire someone to till. If you have a truck get a load of either compost or the top soil/compost mix, which is what I use as it's ready to go as soon as it's tilled in. A pitch fork works in lieu of a tiller, you do need a dirt rake of some sort. And expect to deal with bugs and such next year or the one after.

 

Sending a soil sample to the county extension service is worth the trouble, if you have such.

[gim]

I just moved about a month ago and the house here has a dedicated raised enclosed garden bed that faces the south. My wife and I literally just got done pulling all the weeds in it today.

My intention is to use it next spring. Will be treating it again soon to kill off any remaining weed roots. This fall we are going to put our dead raked leaves in there for compost. And next spring there will be some tilling and new soil added.

I’ve never really had a garden either so this will be a new experience for me too @clayton86. I figure since there is already an existing spot for one, I might as well try it.

[Choporoz]

This our first year with a big garden.  Lots of work, but it's actually fun working it with my wife.  Cleared the beds last fall.  No tiller, but previous owner had a garden there years ago, so we weren't starting from scratch.  Mostly garden rakes and pick ax.  We started composting last year to get ready.  I'm pretty surprised how little compost the two of us can generate.

So we added a few bags of cow manure in March.  Also, last fall, built a 7 foot deer fence, which has been great, since there's deer in the yard daily.  Got a cheap irrigation system from Amazon which is also great.

We started cucumbers, tomatoes and herbs indoors.  Corn, cabbage, watermelon, snap peas, carrots all seeded directly in the garden.  Exciting to see stuff come up and harvesting some already.  I won't say that we're going to save money on food when all is said and done, but I will say it's well worth it.

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Will be treating it again soon to kill off any remaining weed roots.

I don't know if it works for all weeds or on a large scale, but I killed all weeds for a small garden years ago by covering the plot with black plastic for about 6 weeks.  Worked great.

[padlin]

Ours is covered with clear plastic this year, my wife got sick of the weeds so we figured we give this a shot.

[schplurg]

I used cow manure one year and it stunk too bad so I used something else afterward. Just a thought.

[A-Jay]

If you have plant eaters like deer & rabbits,

they will eat it all well before it even gets going.

All at night.

A very high fence which covers the top and is buried in the ground

might deter them.

No garden for me here way too many hungry and very determined mouths.

A-Jay

 

[flyfisher]

If space is a concern look into square foot gardening.  It maximizes yield in small spaces.  The concept is pretty easy, look at plant spacing and not row spacing and you can really pack stuff in.  Other than that, there is no better way then to just go for it and see what happens.

[gim]

2 hours ago, Choporoz said:

I won't say that we're going to save money on food when all is said and done, but I will say it's well worth it.

I wondered if the cost would be an advantage to grow some veggies.  Apparently not.

[clayton86]

1 hour ago, flyfisher said:

If space is a concern look into square foot gardening.  It maximizes yield in small spaces.  The concept is pretty easy, look at plant spacing and not row spacing and you can really pack stuff in.  Other than that, there is no better way then to just go for it and see what happens.

 
space isn’t really a concern our yard is 1.3 acres not huge but plenty big for a garden and expand if needed 

[padlin]

48 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I wondered if the cost would be an advantage to grow some veggies.  Apparently not.

 

That is my experience. Between the costs of the plants and the cost of sprays and such, you do not save $. It's a hobby, like fishing, you have to enjoy it and getting the freshest veggies one can get.

[PressuredFishing]

Plant species and spesific cultivars based abiotic and biotic situations. Don't Plant what other people reccomend because they do not know your ecological climate. 

 

To dumb this college agricultural statement down, Plant species/cultivar that tolerate every aspect of the environment. Some of these aspects include humidity, wind, temperature, soil type, salinity, pest resistance, insect populations, sunlight availability, etc etc etc.

 

I'm not saying you cannot grow a fig tree in a swamp, or rice in a desert, but you will spent 6+ hours a day tending to it so it doesn't die compared to 10 minutes a day growing an appropriate cultivar. 

56 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I wondered if the cost would be an advantage to grow some veggies.  Apparently not.

If you do it properly there is a major price advantage, but people buy things they don't need

[padlin]

1 minute ago, PressuredFishing said:

I'm not saying you cannot grow a fig tree in a swamp, or rice in a desert, but you will spent 6+ hours a day tending to it so it doesn't die compared to 10 minutes a day growing an appropriate cultivar. 

 

We were just talking about this today. We study and find the best varieties of vegetables, shrubs, and even trees for our location, then we can find none of them to buy and get stuck with something else. Most of what we get here in western Ma comes from the south or west. What is grown locally is whatever is popular, not best suited.

[PressuredFishing]

2 hours ago, padlin said:

What is grown locally is whatever is popular, not best suited.

Absolutely, all the nurserys and most brick and mortar stores only carry popular hybrid and heirloom varieties, when it comes to buying spesific rootstock or cutting and even live trees, this can be a particularly difficult task... if you search online you will most likley be able to find the cultivar you want seed wise, even on ebay or etsy for a little more. Living in California there are a few nonprofits and state funded programs that are catching on to this problem and have started selling/giving many varieties of rootstock that are lesser known to keep these older heirlooms  alive and in the community, as well as cut down on overall pests, (hlb virus) Maybe your state has started to fund programs like this. (Spesificially to protect heirloom viticulture, but also for olives and citrus) 

[flyfisher]

14 hours ago, padlin said:

 

That is my experience. Between the costs of the plants and the cost of sprays and such, you do not save $. It's a hobby, like fishing, you have to enjoy it and getting the freshest veggies one can get.

That is why you grow from seeds   I usually plant from seed but this year I spent about 125 in plants or so and I am 100% sure I will get at least $125 worth of produce.  Just tomatoes, cucumbers and squash/zuchinni alone I will be in the black.  Then throw in the green beans which i will harvest a few times and flash freeze a bunch and the potatoes we are good.  

[TnRiver46]

Where I live, the ground is made of rocks or clay and none of it is flat. So, stuff doesn’t grow well. People have tried different things for years, picture an ultra skinny hillbilly in overalls and that tells you how well food grows here. But what we can grow is green beans, okra, tomatoes and in some places potatoes. We can grow corn but not on a large scale like the Midwest or even west TN 

 

if humans could survive on acorns and hickory nuts, we would be located in the garden of Eden 

[PressuredFishing]

9 hours ago, flyfisher said:

That is my experience. Between the costs of the plants and the cost of sprays and such, you do not save $. It's a hobby, like fishing, you have to enjoy it and getting the freshest veggies one can get.

what sprays are you buying? How much are you spending? Crop interplanting on small scale backyard gardens with 30 minute inspections a day pretty much takes pest damage out of the equation. Crop rotating and composting builds the soil slowly without having to import fertilizers. I rarely spend more than 50$ a year.

[throttleplate]

12 hours ago, flyfisher said:

Then throw in the green beans which i will harvest a few times

there is a beetle here in fargo nd that is eating holes in our bean leaves. Also seen a rabbit eating our okra plants so had to tighten up the garden security.

We are way behind compared to last year in the height and maturity of our plants. We didnt have a spring this year, went right into summer.

[flyfisher]

12 hours ago, PressuredFishing said:

what sprays are you buying? How much are you spending? Crop interplanting on small scale backyard gardens with 30 minute inspections a day pretty much takes pest damage out of the equation. Crop rotating and composting builds the soil slowly without having to import fertilizers. I rarely spend more than 50$ a year.

none for me, i think i was quoting another post.  I am the same as far as cost goes and rotating crops.  I have raised beds, 2 are about 4x4 and another is about 4 x12 and i rotate things around each year.  My long bed i use almost exclusively for squash and other vine type plants so that does require some supplementing every couple years but it seems like those crops will grow in just about anything.  The other two boxes i'll switch every year and so far so good.  My hot peppers are about to blow up as are my tomatoes which is always a good thing.

 

[PressuredFishing]

That's good, yeah raised beds can be expensive if you go that route, especially with wood pricing being what it is. but they are easier on people's backs and are more space conservative. 

[flyfisher]

i had some groundhogs that were getting into them so i decided to just raise it all off the ground a few years ago.  not quitre as expensive as it would be today but there was definitley some sticker shock involved 

[TnRiver46]

Should I send you all my pictures of groundhogs up in trees???

[gim]

13 hours ago, throttleplate said:

We didnt have a spring this year, went right into summer.

But at least there's rain this year.  Last year was almost completely void of water.