Posted: 3/15/2010 4:43:39 AM EDT
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What say ARFCOM? Look good? I still have a little planting room, what do you think I should plant? So far I have several peppers, corn, strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, green beans, zucchini, and a couple other things I can't quite remember...
Drip irrigation system installed - Check Flow Installed Correctly - Check (after much confusion) Fence Installed - Check Soil Tilled - Check 1 yd Soil Mix Added - Check 1/2 yd Mulch - Check Plants planted - Check 
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Leave the corn out. In a garden that size it will choke out the rest of the vegtables.
But, this being a learning experience for you. Sometimes the best lessons are learned the hard way. ETA: Fence wont keep out squirells (holes to big). Squirells make short work of green tomatoes long before they get ripe. |
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Quoted:
Leave the corn out. In a garden that size it will choke out the rest of the vegtables. But, this being a learning experience for you. Sometimes the best lessons are learned the hard way. ETA: Fence wont keep out squirells (holes to big). Squirells make short work of green tomatoes long before they get ripe. Yea, we didn't plant a lot of corn and tried to place it where it wont take over other crops. What would keep the squirrels away? Maybe mount an Owl statue somewhere? I still have to rabbit proof the thing.... I am worried about deer as well, the fence is only 48inches high...they could easily hop in if they wanted to. Would it be smart to put a feeder on an opposite end of my property to keep the deer happy and away from the veggies? |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Leave the corn out. In a garden that size it will choke out the rest of the vegtables. But, this being a learning experience for you. Sometimes the best lessons are learned the hard way. ETA: Fence wont keep out squirells (holes to big). Squirells make short work of green tomatoes long before they get ripe. Yea, we didn't plant a lot of corn and tried to place it where it wont take over other crops. What would keep the squirrels away? Maybe mount an Owl statue somewhere? I still have to rabbit proof the thing.... I am worried about deer as well, the fence is only 48inches high...they could easily hop in if they wanted to. Would it be smart to put a feeder on an opposite end of my property to keep the deer happy and away from the veggies? I don't think that having a feeder somewhere else would do anything to keep them out if they decide they want to go in. All having a feeder might do is attract more deer into that area. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Leave the corn out. In a garden that size it will choke out the rest of the vegtables. But, this being a learning experience for you. Sometimes the best lessons are learned the hard way. ETA: Fence wont keep out squirells (holes to big). Squirells make short work of green tomatoes long before they get ripe. Yea, we didn't plant a lot of corn and tried to place it where it wont take over other crops. What would keep the squirrels away? Maybe mount an Owl statue somewhere? I still have to rabbit proof the thing.... I am worried about deer as well, the fence is only 48inches high...they could easily hop in if they wanted to. Would it be smart to put a feeder on an opposite end of my property to keep the deer happy and away from the veggies? I don't think that having a feeder somewhere else would do anything to keep them out if they decide they want to go in. All having a feeder might do is attract more deer into that area. The deer are already....attracted. Everyday at about 6:40am while I am driving off my property I usually see a herd of them lying in the grass somewhere. Probably about 10 deer total. They seem to like my property. I think it is due to my grass always being green thanks to my irrigation system. I have found several deer trails as well. No pigs though, just deer. I was thinking of maybe planting some flowers on the outside of the garden to give it a buffer, think that might deter them from making the great leap? |
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Well, that's a pretty small garden... I'd say that would be enough room for tomatoes and maybe two other vegetables. Definitely not corn, but hey, see what happens. I like the fence and drip system and all that. You're off to a great start, just need to expand 3 fold at least. |
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You will figure out what you did right and what you did wrong by next year. I planted my tomatoes a little too close together, and although it didn't affect the health of the plants, it did affect how easy it was to take care of them.
I will never plant strawberries again. The few I got to before the birds and bugs just weren't that great. I can by better strawberries than I can grow I will not mix my stuff up so much. I was trying to plant beneficial flowers in with the vegatables, and I think it worked, but the larger marigolds grew and smothered stuff so it was hard to get to and tend to. I'm going to stick with only a few things this time, the ones I liked the best that produced a lot. That would be tomatoes, green beans, zucinni, japalanoes, and some herbs, but not as many herbs that I did last year. Your garden is small enough that you could do a few raised beds. I have two 4x8 ft ones, and want to convert the main garden to a few raised beds as well. You can plant intensivly, yet still maintain the garden. you can also put mesh and stuff over them for the birds and deer. Here is a raised bed. It had rained a lot but the raised bed didn't flood. 
Here is the main garden. I wasn't sure about the pattern of the sun so I had rows going both ways. I'm going to put 4x12 raised beds there I think. See the mound in the back? It's a compost heap, you'll want to start one of those too! 
I used yellow wood for the bed frames. It's supposed to be ok but some people don't use it. |
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Quoted: Where did you find your checklist? Where did you read about this stuff? I'm curious because I'm planning a garden as well. "Vegetable Gardening for Dummies" would probably be a great start as far as an overview. That'll cover just about every topic. Copies are available from $12 on Amazon. Or Google stuff like "gardening 101" and "gardening for beginners", lots of hits. If you want to just dive right in, go to the local nursery and ask what grows well in your area. You really should till your soil before planting, you can rent a tiller from Home Depot. From there you can then plant your seeds. You can google info about specific seeds such as how far apart to space them, and how deep to plant them. Keep your soil moist and stuff will grow. A little Miracle Grow will help. How much further you go beyond that, is entirely up to you. |
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Heres a great example: http://www.almanac.com/content/beginners-vegetable-garden |