Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are planting.

[Pilotforhire587]

So my wife and I just bought a house in December and with Spring weather on the way I have started most of my garden this year inside next to a back window for sun. Probably move the trays outside for hardening tomorrow and then plant in the third week of April, Nashville is in zone 6b so it should work out great. This is the first time since I moved out of my folks house after highschool, 6 years ago, that I have planted a vegie garden so I am super stoked... I went way overboard with the number of plants, especially since I am tilling the garden with a shovel and a hoe, no money for a tiller yet, but it will be massive. This is also the first time I have planted in the Nashville area, the soil has a high clay content but as I till there are loads of earthworms and the neighborhood I am in used to be a cattle farm 6 years ago, I figure the soil is still pretty good. I didn't have time to have the soil tested this year so I put down some 13-13-13 fertilizer and we will see how it goes this year.


I am growing roma and brandyboy (hybrid of brandywine) tomatos, eggplant, onions and an assortment of hot and sweet peppers started inside and corn, carrots, squash, and cucumbers seeds to plant straight outside. I also have a huge herb garden started with basil, dill, oregano, and rosemary started inside and cilantro to start when it gets good and hot out.

I figured I would start a thread to hear what everyone else is planting this year and have a place to share tips on problems we growers have with different plants during the growing season. Please Share

 

[Old Dominion Flyer]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Our situations are quite similar. My wife and I purchased our first home last September and this will be our first try since moving away from home. Last fall I installed landscaping timbers, tilled the garden, and added topsoil and peat moss. Our windowsill is currently home to cucumbers, roma tomatoes, bean sprouts, and broccoli. We plan to plant the corn and yellow squash seeds in a few weeks. Deer won't be a problem in our 'hood but we're installing 3-foot tall plastic chickenwire around the garden to keep the rabbits away. I really want to use my bow on the rabbits, but I'm unsure about eating something that lives off heavily fertilized grass.

 

[greaper007]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Put up fishing line to stop the deer, make sure you have plenty of plants of a similar color around your crop so the fuzz can't see from the air, when the leaves start to turn yellow your crop needs nitrogen. Oh wait, are you talking about growing tomatoes?

 

[jml2992]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Plant your peppers close enough together that they will eventually touch and really hold off on putting them into the ground until it gets hot (>90 f.) They will take up a lot more space and still not produce until later toward the fall anyway (at least here in Central Valley CA.) Keep your tomatoes free of bugs (the wife like to use organic pesticides but I prefer to nuke the suckers and actually have them gone.) Consider using soil amendments like fish meal and chicken manure but avoid over-providing nitrogen to your tomatoes or they just get leggy and become stalks but don't blossom out. Also, clip the suckers out of the crotches (easy, guys) of all the limbs on you plants and it will allow the plant to grow more healthy and large fruit because it's not wasting the energy to grow limbs. I prefer to keep the tomatoes at about 3.5 ft and trimmed withing about 4 inches of the cages. Buy the big cages, little cages just get buried in leafy mass by the time the plant is done producing. After the season, don't forget to compost and you will have a great start for the next year. Let me know how your eggplant goes. I have been tempted to try growing them but with so much nightshade varietals in my garden already, I am afraid I'm going to completely deplete the nutrients in my soil and have to replace all of it. My time in BNA is pretty limited and I don't know about your climate but things like carrots and onions have a much better tolerance for lower temperatures, so you might consider a second planting in the early fall/late summer.

 

[pullup]

Lol greaper.

 

[Kristie]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

I've already got my garden planted and going simply because it will get hot here quickly and everything planted will probably stop growing or burn out. Our soil is not that conducive to gardening, so i have mine is a 6" high raised bed with half garden soil, half compost blended in with the natural soil on bottom. I really need to check the soil and water pH because some of my tomatoes aren't really growing, they're just kinda stagnant in height even though they're blossoming.

I learned recently that in order to get your tomatoes to sprout, you need to physically go out and "vibrate" them during blossom time because they're very hard to pollinate even with bees.

I have different herbs like Rosemary (nice hearty plant that has no issue during summer season), flat parsley (which will probably die out come summer), lavender, 3 broccoli's which recently seeded (of which i harvested and am waiting for new sprouts), green beans (growing pretty nicely right now), cucumber (not sure why it's not growing that well), zucchini (not really growing and the leaves turned yeller), basil (will be great till summer), red and relleno peppers (doing "ok") and a different variety of tomatoes all in the garden...then i have mint (which is doing AWESOME but will really die by summer), potato (can't tell how they're doing ), regular and lemon thyme (thriving right now) in "potato bags" that i got from Gardeners catalog....and i have strawberries, another rosemary, english and provence lavender in clay container pots and 2 different tomatoes in an earthbox...then inside, i have a thai basil (which has done GREAT for over a year now), lemon verbena (also done great) and a regular cilantro as well as "drought tolerant" cilantro in self watering containers...both cilantro's are hanging in there esp since i inflicted some damage by messing with the root ball and splitting up the cilantro sections so they could be planted along the length of the self watering container...won't make that mistake again...but they're not dead (yet) and hopefully will continue to hang in there....I'm afraid they too will die come summer...those type of herbs really like cool weather and climates.

So i'm trying different methodologies, different housing systems to see what works and what doesn't. I just need to figure out why the tomatoes and some of the other veggies aren't growing as much, where as things like the mint, parsley, broccoli are doing just peachy keen for right now.

But then again, our climate isn't like others and it's quite difficult to garden effectively here without spending major $$ on sure fire methods that have been tried and used by others with success.

I picked up some nutrient fertilizer (nitrogen and ammonium sulfur (?) based) and need to stick that in this weekend to see if that does't help some....I'm also taking gardening courses from the permaculture guild in town that deals specifically with our climate and soil, so that's helping some but there's a lot of trial and error here. I've already killed 2 basils (actually, i think they had a virus as i planted one in a clay container and one in the garden and both died within 3 weeks) as well as a cilantro

the other thing i'm trying to do is figure out a nice border fence look as right now, i have cages around most of the plants and fencing around the cages to keep the jack rabbits out but it makes getting in there and tilling more difficult which is why i'd much rather have a garden "area" with a fence about a foot away from the actual garden....chicken wire doesn't work as good out here cuz snakes and lizards can still get in there and if you ask me, it's just so ugly too...i'd like to have something complementary in the looks department. HAHA

so that's what i'm doing.

 

[Pilotforhire587]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

THats cool guys. I have always just used stakes and torn up and old tshirt to tie the tomato plants up. WIth the brandyboys that will contie to grow and produce all sumer I need something better. I decided to forgo cages this year (storing them for reuse next year would be an issue right now until we get a shed) SO I am gonna by metal catle fence posts, two per row, and try and run nylon construction string accross the rows every 6 inches in height. I will let you know how it works, I have seen it done with wire before but only recently heard about the string. In my limited foresight the only problem I cna think of is the string sagging a couple of times after it gets some weight on it and gets wet... I can fix thaat

 

[contactground.9]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

THats cool guys. I have always just used stakes and torn up and old tshirt to tie the tomato plants up. WIth the brandyboys that will contie to grow and produce all sumer I need something better. I decided to forgo cages this year (storing them for reuse next year would be an issue right now until we get a shed) SO I am gonna by metal catle fence posts, two per row, and try and run nylon construction string accross the rows every 6 inches in height. I will let you know how it works, I have seen it done with wire before but only recently heard about the string. In my limited foresight the only problem I cna think of is the string sagging a couple of times after it gets some weight on it and gets wet... I can fix thaat

This way works excellent. And is way easier to take down at the end of the growing season. Leave enough string on the end of the posts so that if (when) it starts to sag, you can untie it and pull it tight.

We are planting sweetcorn, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, peppers, more peppers, green beans, potatoes, garlic, chives, dill, cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkin, and several different berry bushes. My garden is huge.

 

[Pilotforhire587]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

This way works excellent. And is way easier to take down at the end of the growing season. Leave enough string on the end of the posts so that if (when) it starts to sag, you can untie it and pull it tight.

We are planting sweetcorn, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, peppers, more peppers, green beans, potatoes, garlic, chives, dill, cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkin, and several different berry bushes. My garden is huge.

That was my thought, and I can get 5ft posts for 4 bucks a piece and they will last forever. If I only use two or 3 per row of 10 to 12 plants I am looking at like 20 bucks for the whole thing. I would spend that on 4 tomato cages...

 

[Pilotforhire587]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Any chance of getting this thread stickied.... I think it would be nice to keep up at the top until fall... I don't know how my crop is gonna turn out but if all of the tomato plants I have produce I will be giving them away... Just fyi for those coming through BNA

 

[Kristie]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

I don't see why not....Gardening is good for you, good for your tummy and good for your wallet. I'd love to be able to do some organic plant harvesting and give them to my JC buds to grow.

 

[pullup]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

I have planted carrots, pumpkins, tomatoes. hot peppers, beans, watermelon, cantelope, cucumbers, and some flowers. I have to transfer them tomorrow to a bigger box because they have outgrown the current one. Can't plant outside yet because mother nature is being a bitch.

 

[Swen]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Our garden is still covered in snow.

 

[Matt13C]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

We just bought a house and I plan to attempt a garden this year. I think I am going to go basic to start since I have zero experience and try tomatoes and basil. All I need to buy then is the olive oil and mozzarella and make my favorite summer snack.

The house was overrun with large evergreen bushes, huge rhododendron and ground ivy and a few other random plants. I have begun to cut them back and plan to dig up the rhodo stumps and rake up the ivy and till the soil, but will this be a good soil for veggies? Could it be stripped of is nutrients? Also, what is optimal sun time? The space I plan to use gets mostly morning sun and is shady by 2-3, that enough sun?

 

[Kristie]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

that's enough sun for part-sun part-shade plants but full sun need full (at least till 4-5pm) sun from what i understand.

 

[Pilotforhire587]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

We just bought a house and I plan to attempt a garden this year. I think I am going to go basic to start since I have zero experience and try tomatoes and basil. All I need to buy then is the olive oil and mozzarella and make my favorite summer snack.

The house was overrun with large evergreen bushes, huge rhododendron and ground ivy and a few other random plants. I have begun to cut them back and plan to dig up the rhodo stumps and rake up the ivy and till the soil, but will this be a good soil for veggies? Could it be stripped of is nutrients? Also, what is optimal sun time? The space I plan to use gets mostly morning sun and is shady by 2-3, that enough sun?

Yeah the tomatoes need sun until 5 or 6 pm, unless you are in an area where is gets down right hot... They will still live and produce with less, you just won't see as many. I wouldn't worry about soil being stripped of nutrients... While you till keep an eye out for earthworms, if you see them thats a good sign, the more the better. I try and till in a generic fertilizer like 10-10-10 or 13-13-13 in addition to coattle manuer if I can get my hands on a bunch of it for free. I would also get in touch with your local ag extension service, I know in my county they will test your soil for $7. Since you are in PHL it will be another month or so until you can transplant your plants outside. That gives you plenty of time to get the results back of what nutrients may be missing and on if your soil is acidic or basic. 6.8 is perfect for all the plants most people grow.


I know Ivy will take a lot of nutrients out of the soil but Rhodo usually needs pretty good soil, thats why you see them all over the place in Europe anywhere there is peat moss.

Let us no what you do man!

 

[greaper007]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Our garden is still covered in snow.

You've still got brats and beer.

 

[Swen]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

You've still got brats and beer.

Indeed. I just enjoyed a great local beer, Hopdinger. Would have gone great with a brat.

Anyone here sterilize their own potting soil? Supposedly it can be done in a microwave. Buying a good quality potting soil adds up.

 

[Pilotforhire587]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Indeed. I just enjoyed a great local beer, Hopdinger. Would have gone great with a brat.

Anyone here sterilize their own potting soil? Supposedly it can be done in a microwave. Buying a good quality potting soil adds up.

If you are looking for soil to start seeds indoors with you can pick up a bag of Miracle grow garden soil from Lowe's. That's what I started mine in and they are all doing great. You can get 1 CU ft for $4 and 2CU ft for around 7. The great thing about that is it contains a mix of mulch, compost, and manuer so come transplant time the extra will only help your soil. I have never heard the microwave thing but I am sure that if you add a little water to it it would get it hot enough... I would be more concerned with the soils nutrients being depleted rather than any bacteria or fungus that may be in it.

 

[beasly]

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

This year, I have one of those upside-down tomato plant thingy's (as seen on TV!).

Black-eyed peas on the north side, sweet-taters in the garden with scallions and cabbage. Got Basil working and eggplant working as well as a rosemary bush. I am trying peanuts as well.

My "problem child" is a chayote--aka mirliton. Its a "low grade" squash that's prolific in Louisianna and I am having a dickens of a time getting them to grow. Here in O-town--I seem to be having better luck on the North side of the house. I am trying to grow it, because Paul Prudhomme has a couple of stuffed mirliton recipes and also, I have read that they bear so much fruit, you have trouble giving the stuff away.

I am trying to get my house so it produces enough that I can live on if need be. Its a comfortable hobby and challenge that relaxes me.

Don't get me started on mealy bugs--I hate mealy bugs--and nematodes.


edit: up the road a bit, we have a community education extension service that offers canning classes now an then and I am interested in that as well.