I need help with a Garden

[straittactical]

I am going to plant a garden this year. I have never done it so i guess i am looking to you guys for help. What do i need to know. and what are some main tips and tricks ? can i use my cow manure to spread in the garden ? what is a good size to make it ? ( there will probably be 6 people eating out of it and i want enought to can thing to last over the winter. )
any help or tips is appreciated
thanks

O ya how wide of rows would help out a lot

 

[Leadeye]

Plant some zucchini, it's one of those easy to grow plants that you can eat in a variety of ways. Breaded and fried is my favorite, but the wife cooks it like squash or uses it in bread.

 

[malern28us]

How big of a garden are you planning? I know it ended up being a lot more work for me because no one would help maintain mine after it was planted. If you are thinking cucumbers, a little goes a looooong way. Dont ask me how I know.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

There's no simple answer and it is VERY unlikely that a first year garden will feed 6 people through the winter no matter how big you attempt. Start with a small test garden this year to get an idea of what you're doing and what your land will yield, then adjust appropriately for next year. Also, be prepared to lose a lot of your first year or two due to insects and 4 legged critters. Gardening isn't something you can just go out and do right out of the gate and get the desired results. It takes practice and no matter how long you do it, you will always encounter something new.

 

[M67]

If you're only planting one thing, to feed 6 people (depending how much you eat out of it per day/week), it needs to be a pretty good size.

If it's you're first time, green beans are pretty easy. Follow the directions on the pack and you're good to go, plus they produce a lot and are fairly hard to kill.

 

[ATOMonkey]

6 people will need about 2 acres of veggie garden to feed them for a year.

Row spacing is determined by the amount of nutrients in the ground. The more fertilizer, the closer you can plant your rows.

Typically 18 to 24 inches between rows for a fertilized garden, about a foot between plants.

Your garden plot must have direct sun for at least 8 hours a day. Nature will take care of the water, unless we have a summer like last year.

Spread your manure before your till, and it should get good and worked in. I would also recommend that you still put down some fertilizer. Tilling the soil is very important. If it's not a very loose soil, you'll have a hard time getting stuff to grow.

We used stakes and string to guide where the rows would go. Then "plow" your row about 6 to 8 inches deep. Loosely cover the seeds.

Melons will need room to sprawl, so take that into account.

Also, plant wild flowers at one end of the garden to attract the good bugs.

After things have been pollinated and your fruits and veggies begin to grow, dust them to keep the bad bugs away.

I don't recommend putting down straw between the rows. All that tends to do is make really tall plants that don't produce much, or it rots the bottom of the plant and they end up falling over. It's better to just take the time and weed when the plants are small. When they get larger, the shade they make will kill off most weeds.

Here's another trick. Plant your garden 2 or 3 rows of veggie at a time. If you plant it all at once you get to harvest it all at once. If you plant 2 rows of green beans a week, then you only have to pick 2 rows of green beans a week.

It can be very overwhelming otherwise.

That's how we used to plant our garden and it always seemed to work well.

I'm trying to remember if we put anything over the seeds to keep the critters from eating them... I think we did, but I can't put my finger on it.

Oh I just remembered something about soil prep. PH is VERY important. Adding Lime to your garden is pretty much so a must. Just check your PH levels first. You might have to add this or that and till it up again before you plant.

 

[snapping turtle]

Square foot gardening - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raised bed gardening - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lots of stuff is easier to take care of in a square foot garden or raised beds. Others like corn and beans, and potatoes, use rows. Make sure the garden has good drainage as that is where mine has failed. perfect spot bad drainage. I had to put in a raised bed system, to use the area.

At the least a good roto tiller is a must, also canning supplies, canner and freezer.

I also think that a smaller garden to start is a good idea. I spent so mch time last spring getting a great start just to have a wet wet spring and a dry summer and the deer and a large groundhog took care of every tomato plant and all my beans. The groundhog problem was taken care of.

This year you may want to get your feet wet with enough to get you feed while the garden is growing with some beans and corn stored maybe some tomatoes. The first year getting it all can be very expensive. If you make it a chore it can get old fast.

I good idea for first year on the raised beds to me would be strawberries, A long raised bed, soil to fill, and landscape fabric and a single bunch of plants will give off lots of berries next year. After the fabric is down weeding is easy or not at all.

Normally if you offer food others might help out on the work to get the rewards, thing is most just want to eat for free.

 

[PistolBob]

I have a 25 by 25 foot garden. This is considered very small. We plant three things usually...6 tomato plants, 6 pepper plants, and two or three hills of cucumbers on the edge.

We usually can about 25 quarts of salsa or whole tomatoes, and enjoy them in the winter very much. We use the cucumbers to make pickles, and relish. We eat most of the peppers, but I do dry a bunch and then smash them up into flakes and powder....great in soups, meatloaf, homemade bread.

We plant three Roma, two German Beefsteak Heirlooms, and one sweet yellow tomato. In the peppers I try to get two each of the California Wonder Green Bell, two Jalepeno, and two sweet Hungarian banana peppers.

On the edge of my garden I build up a little trellis for the cukes to climb.

Three years ago, I tracked the amount of food this little patch produced. We got almost 400 lbs of food out of this garden from early summer to mid-fall. Lot less last year.

I use Miracle Grow, manure when I can get it, and grass clippings. I don't weed anything, the grass clippings do a good job of choking the weeds out.

I box trap the rabbits and eat them in the winter time. They usually don't bother me too much unless I plant green beans....the rabbits and the birds will wipe out your bean patch in about an hour.

 

[hountzmj]

I have a 30x50 garden. In a good year that does a decent job of feeding the 2 of us with some extra to give away as we choose.

I like to plant spinach, lettuce, onions (tons) garlic, beets, sauce tomato (tons), eating tomato, peppers (tons), green beans, Lima beans, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, maybe some melon and whatever else I find at the garden center that strikes my fancy.

I get my spinach, lettuce, and onions out as soon as I can in the spring. Follow with direct seeded green beans, lima beans, beets, squash and zucchini right around the first week of May (earlier for S. Indiana folks). Usually the 2nd-3rd week of May I'll hit the garden center and put out my tomato and pepper plants.

3 weeks after I plant the green and lima beans I plant a 2nd round. I also do this with cucumbers.

I usually end up with some wild flowers / native flowers somewhere in my garden. I move them around from year to year.

It's important to note that I don't plant any corn. I only have a 1 acre yard and limited gardening time / equipment. So I choose to plant varieties that produce well without taking up all of my space. Corn takes a lot of space.

What I do instead is go to a local vegetable stand and buy 10 dozen ears on a Saturday morning. Take them home, blanch and freeze them. 10 dozen is about the right amount for the wife and I to freeze and eat over the winter. It takes us 2-3 hours but is worth it. It is a little more expensive than growing it myself. But I get a more consistent product and it takes 0 space!

We also make "freezer pickles" from cucumbers, onions and peppers. Those are an awesome taste of summer on a cold winter day.

I also can a TON of green beans. I only did maybe 25 quarts last summer. Most previous summers I had done 40-50.

We make pickled beets, pickle peppers and just normal pickles.

Get yourself a Ball Blue Book and start preserving!

On edit. I forgot to say we also can +/- 30 pints of sauce and another 30 pints of salsa. I'll probably remember more as I go along.

 

[redneckmedic]

Indiana Vegetable Gardening is a great place to start, you only have to read about 35 pages on general info, then it breaks down all the varieties the rest of the book. PM for general questions.

Anyone else already have there seeds started yet? I have 3 flats growing now.

 

[Regionnus Rattis]

We have a raised bed garden just off the house on the south side. Gets really warm in the spring and is great for raising herbs, carrots, celery, snap peas and cherry tomatoes.

Further out, we have a 80x30 garden, where we raise tomatoes, strawberries, pepper plants, zucchini, green beans, spaghetti squash, broccoli and brussel sprouts.

Invest in a Troy-Bilt tiller. I don't use cow manure because we have horses. The Troy-Bilt will make your life so much easier when weeding. But spread it out early and like others said, till it well into the soil and make your soil very soft and fluffy...almost as if you bought a bag of black dirt from the store.

Have fun and enjoy gardening. It makes for a great time to think about things to yourself. Plus you really enjoy your dinners when you know that you've really made your own dinner.

 

[cumminspwrd02]

Indiana Vegetable Gardening is a great place to start, you only have to read about 35 pages on general info, then it breaks down all the varieties the rest of the book. PM for general questions.

Anyone else already have there seeds started yet? I have 3 flats growing now.

I have that book, got it last season. Has some good information in it. I just started a 72 cell tray of seed yesterday. I'll probably start another one thi weekend too. All at the early veggies now, couple more week and i'll start the tomatoes and peppers. We moved into a new house last fall so this will be my first season growning at it. Previous owners didn't garden so I'm going to do some raised beds on the southside of the house. It get's alot of sun.

 

[bksboiler]

Raised beds are a great way to start out. You can always keep them and move on to a more traditional type patch garden later if they don't provide enough room. If you don't have great soil, raised beds can help with soil temperature (great if you're planting seeds versus setting plants) drainage and weed control. At can also be easier to keep animal and pests out too.

As for fertilizer, manure is a great choice, if you have it available or have somewhere to get it. Personally I have a hard time buying it in bags from the store so I'd go with a commercial fertilizer.

Before I did anything other than build my beds or decide on my patch location I'd get a soil sample. Go to your local extension office and ask about soil sampling, they have some great information, a soil sample will cost you $5-8 depending on what you test for, then you know what you've got and can head the right direction. If the extension office isn't good try one of these:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/HO-71.pdf
http://www.algreatlakes.com/lab_hom_law.php
http://www.spectrumanalytic.com/doc/library/articles/soil_sampling_instructions

This will help guide you through sampling and you can send it to one of two labs in the links. You can throw literally tons of fertilizer on a garden, but if the pH is wrong you'll never grow a crop worth much. The $5 you spend on a soil sample may be the best money you spend on the garden.

When you do start to fertilize be careful not to over do the nitrogen fertilizer. Sweet corn responses well to high nitrogen applications, but some of the other crops don't need much at all. I'd suggest a fertilizer like 16-16-16 or 12-12-12.

 

[BlisterPac]

I recommend the square foot gardening technique - I picked up the book at 1/2 price books.

I also recommend starting small and expanding over time.

Something simple that worked for me starting out was to plant things among the landscaping around the house.

 

[patience0830]

Square foot gardening - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raised bed gardening - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


+1 On these two. ^^
Also hunt for a copy of J.I. Rodale's "Organic Gardening".

Whether or not you plan on going organic, the book is a wealth of knowledge and well worth what you'll pay for it.

Soil test is a must for best results. A compost pile is free fertilizer. Years ago we'd go through the Purdue extension service for soil tests. Don't know if they still offer it. Almost any rotten organic matter will help poor soil. Meat scraps won't hurt your compost pile but it tends to draw unwanted critters.

You'll have so many tips your head will be spinning.

 

[car53]

Is anyone planting raised beds?

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Is anyone planting raised beds?

Nope, I'm raising planted beds......I have in the past and it works well if drainage is an issue.

 

[BigMatt]

I love to grow sweet corn. It is pretty easy and very gratifying to grow. You can also feeze it for the winter and it tastes very good.

 

[Hoosierbuck]

Hey OP-
I have a killer tiller and would be willing to help you out once you get your spot staked out, etc. if you are near me. NWI/NCI.

HB

 

[Buckhunter]

There's no simple answer and it is VERY unlikely that a first year garden will feed 6 people through the winter no matter how big you attempt. Start with a small test garden this year to get an idea of what you're doing and what your land will yield, then adjust appropriately for next year. Also, be prepared to lose a lot of your first year or two due to insects and 4 legged critters. Gardening isn't something you can just go out and do right out of the gate and get the desired results. It takes practice and no matter how long you do it, you will always encounter something new.

I have to agree here. Last year my garden was 60' x 100' and planted a bit of everything. I had about 25 dozen ear a sweet corn give to me on top of the 10 rows I had planted. I ate the last bag of corn last night and all I have left is 1 bag of green beans and a 6 quarts of tomato juice that I canned. I had to do a lot of watering but my crop turned out pretty good. I'm feeding a family of 6 as well and none of them are teenagers yet!