How Does Your Garden Grow?

[redsmetz]

I thought this would be a good thread. I tilled up the garden plots in our back yard and my wife has been planting the last two weekends. So in this thread, I figured folks could talk about what they're planting this season.

I live in the city, so we don't have a large yard, but we've got a couple of beds behind the house and raised bed we put in last year. Likewise, we have a couple of other small plots by that too. So far, she's put in three tomato plants, about ten broccoli plants, one zucchini, a handful of sweet peppers (she'll pick lots of green peppers and let some ripen to red). She's had some spinach going for a couple of weeks and has found various spots for planting some green beans. Finally we've put in some basil and some cilantro in some planters on our porch railing.

The entire back fence is flowers and a couple of flowering bushes. In this area too, we have three chimney pots from our neighbors house that were taken down when they re-did their chimney. In these we have clay pots with flowers in them for a nice addition to the gardens. We have another small plot next to our neighbors house that has some perennials and annuals. The front yard has the entire front of the house and along our other neighbors fence with various perennials and annuals. Add in a couple of hanging baskets in both the front and the back.

Not bad for a small urban yard.

[Redsfan320]

Our family typically plants things for homemade salsa (a few kinds of tomatoes, green onion, green bell peppers, habanero peppers), and this year we're also doing watermelon and cantaloupe. In the past we've done strawberries, roma tomatoes, corn, potatoes (brown and red), green beans, and many different varieties of bell pepper. We do several flowers every year, and did sunflowers at least once. We also had rosemary once.

320

[Roy Tucker]

We've got your typical 'burb yard, about 1/2 acre. Lived here for close to 20 years so we have a lot of flower and garden beds built up.

I have a south-facing bed that I planted about a month ago. For about the last week, we've been eating lots of spinach, romaine, and bib lettuce. I also planted 2 tomatoes and 2 pepper plants and put "walls of water" (http://www.burpee.com/product/vegeta...pkg.++of++3.do) around them on the same bed. We've got some green tomatoes now that look like they are thinking about turning pink. This south bed is also where I put the composter bin.

Out back, I've got 4 5'x10' beds that we plant typical stuff in. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, peas, etc etc. Just put the plants in on mom's day and have been planting seeds when I've got time.

[gonelong]

I have a 10'x10' raised bed in the back yard, and a 4'x6' in another spot. We generally have herbs my wife uses to cook with, green beans, carrots, spinach, lettuce, peppers of all sorts, tomatoes, cucumber, potatoes (that I just can't seem to get to produce), zuchinni, pumpkins, and strawberrys. That sounds like a lot for a small gardern, but the peppers and tomatoes dominate, the rest are token so my 6 year old son can watch them grow. He gets a real kick out of it. Made "stone soup" over the fire last summer, with only things from our garden. He thought that was pretty neat.

I grew up in the sticks, we had about 2 acres of garden (this is not a typo) and number of fruit trees as well as strawberrys, raspberries, and blackberries. As a kid, most of what I ate came from our garden as Mom canned tons of things for the winter months. My dad even grew popcorn. I have yet to meet another gardner that raised his own popcorn. Maybe someone here will have?

Sweet corn straight from the garden, hard to beat.

GL

[Redsfan320]

We've also done cucumbers and okra once.

320

[KoryMac5]

We just bought our home in March and the previous owner had a nice section for a garden to be planted. I decided to plant 2 rows of sweet corn, some lettuce, spinach, sweet and hot peppers, onions, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, and some cauliflower. Plus we have a nice section of tomatoes and a place for some pumpkins and sunflowers. I used to help my father when I was younger with his garden however this is my first year growing on my own. I already survived the last frost we had so hopefully everything turns out well.

I would like to plant some asparagus and garlic as well but I may not have the room for it. Plus I believe asparagus takes a few years before you can harvest it. Good luck with your growing.

[gonelong]

...I decided to plant 2 rows of sweet corn....

I hate to be the messenger of bad news ... sweet corn needs to be planted in blocks, not long rows. The corn needs to pollinate (via the breeze) and it's much more likely to happen with 6 rows 1/3 the length than with 2 rows of any length.

IMO you'll be lucky to get anything edible out of either row. Likely, the ears will form, but will not mature.

GL

[KoryMac5]

I hate to be the messenger of bad news ... sweet corn needs to be planted in blocks, not long rows. The corn needs to pollinate (via the breeze) and it's much more likely to happen with 6 rows 1/3 the length than with 2 rows of any length.

IMO you'll be lucky to get anything edible out of either row. Likely, the ears will form, but will not mature.

GL

Thanks for the info. I believe I have enough room left over to expand to be able to get more of a rectangular shape that would be desired for ultimum corn growing. I should be able to get a third row out of my space which I beleive will help with polination I will give it a try and see what happens. Thanks for the catch.

[Will M]

last year my wife planted a couple tomato & pepper plants.

this year i got involved. heh heh heh.
1. i have two areas of squash doing well
2. i made three raised beds. two with watermelon & one with pumpkin
3. my beans are doing well. i made the mistake of buying bush beans not pole beans but at least i don't have to build a trellis
4. we have several tomatoes & pepper plants scattered around
5. i have a few cucumber plants
6. i planted some carrots. too soon to tell
7. the peas i planted in the ground didn't come up but the ones i planted in pots did. i am going to transplant them soon

so far its been fun. mostly i am shocked when the seeds i planted actually grow. in the past i have had a bit of a 'brown thumb'.

for the most part i have gotten things at Walmart & Home Depot. since it started as a fun experiment i thought i'd start cheap & see if the plants actually grew

biggest problem so far is that the cats think my garden is a giant litter box!

[redsmetz]

biggest problem so far is that the cats think my garden is a giant litter box!

I'm told if you sprinkle some cayenne pepper around, it should ward the cats off. Maybe someone else has an idea.

[gonelong]

Thanks for the info. I believe I have enough room left over to expand to be able to get more of a rectangular shape that would be desired for ultimum corn growing. I should be able to get a third row out of my space which I beleive will help with polination I will give it a try and see what happens. Thanks for the catch.

Out of the blue the other day, Dad tells me you can shake the tassels of one row and then spread them on the silk of the other and vice versa. He said this would do the trick when mother nature and sparse plantings would not. Do this when the silk first begins to show.

Thanks pop. He lets me fail with sweet corn 3 years running and hands you the answer on a silver platter. *sigh*

GL

[gonelong]

Dad tells me you can shake the tassels of one row and then spread them on the silk of the other and vice versa.

Dad said an envelope is ideal for this.

GL

[redsmetz]

Out of the blue the other day, Dad tells me you can shake the tassels of one row and then spread them on the silk of the other and vice versa. He said this would do the trick when mother nature and sparse plantings would not. Do this when the silk first begins to show.

Thanks pop. He lets me fail with sweet corn 3 years running and hands you the answer on a silver platter. *sigh*

GL

Yeah, but at least he finally has "the talk" out of the way, no?

[SunDeck]

I converted the back 1/4 of our yard to a garden area for my wife. She has an apple tree, about 75 strawberry plants, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, pole beans, tomatoes and basil, lettuce in at the moment. I built a cold frame for her to start seed in this spring, which worked much better than trying to start them indoors with a grow light last year.

[pedro]

I built a 3x6 raised bed last year. I'm growing chives (hold over from last year), cherry tomatoes, basil, cilantro, and parsley. I'm also going to grow some cucumbers in separate containers and have a raspberry bush that is about 15x3.

I'd like to grow peppers and full size tomatoes but they just don;t do very well here.

I also have a giant rosemary bush and some oregano in the front yard.