A total newbie has a question

[ninny]

I can't even keep a house plant alive and i really want a veggie garden. So what is my best bet. I have tons of broken bricks to make raised beds. But i not sure if i should. Is it better to just put them in the ground?
I want fruit too. I have to be able to keep chickens and cats out of it. The dogs i can train to stay out of the area. Any tips, ideas?

 

[mandieg4]

Raised beds are great for beginners because you can start with good soil right off the bat instead of building it up over the course of a couple years. The best advice I can give you is start small. A lot of beginners get excited and plant a huge garden, then get discouraged when things don't work out quite like they had planned. Maybe just start with one or two raised beds, then add a new one each year as your confidence grows.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are several different techniques used to grow plants. Which is best for you depends on a tremendous number of different factors. Climate, soil type, what and how much you want to grow, available growing days versus first and last frost, and many more things. And each of us have their own conditions. What works for a neighbor may not work that well for you if, say, you are in a poorly drained low spot and the neighbor is on a higher, better drained area, but what your neighbors grow and what you see in your farmer's markets are a pretty good way to see what grows well in your area.

I agree the best way is to start small and increase as your confidence and competence grows. Whether it is turning over a small piece of ground, a raised bed, a hanging tomato plant, a potato in a stack of tires, you will learn things about growing that will make you more successful later. And I'd suggest a few fairly easy plants that normally produce well to start with that you will want to eat. I don't know your growing conditions (modifying your profile to show area and growing zones might help???) but I find radishes and lettuce about as easy as anything for me here, but their producing season is pretty short compared to say, a tomato or chard.

As far as the chickens, the only thing I've ever seen work is a fence. As it sounds like you know, they will eat most of what you grow, especially young plants as they sprout and emerge. They also love to scratch in anything I mulch, scattering it every where. My only question if I want to keep the chickens out is how high to make the fence. I settled on 5 feet. Seems to work for me.

Fruit is a whole 'nother topic. Are you limiting it to things that grow on trees or including the berries and maybe nuts? Your growing season, including cool days for certain fruits, space, drainage, so many things enter in. Many fruits need a different variety of the same type of fruit nearby to cross-pollinate and even those that don't have to have a different variety to cross-pollinate usually produce much better if one is available. How patient are you? Often dwarf or semi-dwarf trees produce sooner than full sized trees. They take up less space too.

You'll notice that, just like the BYC site, there are plenty of people with plenty of different opinions willing to offer advice and help. If you have specific questions, ask away. Be aware that we do all have different conditions so, just like the BYC site, you need to filter everything through your specific circumstances to see what works for you. People in the Arizona desert or coastal Pacific northwest have different growing conditions that I do, but I have taken and used ideas from them, sometimes modifying them some to better suite my condition.

Glad you are seriously considering getting into gardening. Good Luck!!!

 

[ninny]

Thanks to both of you. Im in illinois so zone 5 i think? I have a orchard started. I have a grape arbor but once we get goats its died. They planted it in the middle of the pasture. Id like to move it somehow. I have a 20x20 ft space pick out but i can go bigger or smaller. I also have lots of old tires that i could use. Maybe use them frist to see of i like raised beds? Much easier to build and tear down.

 

[ducks4you]

I live in Illinois, too--where do YOU live?

(I am SSE of Urbana, in Champaign County.) I am in either zone 5 or zone 6 depending upon which graph you use. We are on a bee-line in the fattest part of the state, stretching from Danville in the East to Quincy, in the West. Our state has differing weather, differing topography, and differing soil.

 

[journey11]

When I was first starting out, I found that half the battle is just getting the seeds in the ground!

Plant a few of several diverse things (that way you can rejoice over your successes and patiently learn from your failures without suffering intense discouragement). Tomatoes, beans, summer squash, lettuce...those are all pretty easy to grow... But keep it small at first. Just enough to eat off for the summer. Something small enough that you can easily devote the time needed to look after it. Don't worry about filling your freezer or canning shelf so early on. If it's fun, you'll want to come back and do it again next year. Then build off of each passing year's knowledge...you can expand your garden as you gain experience.

For fruit, I would say everbearing strawberries in a small raised bed would be a great place to start. You will get fruit that same summer. Thornless blackberries are also easy to grow (and pick!)

For the future, plant a self-pollinating dwarf peach or apple tree. They don't take much time or effort to get them started (and you'll need about 4-5 years before they'll bear). For trees, always remember a $20 tree needs a $40 hole and you'll do just fine. (ETA: just saw the part about your orchard!)

 

[ninny]

i live across from muscatine ia on the illinois side. I may just use old tires this year and try it out. If i like it i'll build some next year.

 

[ducks4you]

You're pretty close to the Quad Cities. I'm pretty sure that you are zone 4. So...you are tallgrass prairie, and does this describe you?

"The Quad Cities are situated in a ecological transition zone between the Eastern Deciduous Forest and the Tall Grass Prairie and is, of course, dominated by the riparian (read that: river)system.

A major factor in the economic success of the region is soil quality. As the glaciers of the last ice ages retreated, they deposited massive amounts of soil in Iowa and Illinois. The Canadian Shield was nearly scraped clean of soil, and Iowa was being dumped on by a carpet of 18 to 36 inches of rich black loess, our gift from the glaciers. And because of a combination of this rich soil, a moderate Continental (Long Summer) Climate, and one of the largest aquifers in the world, Iowa is one of the greatest agricultural producers anywhere."
http://lewis184.home.mchsi.com/my_home_town.htm

WE have 18-36 inches of "rich black loess" on our place. You drive one more hour south, to Chareston, and you get clay and rocks!

I would definitely go with the raised beds. You're a lot lower than my place, being close to the Mississippi, and my garden was FLOODED with too much rain last year. If I had had raised beds, I'm sure that my crop would have been much better in 2009. Especially since, the tomatoes that I grew around my cement cistern cover (where the land slopes away from my 100 year old farmhouse) did very well, while the regular garden drowned, because their soil drained.

As you know, any farmer with "bottom land" takes a gamble planting it--will it flood and lose the crop, or will it be dry and I'll have a great harvest?

Stop worrying and just "do it". Let us know how it goes.

 

[ninny]

Thanks!

 

[wifezilla]

For fruit you have so many choices. Blackberries grew wild where I lived in Wisconsin and they were fantastic. Grandma had a raspberry patch and she had apple trees. Out here in Colorado I have 2 apple trees, 1 pear tree, and 2 grape vines. I am also growing melons, strawberries and ground cherries on my itty bitty lot. I can't wait for Summer