completely new to creating my own garden...HELP!

[KLSpoultry]

i tried my hardest last year and failed miserably...out of 10 tomato plants and 8 green pepper plants, i had one tomato plant make it.

i have no idea what to do with the soil to make it better. i would really love to do LOTS of vegetables, fruits and possibly some herbs in my garden. i have limitless space and i'm willing to do almost anything to fix the garden.

right now its on the north side of my barn and i have chickens, geese, ducks, goats and horses to produce fertilizer, whichever species works best.

 

[patandchickens]

What is your soil like? Sandy? Clayey (dries like brick)? Gravelly?

Virtually any soil in the world will benefit most from goodly additions of WELL COMPOSTED organic matter. Do you have by any chance an older manure pile, like 6+ months old? That'd be best. Add up to 4-6" on top of the garden, then dig or till it in real well. Let sit a week or three before planting. Adding good organic matter helps increase soil nutrients, micronutrients, biological activity, 'fluffiness', water retention, you name it. You can add another 4" at the end of the season.

Also, if this is on the N side of the barn, how much direct sunlight does the garden get during the summer. Typical vegetables need at least 6-8 hrs of full midday sun during the day (slanty low sunlight hitting them at 6 a.m. doesn't really count ). More being better.

Any ideas what happened to your plants? Drooping? Et by bugs? Never flowered? Put in ground but just never grew? We might be able to make some further suggestions...

Definitely try again though, preferably after stuffing the soil full of well-composted organic matter. Plants generally want to grow, you'll get the hang of it

Good luck, have fun, welcome to TEG,

Pat

 

[obsessed]

I think research research research. Read all you can for your area and all the back pages of this website and viola instant knowledge. Then your questions will be come more focused, like a jedi.

 

[KLSpoultry]

hope you can still help me patandchickens:

i believe my soil is clay, it gets soupy when wet and dries like a rock when dry.

i am planning to expand the garden and it will get at least 8 hours of sun, if not more

the pepper plants never grew, just withered and died. the tomato plants tried to grow then withered and died. the only tomato plant that lived was purchased as a LARGE plant and seemed to do very well. i also had a strawberry plant which did not grow any more fruit after planting, but did grow and expand quite a bit.

any ideas?

 

[vfem]

What Zone are you in? Or do you know? It would help to know your state.

If you are clay like me, instead of trying to work with it (mine failed badly) I removed some and built raised beds and added better soil with a compost mix. I think you may take most of the season to turn and fertlize the soil as is to make it worth working with otherwise!?

 

[KLSpoultry]

i'm in zone 5, but very close to being in zone 4, so only buy plants that work well in zone 4.

i had thought about taking some out and adding soil and composted manure in.

 

[homesteadmom]

Try adding compost, manure & a little bit of sand too. That will help improve the soil condition for you. Any livestock manure is considered great to use.

 

[momofdrew]

If you can add leaves old manure compost and a green manure such as buckwheat or oats grown and then tilled under... you need to loosen up the clay and make it friable...I would go to the library and get a few books on how to garden, on making compost, making raised beds how to raise Tomatoes...It sounds like what happened was the clay dried and the roots could not penetrate the hardness so they couldnot take in mosture and nutrents...

also your local extention service will have lots of info I go to UNH extention service and they have lots helpful people there I have gone on line but also have called them they also have free classes on occation..

 

[j.luetkemeyer]

Raised Beds are the way to go when you have a lot of clay. You can add peat moss, sand and other compost to clay but it depends on the amount of clay in your soil on how much you will need.

 

[patandchickens]

i believe my soil is clay, it gets soupy when wet and dries like a rock when dry.

That is not such a bad thing. What you mostly need is to get LOTS AND LOTS of well-composted organic material into the soil. This will be a multi-year project, but if you can put on 3-4" and till or hand-dig it into the top 8-10" this year you should get decent crops. And as you add more each year, yields will improve as time goes by.

Also make REAL REAL sure not to do anything to the soil when it is wet (wait til a ball in your hand crumbles apart when poked). And with clay it is especially valuable to keep a mulch on at ALL times - prevents the soil from crusting over, and as the mulch decomposes it also adds to the organic content.

I wouldn't worry about making raised beds, personally -- assuming it's not in a low spot where water puddles, clay is really quite good to work with once you amend it. A regular normal garden will work just fine for you, really

i am planning to expand the garden and it will get at least 8 hours of sun, if not more

That sounds good

the pepper plants never grew, just withered and died. the tomato plants tried to grow then withered and died. the only tomato plant that lived was purchased as a LARGE plant and seemed to do very well.

The likeliest suspects (and it may well be some combination) would be: plants not properly hardened off before planting; plants in poor shape before planting (e.g. stunted), if purchased from store; soil too compacted and dense; and/or insufficient watering.

Really, I expect that tilling in about as much well-composted organic stuff as you can lay your hands on will probably make things work a lot better this year. BTW if you can't get too enough well-composted organic stuff to amend the whole garden, I'd suggest planting a smaller area (only what you have enough material to amend well). You can till UNcomposted organics into the part that you won't use, or even just sheet compost 'em on top of the soil, so it can get ready for a larger garden next year.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat