More gardening space!

[flyboy718]

Got my raised bed's built and dirt in them. Each one is 4' X 4' and gives me an additional 32 square feet that I didn't have before. My original garden is 8' X 15' and now I have a total of 150 square feet!! I grow tomato's, green beans, squash, okra, peppers and cantelopes in my garden...it was always a VERY tight fit in my 8' X 15' plot. Given the fact now that I have two seperate 16 square feet raised beds which vegetables should I grow in those and maximize the potential of all three spaces? I am an 'ol country boy and like to throw up rows in my big 8' X 15' plot.

 

[trunkman]

hmm, not much to chose from, lets see, there's carrots, onions, radishes, lettuce, peas, beets, garlic, cucumbers, spinach, kale, okra, zucchini, potatoes, basil, sage, strawberries, dill, catnip, cantaloupe, watermelon, acorn squash, summer squash. Oh, and there's corn too . I made some new beds last December and I've already planned to fill them and thinking of making more cuz I'll be running out of room, you never have enough room for everything you want to plant..

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Yeah we double our garden a few years ago and went pretty big with it and I thought "Oh I will have plenty of room now." but no. Trunkman is right, What to choose? A few years ago I started planting double rows or most of my veggies, not beds. So instead of planting 6 rows of green beans, 3 feet apart, I would plant two rows of beans about 6-8 inches apart, then plant another double row 3 feet apart. I did it with onions and carrots also. I drove my brother crazy, then last year he planted double rows of beans.

I have been reading a lot about square foot gardening and intensive gardening. I am putting in some raised beds this year also. What zone are in you, are you getting ready to plant?

 

[trunkman]

Zone 7b here. I've already started my raised beds, I don't necessarily do square foot gardening I try to cram in as many plants per bed as I can . So far I've got carrots, beets, lettuces, spinach and onions planted, and garlic and carrots that I planted last September still in the ground now waiting to pet picked. The carrots are soooo sweet when left in the ground over the winter...

 

[HunkieDorie23]

I still have carrots in the ground. Our winter has been mild, they are fine. I have read that they are really sweet if left in the ground for the winter. I just go and pull them if I need them. I am going to see if my son will make a couple of raised beds on monday. It is supposed to be about 60, I want to put in two with hoop house covers. I have cabbage and lettuce that are getting ready to go in. I think I am going to start harding them tomorrow. My broccoli is just sprouting so they will be ready in a couple of weeks. I would like to start planting on or around the 15th of March.

 

[flyboy718]

What I was refering to in my original post was that I now have room to move out of my larger patch some of the vegetables that take up most of the space and put them in the raised beds...what vegetables would you move out of my big patch into my raised beds of the vegetables that I listed that I grow.

 

[The Mama Chicken]

I would move the tomatoes and peppers out of the big bed and into one of the 4'x4' beds if it were me. I like to keep them where I can keep a close eye on them because we have giant hornworms around here.

 

[trunkman]

seriously though, I would take the cantaloupe and squash out of the big garden because they tend to spread out more than other plants, that way you'll have more room for a bigger variety of veggies in your big garden.

 

[flyboy718]

I think I may move the tomato's and squash out into the raised beds. How many tomatoe's could I put in the 4' X 4' bed?

 

[trunkman]

I'd say 2 tomato plants at most, any more than that and you'll have a jungle mess and probably not that productive...just my opinion... :/