more questions

[gapeachy]

I have always planted my vegetble garden the traditional way....my garden is a fenced in area of about 30x50' I am looking to do something different in my layout...first how do you determine north and south in your garden area? I dont want to shade other veggies....i usually plant 2 rows of tomatoes, 2 green beans 2 okras and 2 big rows of squash and cukes and put some peppers in.....I going to add onions this year and maybe pototoes...I just want a better layout.....

 

[boggybranch]

If you're not sure which way is north, on your property.....use a compass.

 

[bid]

You could type your address into GoogleEarth and get a general idea of the compass points gapeachy. You could also try your county property tax site as most have arial views of the property along with the corresponding points. It may not be totally exact, but probably close enough for what you have in mind. Good luck!

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you are in the northern hemisphere, which all of North America is in:

Drive a stake vertically in the ground or select a power pole or something that is going straight up. At noon, adjusted for daylight savings time if appropriate, make a mark where the shadow of the top of the stake hits. The base of the stake is south. The mark where the top of the shadow is is north.

At sunrise, look where the sun is coming up. That is generally east. It is not exact because it depends on your latitude, but it is close enough.

At sunset, look where the sun is setting. That is generally west.

 

[journey11]

Drive a stake vertically in the ground or select a power pole or something that is going straight up. At noon, adjusted for daylight savings time if appropriate, make a mark where the shadow of the top of the stake hits. The base of the stake is south. The mark where the top of the shadow is is north.

That's neat, I'd never heard that before. I've always just gone by the rising/setting of the sun.

Gapeachy, you don't have to be *too* exact really. If your garden plot is already where it is, just go with the direction that lines up closest to a N to S row.

If you want to do something different (perhaps in order to keep crops rotated year after year to prevent build up of disease or pests), try splitting your plot into quadrants and form your rows within them, which gives you a little more leeway and you can swap what you plant in the quadrants next year. All quadrants will be planted, but you will alternate the taller plants that are on the back rows of the eastern two and the shorter in the western two. You can also get away with planting somewhat taller plants in the northeast quadrant.

Another thing you can do to mix things up a bit is to think outside the box. You can plant cukes and pole beans on a trellis or along a fenceline (tomatoes too, if you don't have a whole lot of plants to set out). I just mound up a pile of compost and plant right on top of it. You can plant potatoes in a bottomless barrel or big trash can . I am going to try planting my potatoes in abasket method this year that was posted by another member on here awhile back. I've seen people plant all kinds of things in containers or even plastic totes, which you can put anywhere you like. A few raised beds in another area of your yard are another option too.

 

[digitS']

I'm not sure what gapeachy was asking.

If it is just a matter of shading plants, gapeachy: 1st, Journey has a good idea for dividing the entire garden into quarters. Then and 2nd, if plants are in rows - traditionally, north to south was thought best.

Really, there are lots of different ideas. After all, 1 corn plant will shade the corn plant growing north of it. And personally, I like having the paths shaded thru most of the entire day. That means, my paths are north of the 4-foot beds that run east-west.

If the beds were really wide, I might change my mind about this but it hardly matters, I'm up here in the north so far that the sun swings waaaay around in the sky. I've got lots of light from just about everywhere during the summer !

Slope of the ground makes a difference. Some people even say the direction of the wind does, too.

Steve
waiting for some sun in April . . . .

 

[gapeachy]

yes I was wanting to not shade smaller plants....thanks for all the advice...I think maybe I will plant in quadrants I think that would be good and something different....I really look forward to a big yeild of tomatoes because I can them and make pickles with my cukes and pickled okra is great .....I am excited about garden time already.....