Starting a garden.... Can you point me in the right direction?

[MBLayfield]

I really bad want a garden this year. I tried last year but my tiller motor locked up and with everything else going on in life I never got the tiller fixed and never planted anything.

I don't know where to start to have a garden. I have several books but i'm still not quite sure where to begin. I have plenty of ground and ambition tho. I want to grow food for my family as well as for my chickens and fresh greens for my rabbits.

Last year I started seeds too early and ended up with HUGE plants in my windowsill waiting to go into the garden that never happened. I started corn too, and my mom laughed and laughed when she came over and saw my jungle...... I guess you don't start corn early? I don't even know what my zone is for sure.

Does anyone have a link or website or book title for wanna be gardners that don't have a clue?

Thanks for the advice

 

[digitS']

How 'bout this, MB?

It is a 5 page pdf file - a good look at the basics.

A rototiller isn't necessary to have a garden. I parked mine for quite a few years without ever once pulling the cord. A spading fork served better than just fine.
Here's wishing you the Best of Luck

Steve

 

[MBLayfield]

How 'bout this, MB?

It is a 5 page pdf file - a good look at the basics.

A rototiller isn't necessary to have a garden. I parked mine for quite a few years without ever once pulling the cord. A spading fork served better than just fine.
Here's wishing you the Best of Luck

Steve

Thanks so much! That's great information! The books I have are all about growing the plants and not helpful to me right now. Gave me good things to think about that I had never considered or knew to consider before.

 

[patandchickens]

One good source if you're starting your first veg garden is Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. Your library should either have it or be able to get it easily by interlibrary loan. He's also got a website at www.squarefootgardening.com .

I don't do it especially much that way myself, but it's a really good approach if you're just starting out, because you don't have to till and weed fifty acres and he gives really detailed step by step descriptions.


Pat

 

[patandchickens]

Last year I started seeds too early and ended up with HUGE plants in my windowsill waiting to go into the garden that never happened. I started corn too, and my mom laughed and laughed when she came over and saw my jungle...... I guess you don't start corn early?

By the way... be aware that starting seeds too early can happen to ANYone (it's ahrd to know what the weather will do!).

Your first couple years, til you get a better sense of when your personal last frost date is and how fast seedlings will grow in your seed-starting setup whatever it is, it's smart to PLAN to start your more important or more-sensitive seeds at least twice. That is, do it once, then do it again 2-3 weeks later. Worst case scenario you have extra plants to give away or compost; much likelier, though, you will have goofed with your timing on at least some of the plant varieties, and will have saved your pants by doing the doubled planting.

Just a thought,

Pat

 

[sunnychooks]

It is a 5 page pdf file - a good look at the basics.

Thanks so much for posting this file, Steve! It's just what us beginners need!!!

 

[patandchickens]

That's a really good intro link, Steve!

I really dunno about their claim that it "should" take 1 hr to prepare 10x10' of garden, however. To me, that is a big overestimate if they mean spring pre-planting prep of an established plot, and a big underestimate if they mean stripping sod and opening up a brand new plot.

For 10x10, I would say it takes me about 15 minutes for the former task (roughly fork in the stuff that's been piled there all winter, and rake the surface soil more or less smooth and level), and for the latter about 2 to 3 hrs depending on whether I smothered out the grass first. (Longer than that, actually, if I am rescuing the turf to resod elsewhere)

Am I weird? How long do y'all spend on this sort of thing?


Pat

 

[digitS']

That lady with Cornell Coop Ext organizes and writes well, don't she ?

Pat, I'd say you aren't weird just a vigorous and capable person. Almost all of my flowers and some of the veggies are in beds of 100 square feet + or -. I used to dig them out to 8 or 10 inches, put in soil amendments and fertilizers, recover and rake smooth; and figured 1 1/2 hours per . . .

Very nearly never do that anymore - too much work !
I don't know if I'm up to going across a bed with the spading fork in 15 minutes, either. Old age and infirmities, you know . . .

Steve's digits

 

[Rosalind]

Oh jeez, it takes me forever to do that sort of stuff. That's the #1 reason I decided the garden in my new house was going to be no-dig. Also a big factor in what dog breed I wanted--a draft dog to haul carts of compost! I just don't have the physical stamina to keep going for hours. And depending on your soil, it can be hours. I suppose there are extremely fortunate people out there who have perfectly crumbly and aerated compost which goes through the winter with a mere few inches of salt marsh hay for protection, where the topsoil is three feet thick and loamy. That's never been my luck, though, I always get stuck with something either clay or silt six inches down that needs all the organic amendments it can get. And that is a horrible chore and a half to till, which I try to spread out over a couple of days. For 10x10, maybe it would take me four hours.

Bear in mind, I am persnickety about the whole process. I test the soil, check my plans for the plot rotation, amend the soil as needed, dig pretty deep when I am digging anything at all (nice straight carrots, perfectly round onions and garlic), take out the rocks and use them to edge pathways, top-dress with compost, possibly with some kind of mulch if I need it for weed control. I'd rather spend the extra time prepping soil ahead of time than weed incessantly, I hate weeding. That's just me, though, I want to plant a garden and not do much maintenance on it.

 

[patandchickens]

I used to dig them out to 8 or 10 inches, put in soil amendments and fertilizers, recover and rake smooth; and figured 1 1/2 hours per . . .

*every year*??? what, are you *nuts*???

I'd rather let worms and plant roots do the work. It really comes out about 95% as well.

If that;s lazy, then 3 cheers for lazy

Pat