Anyone here a big gardener?

[Roadblock]

My wife and I are looking to build a sustantial garden this spring. Given the nature of our land- probably a raised bed.

Some of what I'm looking to grow are:
1) Things that grow well here (never lived this far north)
2) Things that store easily
3) Things that are ok with less light (we have trees...not sure how much sun I can get the garden)

I'm also thinking of growing potatoes in stacked tires.

Any tips, suggestions, etc?

We'd love to not have to buy vegetables anymore.

 

[trophygrl]

i love gardening-- where are you?

what's the soil like? (sandy, clay?)

 

[Roadblock]

I'm just outside Nashua. The soil is sandy/rocky with A LOT of organic material (years of leaf decay). I was planning on going with a raised-bed garden to make the soil less of an issue.

Kind of going for a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Not to mention I love working outdoors.

 

[trophygrl]

i have sort of the same thing going on (sandy soil, shade)

hostas do great here-- and so do most ornamental grasses

i also use a lot of ground cover plants that enjoy shade

 

[trophygrl]

the potato idea is a good one...

i like to grow strawberries, but because of the soil, they have to be potted

 

[Tiktock]

You can grow tons here!

The sun will dictate alot, though...without bright sun, its hard to get lots of things to flow and fruit up correctly....

Corn and Tomatoes are the two that jump out at me as the best for around here, but corn is more of a novelty since you can get it so cheap in the fall due to the number of farms local....

A great thing for strawberies is to construct a strawberry pyramid frame and fill it with dirt....they love hanging down those.

I think depending on where you are, a big factor also might be keeping animals out. My parents live 15 minutes north of boston and practically have to fight off the deer and woodchuck with pitchforks and torches.

 

[mg42doc]

I just started growing last year....I grew upside down (hanging) tomatoes that worked out pretty well...no need for staking......my green beans did well and I had a fantastic year for cukes.

I was disappointed in my peas and lettuce.....I think I started them too late.

 

[trophygrl]

i almost bought some of those hanging tomatoes today-- they really grow well?

 

[THEFAN]

We have a 1500 square ft garden and looking to expand this coming yr and add chickens.

I did all the tilling to start it by hand. took me awhile but it was a great work out and a very relaxing thing to do. Got all the rocks out and make a nice rock wall around my cucumber section. Layed a black tarp donw and cut 6 holes for mounds and kept it down with the rocks. tarp helped with heat and kept weeds down. Also helped woth the water.

As for water. I never once used my hose from my house. We used rain gutters with a homemade irrigation canal into barrels and an old claw tub. I found a ton of rain gutters at my local dump. Have to love blow down gutters. We are going to raise the tub and some buckets and attack conduit pipes into the rows and have a chut off vale on the tub and buckets. Save my wife some watering time. I try and not buy anything that I can't get back with what I grow. With what I grew and saved in money it payed for all my supplies last yr. I will do the same this yr and get the rest of what I need so next yr I should be in the black.

Did some of the same thinking when it came to home heating aswell.

We grew
potatoes
bush beans
toms
cabbage Irish blood in me
squash
summer squash
brussels
some herbs

Will be adding more this yr

Use Organic seeds Heirloom are great and I have used seedmart ( username) on ebay but will be using a local person next yr to help the local economy. I'll be doing a seed to seed set up aswell.

Thanks

 

[theGringo]

I live in a very wooded, shady spot ... so vegetables are out for me. But I like to putter around in the dirt, so I started building a woodland garden, to supplement the existing English and Alpine gardens that were here.

Essentially, I just walk into the woods with a bucket and shovel and dig up stuff. I have a variety of ferns, and many of the shade tolerant wild flowers. I even got some mountain laurel to take last year, after sevreal failed attempts.

I wish I could grow food, but I never get more that six hours of full sun, even in high summer. (Well, actually you can eat hostas, and they thrive here ... but I haven't tried eating them yet)

Register an account here:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/

There's advice for every imaginable kind of garden and gardening-related activity.

 

[Roadblock]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm not very interested in a decorative garden (we actually are working to shrink back one of the MASSIVE existing planting areas) so it looks like I'll be clearing some trees to get some more sun in place. Works for me!

 

[pernox]

I'm a big person who gardens!

Good storage foods, with heavy yields..

Potatoes
Turnip
Beets
Winter squash
Summer squash*
Onions
Carrots
Parsnip

* Does "okay" rather than "great" in storage. I cut/parboiled/froze my excess, and had some last night. Still pretty damn tasty.

I would strongly suggest this book for not only good storage methods, but good storage crops and practices.

Last year was my first veggie garden - hard work to get started, and I won't bore you with the story, but all in all it was worthwhile. The food quality is light years beyond the crap you get on the store shelves, and it's comforting to know that if I ever hit REAL hard times, there's still food available year round. I'll look not so much to expand this year, but to reconfigure. As I learn what I can and cannot do, and what grows well and doesn't with my sun restrictions, I should be able to most efficiently maximize my small space. Good luck!

 

[BenDover]

Sugar Snap Peas are super easy to grow. I also had very good results with swedish fingerling potatoes. I used raised beds with dirt that I mixed from peat, vermiculite, compost, and topsoil.

If you set up a bed for strawberries make sure you plan a surefire way to keep the birds away. I used that netting stuff without very good results...the birds got 100% of my crop. I did manage to catch 2 chipmonks (same one twice) that took about 30 minutes to cut him from it....man he was pissed!

 

[sksmass]

I second the sugar snap peas. You should focus on things that are either:
1) expensive when you have to buy them in the store, or
2) taste like crap when you buy them in the store.

Snap peas, green beans, zuchinni, summer squash, and raspberries all fall in those categories, IMO

 

[Roadblock]

Thanks! We also go through a lot of tomatoes and peppers...

...anyone have good luck with peppers/tomatoes and what kinds?

 

[wmccurdy53]

My wife and I are looking to build a sustantial garden this spring. Given the nature of our land- probably a raised bed.

Some of what I'm looking to grow are:
1) Things that grow well here (never lived this far north)
2) Things that store easily
3) Things that are ok with less light (we have trees...not sure how much sun I can get the garden)

I'm also thinking of growing potatoes in stacked tires.

Any tips, suggestions, etc?

We'd love to not have to buy vegetables anymore.

Tomatos and summer squash/zuccini always do well for me.
Woodchucks like broccoli and cauliflower too much for me to try again.
Never had any luck with bell peppers. Cayenne and habenero did well one year, be very careful handling them.
Experiment, just put seeds or transplants in the ground and see what works.

 

[mg42doc]

i almost bought some of those hanging tomatoes today-- they really grow well?

Yep, they grew pretty good for me....I put some already-established plants from walmart into some cheap-o plastic pots from .....you guessed it, walmart.

I cut a hole in the bottom of the pot and worked the plant through it, then "closed off" the hole with some newspaper/cardboard on the inside, and filled with soil.

While hanging, the plants do tend to dry out quicker, so keep em watered. I mulched the top of the pot with some grass clippings and it helped.

I tried lemon cucumbers upside down and they grew ok too, although my pot was too small I think....I'm gonna upsize and see if that helps.

 

[Knob Creek]

I'm starting up a bigger vegetable garden again after just doing cucumbers and tomato's for the last 10 years. I would advise either of "The Victory Garden" books by Crockett or Thompson. Available used from Amazon. They take you month to month with what you should be doing

 

[MrsWildweasel]

Tomatoes it depends on where we actually plant them. We didn't get a good crop last year. We found the tomatoes that grew right by the house did the best. So this year that is where they are going. We make our own spaghetti sauce etc. We haven't grown peppers. This year we are expanded our garden alot... My/our goal is to can/freeze hopefully about two years worth of vegies.
Yes it tastes way better than what you buy in the stores. Even the vegies I canned.

 

[Roadblock]

I'm starting up a bigger vegetable garden again after just doing cucumbers and tomato's for the last 10 years. I would advise either of "The Victory Garden" books by Crockett or Thompson. Available used from Amazon. They take you month to month with what you should be doing

Those books were my Dad's bible when I was a child...

...actually remembering them reminded me of playing in the basement (I had a cardboard box space shuttle I made) while my Dad started his seeds- I distinctly remember the smell of the warm water & dirt.

Thanks for the memory; I need to ask if I can borrow them.

 

[MrsStrangeNH]

This far north we can grow some fine storage onions. This year I ordered sets from Dixondale Farms. They have some good info on onion varieties for different regions on their site.

 

[MassMark]

We have been doing no-till "lasagna" gardening for years now with great results. We grow the following:

Roma tomatoes, (yum)
Early Girl tomatoes
Andrew Rahart heirloom tomatoes
Classic cherry tomatoes
Red onion
Snap Peas
Pole beans
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Bell peppers
zucchini
cucumber
carrots
garlic
Pueblo habaneros
cilantro
oregano
basil
comfry
calendula (yummy)
Herbs I can't pronounce or remember, (Laurie is an herbalist)

 

[theGringo]

We have been doing no-till "lasagna" gardening for years now with great results. We grow the following:

I had a book on that topic a while ago, and I can't lay my hands on it now. Never tried it, though. It involved the use of newspaper ...

 

[MassMark]

I had a book on that topic a while ago, and I can't lay my hands on it now. Never tried it, though. It involved the use of newspaper ...

Yup that's it...Layers of newspaper, mulch, newspaper, more mulch, compost, then a black tarp over the whole thing. We do this every October after harvest and what we wind up with in the spring is dark, rich soil and few, (if any weeds). Nothing like not having to wrangle a tiller and then not spending the summer pulling weeds...