Newest Threads

devilsjackpot · 03-22-2009, 03:18 AM

So I just talked to my landlord and he told me that I could go ahead and till this large section of lawn to plant a garden. It's about 10x20, and there s another strech that runs along the fence that is 3x30. So, now the question is what to plant? Anyone have any favorites that they grow? Any special varieties? Any tips or suggestions?

gtv · 03-22-2009, 03:41 AM

Kennebec potatoes are good, if you like white potatoes. Silver queen corn is a good producer, but if you are not worried about saving seed, try the Peaches n' Cream super sweet hybrid. If you like squash, we planted spaghetti squash and butternut squash last year and they did really well. Cherokee purple, Oxheart, and Roma tomatoes are all good tomatoes.

I order a lot of stuff from burpee. Just make sure you pick varieties that will grow in your zone. St. Louis is in Zone 5, I think.

http://www.burpee.com/

devilsjackpot · 03-22-2009, 05:46 PM

I'm right on the border of 5 & 6. I'm gonna get this plot tilled and prepped this week. I'm gonna try to place an order either mon or tues.

neothespian · 03-23-2009, 12:40 AM

Sweet! I'm just happy to hear the City of Tempe is hearing an ordinance to open the zoning regs to allow greenhouses and gardens on top of buildings, since a few of the new hi-rises have been constructed with that in mind. Before, strangely enough, there was a prohibition on it :brow: Also, alot more cities are looking into "urban agriculture" for not only food price stabilization, but it can also lower the median temprature of a city by as much as a few degrees AND can help with reduced fuel consumption by establishing urban co-ops

Going green never looked more delicious.

devilsjackpot · 03-23-2009, 02:01 AM

Ok, so I cleaned up the yard today and then measured out my proposed plots. What I've got is 49 3ft square plots (452 square feet in a couple different plots). How much seed should I buy here. I picked out all the stuff I wanted at burpee and it totalled $55 bucks. That seem about right? I had onions, beets, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, corn, squash, radishes, and bush beans. Can you guys think of anything else? Maybe I'm overdoing it on the diversity and should scale back?

2TN Mules · 03-23-2009, 02:11 AM

You'll have your hands full. A garden is more work than many people realize but is very wel worth it.

Plant the onions, beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach, radishes first. Followed by corn, tomatoes and beans. Finish up with cukes and squash. You can get 2 plantings on the cukes and squash in a season.

Good luck with the project.

neothespian · 03-23-2009, 02:16 AM

You may also want to use some fringe bits of the garden for some spices: Thyme, oregano, basil... ya know...

You can live on packaged food from now till the end of time, but it's the spices that make it worthwhile.

devilsjackpot · 03-23-2009, 03:22 AM

I'll try to squeeze in some herbs. I'm really excited about this.

**sitdwnandhngon** · 03-23-2009, 03:50 AM

Good luck, at my parents house we always had an amazing garden growing up. Dad would fence it in next to a pasture in the winter and the horses would crap there for about 5 months. Then in the summer we would till it in and pick the weeds and plant. It made for tons of tomatoes and peppers, my favorite garden food. All our veggies would grow so fast the only way to keep it from spoiling was to give them away to friends every day. And that was still being able to eat them all summer.

I'm doing a small plot at my house this year. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and maybe some spaghetti squash. First things first though, I'm tilling in a bunch of horse crap. Its by far the best fertilizer in my opinion.

gtv · 03-23-2009, 11:43 AM

A little hint for the beets and carrots... they like soil with a little sand in it. If your soil is hard, or has a lot of clay in it, try mixing a bit of sand with it (just pour some sand on the tilled ground and work it in with a hoe or tiller). The new shoots for beets and carrots (and radishes, if you decide to grow them) are delicate, and the sandy soil is easier for them to break out of, and it will also keep the roots from deforming due to the hardness of the soil. Get some builders sand at a hardware store, as it is usually cheaper, but whatever kind you get make sure it doesn't have any chemicals added (some "play sand" types will have stuff added to control pests).

$55 is not bad at all compared to our bill every year. The first year will teach you a lot, in terms of how much you need to order to fill your lot, which veggies you think are worth the trouble, which strains grow best in your locale, etc. If things go well, and you stay on top of the weeding, watering, and pest control, your initial $55 dollar investment should yield many times that amount worth of vegetables. Get yourself a good book on preserving, too, since you will not want to waste any of the fruits of your labor. Some things can be frozen, others dried, but canning is a really good way of keeping veggies for the winter months. Especially since you are growing tomatoes. Throw in a few pepper bushes, and with your fresh onions, peppers, tomatoes, cilantro (if you add herbs as Neo suggests), even some corn, and you have the makings for some excellent salsa.

Good luck, and keep us posted.