A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Garden plans

Hi all! I am an admitted gardening novice. With the way food and fuel prices are going, a nice big veggie garden is my stab at saving a few bucks. Our family is large and a baby is on the way. So, I am coming to you all in hopes of finding my path. I will apologize now for any rambling I may do...I'm so excited about this!

I live in southern IL...zone 6a according to the USDA map. I've got a nice big plot that my sis and I are going to till this weekend. I'm hoping we aren't too late in starting. Thankfully the plot is at my mother's farm and critters aren't an issue due to 7 resident dogs :)

Our plans are to plant the following:
Tomatoes--several varieties, probably 15-20 plants as we share with a local assisted living facility. We always grow lots of tomatoes, but only tomatoes most years.
Bell peppers
Jalapeños (maybe)
Onions
Radishes and/or turnips(maybe but I think I'm too late for them)
Green beans (blue lakes)
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Sweet corn (this likely will take up half the plot...we love our corn!)

I'm also snagging a few of Mom's planters to grow herbs like cilantro, basil and oregano. I've got LOTS of herb room and am going blank on that...ideas? Also, I'm a bit stumped and googling is not helping me. When should these things be going in the ground? I'll be getting all but the cukes, zukes and radishes as seedlings from the feed store. There isn't much available yet so I'm thinking I'm ok so far. Now if the rains would ease up for a few days and let things dry we'd be doing a lot better!

Hey if you go to walmart if you already bought your seeds thats okay but just take a gander at their seed packets because it will tell about which time you can plant the seeds which months etc... But what matters most is that you know when the last expected frost date is... I did a guesstimate when i planted all my veggies, and then when alot were sprouting up a few weeks later a cold front came through it got to be about i think 35.... good thing we had some extra covers...

about the herbs your having great idea you know if you had some room inside that gets lots of sun you could gorw them or you could grow them in pots by your dooors outside or by porch, I love spearmint it smells so good... Just like I said with the other seeds look at the packets and try to find out your last expected frost. but try your local ag center and you could go there to see abotu planting things...

Thanks toposh. I'm pretty sure we have had our last frost. The "offical" date is mid-April, but we had one last week. It was a pretty soft frost though. I called my granddad and he said "Gardens go in Mother's day weekend." I'm thinking some of the stuff needs to wait a bit longer so the nights aren't so cool but at least I'm not terribly late starting.

I can't do indoor plants at my apartment or my mom's house. The dogs completely ignore the garden but a plant inside is either a peeing post or a digging spot. At my house, evil cats decimate plants in a matter of hours. I might get away with a kitchen windowsill box though. Hmm. I also work at Walmart...I'll have to snag some seed packets and make some charts while we are slow tonight. Once I firm up the plans and spacing I'll draw it out and post it here. Thanks again!

You're not late with cukes, zukes and radishes. Get the radishes in now, they'll take frost and they'll be ready in about 30 days. The cukes and zukes can be planted as seed as soon as the frost danger is past.

might be too late for turnips.

So here is my tenative spacing/placement plan. This is the final inclusion to the garden plan after talking with my family on what they want to eat. We are going to attempt some lettuce and radishes in a bed by the house.



ETA: If that is too small to read, here is a link to a larger photo (hope that isn't against the rules here).

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e286/Gena575/Gardenplan-1.jpg

nice varied group!!

i'm not sure your placements will work, though. cukes and zukes are very similar - i would place them further apart to avoid cross-polination.

i'm assuming multiple types of tomato. all are bushy and some get taller than others - expect them to get at least a couple feet wide and heights can vary for variety as well as individual plants. peppers are also bushy - again, width and height will vary. 1-2 feet wide and about as tall, maybe taller. cukes and zukes are viney. beans too - although, beans grow upwards rather than outward on the ground like the other two. onion obviously don't take up much ground space - do make sure to get the soil pretty clear of stones so the bulbs can grow evenly. okra will get tall, not sure how bushy. corn, obviously tall and not very wide - at the base, that is. the leaves will spread out a couple feet although that will be a bit higher up (couple of feet).

i would put the cukes and zukes at opposite corners to avoid the cross-polination issue. you need to be sure that the placement of the corn is not going to block sunlight for the other plants and you need to leave ground space for the cukes and zukes - the vines can get pretty long and you don't want to be stepping over/tripping on them and/or the fruits when trying to get to other items for maintenance/harvesting.

for the beans, you can put up poles every few feet and put twine, string or thin wire between them and then train the vines up and they will eventually attach and continue growing upwards. that will be another possible sun-light blocking issue, so plan ahead for it.

basically, the corn and beans should be on the outer back edges to avoid blocking light. the okra also as that gets tall like the corn does.

next year, be sure to put the tomato plants in a completely different spot - they really leach nutrients out of the soil. if you want to plant in the same place next year, you'll need to amend the soil very well.

Quit a brave undertaking if you've never done it. Are you the one having the baby?

I love okra but it takes up a lot of room too and can be difficult to cut if not placed far enough apart.

My mom, dad and sis have done big gardens before, but don't have as much time as I do for planning and such. They will be there for help though this is my project this year. I've also got my nephew (who lives with my parents) for big manual labor jobs :) My niece-in-law is the one who is pregnant. And I'm ok with it not going exactly as I hope. I will learn in any event LOL!

So maybe swap the okra and the zukes?



The beans are a bush bean and stay pretty low. I think last year Mom planted them kind of in a long, low, wide hill 2-3 plants wide. I'll have to ask her, but they did wonderfully for her. Beans and maters is all that got planted last year.



I knew that corn was a huge food sucker, but not tomatoes. Good to know, though the corn is going where the tomatoes were last year. We are extending the plot by a good bit from last year, but it has all been worked before. I'm thinking we'll be going as big as the first year my sis planted out there, but not sure.

I plant blue lake bush beans and they don't take up a lot of space.

Wow...Joclyn thanks for taking the time to work that up! I kind of did my original mirrored but the corn will be along the north/east edge. The way the property lays it doesn't work to do a straight north->south plot. My plans are to lay down a nice thick bed of straw for pathways as we have a hay loft full of it. I also dug around in the chicken house today and found all of our stakes and cages for the tomatoes. The plot has been worked once and I'll work it again mid-week if the weather holds. Next weekend things start going in! I'm so excited!!!

I've never seen borage around here. I may look for it. It sounds like a neat thing to plant. I will plant some marigolds and nasturtiums though. The nasturtiums bring in the good buggies from what I'm reading. Knock wood we generally don't have too much of a problem with anything but the dreaded Japanese Beetles. Late in the season grasshoppers come out to play, but most years aren't too destructive.

Dragging back through my brain on the corn. I *think* it sucks nitrogen out of the ground at alarming rates. Yup...just checked through wiki and it makes a comment about rotating with a nitrogen fixing crop such as soybeans, alfalfa or winter wheat. Of course that is field corn, but they are similar.

As to the okra...have you ever had it? It is really good fried. I'm a true southern girl at heart. I'm near drooling over the thought of a meals like 'mater sandwiches with mushy overcooked green beans and fried okra. Who needs meat when that is waiting for you? I also make a stew-y kind of dish from okra, tomatoes, onions and bell peppers to serve over rice.

I don't know that I've ever had any other variety home grown. People down here are pretty die hard with the blue lakes LOL! I figure if that many generations of gardeners have put in blue lakes, it must work here.

You can still plant turnips. It says in this catalog that turnips and rutabagas germinate from 50-80 degrees. Rutabagas are planted in July so they are frosted before eating. Not sure about turnips. I like rutabagas and parsnips but not turnips.
Good luck on your garden! It definitely helps the produce budget. I plan on selling my extra stuff right to the grocery produce manager.

I love okra and have planted it several years in a row. We decided not this year because it takes so much room. My garden gets full sun and the plants get tall and grow out too. I'm just not sure you'll have the space.

Joclyn is really good at researching this. She helped me out with my daughter not long ago.

Sheri...its ok if the okra gets huge. I'm feeling really laid back about the garden. If it flops, I'm out a buck or two in seeds. If I get a batch to fry up, I'm thrilled. If it tries to take over, it may find its way into the compost pile. The thicker they grow, the less room for weeds right? :)

I do my okra on an out side roll then I can cut from the outside