A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Whats in your veggie garden?

Well on my ten year plan for the garden this year is all about the veggie garden. I'm currently adding compost to the tiers I built last year. And getting ready to plant the cool weather crops, lettuce, radishes, cauliflower...

So what are you planning for this years veggie garden, enquiring minds want to know. This is my first year doing a veggie garden so I want to hear it all.

I thought you were planting fruit trees insead of vegetables.

Thanks to dear old uncle sam and the wells fargo financial national bank I won't be purchasing the fruit trees.

So the veggie garden will go on unhindered.

If I can get some ground ready I might be planting radishes, lettuce and potatoes soon.

right now theres about 2 feet of snow where I will be putting my veggie garden.

Well, I am also very new to gardening. I am pretty much clueless as to what I am doing.
I have had a garden before and had the on hand help from a friend, but I had to spend 2 weeks away and NOBODY took care of it. Needless to say it all went to the weeds. My friend had me doing some strange kind of gardening mixing everything up and planting viney plants in with the corn..something about keeping deer out of it because they dont like to walk in the vines.
This year I don't want to do that strange garden, I want everything in their nice neat rows where I know what everything is and where.
So far I am planing on: green beans, corn, onions, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, brocoli, green peppers, cucumbers, and some melons.

My current problem is that I am not sure how much to plant since I don't know how many quarts each type of plant will yield. The only things I DON'T plan on freezing or canning are the cucumbers and melons.

Somewhere back in the archives is a post about how much an average person will probably use fresh. About the only thing I remember is that you multiply it by 4 if you are going to can. I wish I could help you.

Today the top tier of the veggie garden got filled with compost and top soil nicely mixed and planted with swiss chard. Then I watered with a plant food water soluable solution. I used 40 gallons of compost on the tier so I'm of course expecting wonderful things.

It looks like I may have enough compost to turn my clay into perfect garden soil. I've got my fingers crossed anyway.

Well today I went to work on tier two. It got it's own 40 gallons of compost and then top soil mixed in. This one is for succession planting radishes. I planted the 1st third of the tier today. I used the same watering mixture as for the swiss chard.

With the warm weather that hit us yesterday and today most of the snow is gone, and the ground is soft, so I'm hoping to get the area I want to turn in to a veggie garden weeded and the soil turn over so that next week when it freezes again it will kill off some of the insects and their eggs that have been hiding in the soil.

I hope you were able to get all the work done you had planned.

I started my sweet and hot peppers inside and they have sprouted, yea!

I also have my first sprout up on the tomatoes. I'm really excited about this. I hope to be able to plant both the peppers and the tomatoes outside come April 15th.

All of my tiers are now mixed compost and garden soil so they are ready to go.

No the weather tricked me, thursday and friday were awesome weather and saturday everything froze over again. We're back at a few inches of snow on the ground. But I will be getting seeds soon to start inside. I'll probably start them around mid March, most things I can't put outside till the May long weekend. Always a risk of frost.

My radishes sprouted yesterday! I only planted 5 so far and will plant 5 more in a couple weeks. I'm the only one in my house who cares for them. My carrots have begun to sprout also! I'll plant more of them as well!

I also have cherry tomatos, jalapenos, sweet onions, purple onions, garlic, and red potatoes in my garden this year. I've planted cucumbers that are just now peaking their cheerful leaves above the soil! The only things left I'd like to add are zuchini, and a special indeterminate variety of roma tomatos I can't wait to try!

tkhooper your tiered veggie garden sounds amazing! I would love to see how you put that together! I bet it's impressive!

Happy gardening!

I wouldn't say impressive lol. My mother would have called it junky. But I like it and the price is right.



It's hilarious to me that you can never see the slope in pictures. It's actually quite steep.

The picture doesn't show the tires that are farther up where I'll plant the peppers and tomatoes this year.

NICE!!! Not at all junky! And it sounds like your reusing stuff as well (the cut down trees and the tires) which is always a plus! If u were closer I'd offer u 4 more tires for ur growing pleasure. I used them for planting potatos last year but the hubby didn't like the look of it. This year I switched to plastic containers instead for my spuds.

BTW I grew up in Virginia! Fall and spring are GORGEOUS there! Enjoy the beautiful changes in the seasons and keep us posted on the progress of ur garden!

That's interesting I was wondering if I could use the tires for potatoes but I couldn't quite visualize it. I'll keep it in mind if I find more tires. I am looing for 4 more tires so that I can have 6 pepper plants and 6 tomato plants but it didn't work out that way so far.

You'll have to let me know how well they do in plastic containers.

I do love having all four seasons although summers are a little warmer than I would like them to be. Anything over 80 and I wilt. I'm a transplanted Virginian but now I wouldn't live anywhere else. I was born in Washington State.

HAHA! Well, considering it's already in the 70's here and it's barely March I wouldn't recomend Florida for you! I'm a fan of the warm weather myself. That's why I transplanted from VA to the Sunshine state. But Daffodils will forever remind me of springtime in Virginia!

Potatos did well in tires for me. Instead of "hilling" them you just add another tire to the stack and fill it with more soil. Makes for a great space saver too.

So wish u were closer cause u r more than welcome to these 4 tires I've got! Oh well.

TK I love the use of the logs for tiers. Its looking good.

Crystal - If its in the 70's in March I don't think I could handle summer there. Inside my house isn't even that warm at this time of year.

I'm hoping to get the weeds out of the veggie garden area this weekend, their calling for highs of 9 C (about 48 F)

Well I've planted the second group of radishes. These are a red oriental variety. I'll be interested in how they taste.

Wow Shani, weeding in 48 degree weather. Your a better woman than I am. I need the med 50's before I can get out there.

The next thing I'm going to plant is some romaine lettuce. The seeds are a couple of years old but I've got my fingers crossed.

Then I'm looking for kholrobi seeds.

no snow but l;ots of water--the opnly way I get to plant cool weather plants is to container garden up close to teh house---I wil be doing so in a few weeks.--I am not a cold weather gardener either. 50's you say Shani ?? wow
TK I am with you on the numbers...

When the sun is out its easy to beside in that weather, at least till the wind comes up. The area designated for veggies was left to the weeds for a long time (I think at least from the looks of a few shrubby things in it) I want to get them out before they decide to wake up.

Definitely the easier way to go.

oh I agree. But with me the guy who built this house must have scraped a layer of top soil form my back yard--the land on either side is higher--so I cannot get to my veggie garden area until sometime in may. I have learend to prepare it as much as possible in the fall, as there is little to no early spring work to be cone on it.
DH keeps saying he will get his friend to bring in more soil to fill the area in but I can see that only causing trouble for the storage shed we have in front of my garden area.

ah well Thank the Lord for container gardening.

subsoil. That is a joy. Do you know what it's made up of? Clay, hardpan, rocks? I find that were I put my compost pile even poor soil becomes rich over a couple of years.

I've been told (haven't had a chance to try it that adding gypsum to soil helps to break down the clay though it is a slow (2-3 year) process

Thank you both. but we are talking such a large area here---But you both have a point---I myself could do a small area each year---thanks for the idea--I appreciate it.

( gee here is another place where an "edit" button would have helped)
I see I did not explain completely.
since it was so low in the back, my DH made me a raised bed for my neggies, and one up by the house for my flowers.--They are not fancy--The veggie garden is only 8 by 10 feet or so--DH used like 2 by 6 boards or so high. but in it was put manure good topsoil.--but to get to it is a mess----that is my problem--but as you have made me realize--I could fix a small area that surrounds it each year---so eventually I could get back to it sooner.

again I thank you both.

Just spent about 6 hours in my garden. I have the start of a cold, and the weather was "nasty" with gusty winds to probably 40 mph and rain clouds lurking in the distance. My boss and bf (one in the same person) said that I could stay home - I wonder if he thought I'd stay on the couch!

Ha! I have a rototiller but decided that I don't like to walk on mushy ground between my potatoes so I left a path and dug two rows by hand, which is a good way to relieve frustration (I will explain later). I planted my Ozette fingerlings in 5 potato hills, in two rows and will add two more rows in a few weeks so that I have successive potatoes. By the way, Ozettes are a wild cultivar and don't freeze if you plant them deep enough, and usually overwinter in the same spot just fine. This is a type of potato that you can plant and leave and it will be back in the spring. I have two spots I left hilled from last fall. If anyone wants any while I planting I would love to do a trade on the seeds and cuttings forum here - what I have left over is seed potato.

Then I planted the daffodils I got for my mom (reason for frustration - she died in January and I'm still trying to probate her house) around the roses I planted that she would have loved - they are the red that turn yellow and pink. I added some of my favorite purple and white iris behind and in front of the new rose bushes. I have yet to go through my seedpile (or heap rather) to find suitable additions. I have pink poppy seed that will work and some painted daisy seed that I just learned can be scattered throughout the garden to deter pests. I knew there was a reaon I loved them!

I cleaned up the spent Kosha weed (this stuff grows about 10' tall) from my onions and planted a fresh row of onion seed with my overwintered onion sets.
Then proceeded to uncover the overwintered garlic. I did not mean to overwinter either the garlic or the onions, but life's circumstances last year forced me to. I was going to school, working, and trying to look after my mom. Now I am still working and trying to go school again and probate the house. The weather was "perfect."

Two weeks ago I planted fava beans and mixed lettuce. Additions will be more potatoes, oriental carrots (round ones) and other shallow carrots, peas, cowpeas, black beans, spinach, black Spanish radishes, blue Hopi corn (drought tolerant), and an early SE corn or two. I also love and use medicinal herbs and will plant some comfrey, arnica, elecampagne, mints, bee and lemon balm. Licroice and lime basils might get planted this year too. I just learned about mixing herbs and flowers for pest repellents and will probably mix the lemon balm, painted daisy, sunflowers, sweet marjoram (spelling) and a couple of others and spread them around. Also thought about putting in a row of buckwheat.

The garden area is probably as big as some back yards, but I have an acre past the cross fence to play in too if I beg nicely. I hope to move into a place that is ours - we are in "his" and "hers" right now.

Hey Lorena it's great to hear from you. I'm loving all the things you are doing in your garden. Try not to over burden yourself. From what I understand in the old days when I was young probate took about 18 months on average.

I've tried growing potatoes in tires twice and haven't had good luck. I'm not sure what I do incorrectly. I have great success growing them the old fashioned way.

Stayed home from work because of bad weather and worked in the garden. My kind of girl Lorena.

I bought 16 heads of romaine lettuce and planted them yesterday. I also planted the last wave of radishes. I have some of the first wave sprouted so far and I'm looking forward to those. None of the Swiss Chard has sprouted. I'll have to see how long it is suppose to take.

What will you do with all that lettuce?

Going to have a bit of everything.
Currently have mostly tomatoes.

Well some for me, some for my neighbor, some for sharon and then some for the group in altavista.