A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Photos of our first veggie garden!

This is our plot in an organic community garden. My husband did all the manual labor. He's awesome. My daughter and I planted our little seedlings and seeds yesterday. Crossing our fingers that we get some good results. We inherited some strawberry plants which Emily has been enjoying immensely. She wanted to try a green one in the photo below.


Still have a few more things to get going but we've got a good start I think.


IMG_2057 by bobolu1, on Flickr


IMG_2054 by bobolu1, on Flickr


IMG_2052 by bobolu1, on Flickr

That's a lovely start. Congratulations on your new garden.

Thanks! Would it be beneficial to have a cover crop in a small area like this? Buckwheat looks like a good cover crop, but maybe not for a small, shared area?

I read about using straw to cover the exposed area to keep weeds out and moisture in. Would that be better? I thought I also read, though, that the decomposing straw might remove nitrogen from the soil.

It gets very, very hot here. Any ideas?

I always use grass clippings---
BUT one has to be very careful not to use clippings that has gone to seed----
and know that you will likley have to layer it the second time---but it holds moisture in as well as keeps weeds down----

It is my favorite mulch to use

Is the garden close to your house? Will you have grass clippings? If so, that's my choice too. I would not put straw. I'm sure there is such a thing as really clean straw but last year I put straw that I was told was "clean" in one of our gardens and ended up with weeds galore. How about layering newspaper and then wetting it good to keep it in place.

and to save on trips if your garden plot is not real close to you---put down many layers of newspaper, wet it down like bestofour said & cover with the grass clippings (several inches of them if they are not dried----the newspaper will disintegrate over time & in the mean time it will cut down on the amount of grass that you need to use---the grass will hold down the newspaper---they will help each other---

Thanks! We had a great summer/fall garden and had a blast. We now have a winter garden going strong. We've made a couple new friends in the process. It's been a great experience for the whole family. This forum has been very helpful, too.

Awesome I'm glad to hear the community garden is going well. Enjoy it.