My no work, money saving vegetable garden.

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Kim~ Those plants are mostly vine plants and can cover a pretty good bit if ground. If you don't have a lot of room, you can attach them to a trellis, I would't do it vertically, gently sloped so the friut cas something to rest on and not strain the vine.

Pam~ There are a lot of different garden soils available. Top soil is a pretty dense, nutrient rich soil; composted manure and hummus manure mixtures are fairly similiar, they contain broken down and sterilized cow pies and other organic products that improve the nutrient content of the soil. There is peat moss which helps retain moisture and helps balance out the dense soils. Scotts and Miracle Grow have gardening or potting soils which may or may not have inorganic ingredients in them to acheive a balance of nutrition, water retention and density. One thing to be wary of is fill dirt. This may have rocks and very little nutritional content in it. It's good to fill in large areas but you have to add at least 50% of other soils that will nuture your plants.

 

[toledo13]

subbing!

 

[MomofCKJ]

We just reread this thread and DH is going to get lumber for it this week and build us one! I'm excited!

Not sure what to do about the soil though. Bring some in from our woods? Have some delivered? Buy bags and mix it with the dirt from the woods?

Allyson

 

[Green Tea]

I planted seeds in mine this weekend. Now GROW!

 

[billwendy]

Hi Everyone!

Happy Planting!

We are going to try the "bucket" garden this year!! Do you put holes in the buckets for drainage ? also, do you mix in peat moss or something to help retain some water?

I have a very large patch of ivy in my yard - will any thing grow amoungst that? or would it wreck the ivy or would it not grow because of the ivy????

Thanks! Wendy

 

[Goofyzgurl]

We made a raised bed and planted some veggies!!! I'm so excited. I've been wanting to do this forever!!! I had to put a little fence around it b/c I would hate to see the dog dig up my veggies so she can find a cool place to lie even though she has plenty of room in the yard and under the porch too. I just got 4 untreated 8x8's so i didn't have to do any cutting. They're growing too!

 

[Green Tea]

When I first started with my bed built a month or so ago I was throwing fruit and vegetable scraps on top of the dirt to eventually break down in the lower layers of dirt for nutrients. My dog saw me putting things in there. She discovered it was fun to jump in on a treasure hunt.. My dog ate my compost pile.

 

[billwendy]

 

[pampam]

We just reread this thread and DH is going to get lumber for it this week and build us one! I'm excited!

Not sure what to do about the soil though. Bring some in from our woods? Have some delivered? Buy bags and mix it with the dirt from the woods?

Allyson

or D all of the above

 

[pampam]

I just weeded my garden. It took all of 4 minutes, and that was mostly admiring it.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

I don't know why this thread didn't pop up in my user cp!

We've gotten cukes from our vertical garden! I agree, it's easy to weed

 

[Malibelle]

I just found this thread. We make raised beds this year. This is our first attempt at any type of garden. Its so easy. We did get alot of rain lately in the northeast so that has helped alot. We already got broccoli, right now we have tons of tomatoes growing, they should be ready in a few weeks, Surgar snaps are growing like crazy, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, tomatillos, herbs and lettuce which is almost done.

Here are some pictures of ours.

Surgar snaps on the trellis

Tomatillos are blooming:

Cucumbers and Zuccini are starting to get bigger:

Tomatoes in teh back are getting really tall.I hope the cage holds up.

Beef steak Tomatoes

Patio Tomatoes

 

[pampam]

I loved your pictures. Thanks. It looks like you do square foot gardening. I've never tried that. My beds are about 20" high, so I don't get any weeds, and those I find, I don't have to bend to pick. Like you, I plant just about every inch. I don't need rows, because I don't need to till for weeds.

 

[disneymarie]

Our garden is growing, no one planted snap peas for me and I am sad. I do not have raised bed. The giant sun flowers and giant pumpkins are growing hugly.

What I am happy about this week is the one thing I have no control over, the wild berries. Huckleberries and blackberries are nearly ripe. Yesterday there were enough for dgs to have a beautiful purple face and hands

I an in the NE and yes so much rain, no heat....
We did something new and the son planted corn so I am interested in seeing that result. Years ago on the farm before we built we had almost an acre of corn,

My impatiens do not like the rain and lack of sun.
OH, the Wilkes Barre farmers market opened! The variety there is always great!!!!
di

 

[pampam]

My garden is doing great. Except the yellow beans are being eaten by the chipmunks.Oh well, at least they are leaving the green beans alone.

 

[CTdiznymom]

Our garden is doing great. We bought a resin raised bed online (it would have taken forever for us to get our act together and build one) so it will last forever. It took us only a few hours to put it together and get the soil in. I think we planted a little too early in May and then we got hit with some cold weather and tons of rain. We planted: radish, 2 types of lettuce, cherry tomatos, beef steak and early girl tomatos, bush beans and peppers. We've picked most of the lettuces, and 2 servings of beans so far along with a few radishes. Can't wait for the tom. to come in. We've really enjoyed the garden and have learned some tips thru trial and error! Thanks OP for getting us started!

 

[pampam]

I thought my garden was finished for the season. Frost got to the swiss chard and tomatos. I didn't harvest all my carrots, but put a heavy layer of leaves on top, so I can have fresh carrots in the spring. We will see. Anyway, I looked at the garden yesterday, and my swiss chard is doing great! I thought it was dead! Whodathunk I'd be eating from my garden going into November!

 

[CTdiznymom]

This is wierd....I was looking at the garden this am thinking that the swiss chard was dead, and I was just talking to DH as he was outside putting the patio furniture away and the swiss card was standing tall and looking great! We'll be closing it up as soon as I pick the last of it.

What does everyone do with their raised beds to get them thru the winter? I don't want it to turn into a big litter box for all the neighborhood critters. LOL

Should I cover it with leaves and then cover it over with a board or something? I really enjoyed the garden but I'm still really clueless!

 

[pampam]

I don't do anything with mine. I tried to put compost in it, but it attracted animals which of course it would. My husband saw their tracks in the snow and forbid me to put compost in it again, so now for compost I only put in tea and coffee because he thinks it's dirt. Leaves are great for the garden, but they will not compost thouroughly over the winter, and you will have to remove them in the spring. I put leaves over my carrots to act as insulation over the winter to save my carrots, but you know, you have given me an idea. After I harvest my swiss chard, I'm going to put leaves over the chard plants as well. They sertainly seem hardy, and I may even have swiss chard in the spring too!

 

[pampam]

I thought my garden was finished for the season. Frost got to the swiss chard and tomatos. I didn't harvest all my carrots, but put a heavy layer of leaves on top, so I can have fresh carrots in the spring. We will see. Anyway, I looked at the garden yesterday, and my swiss chard is doing great! I thought it was dead! Whodathunk I'd be eating from my garden going into November!

Well, I dug up my carrots, but most of them were spoiled. I thought it was because there was too much moisture (my raised bed garden is on the back wall of our garage, and the rains run directly off the roof onto the garden). However, I was told it was because we didn't get enough snow to act as insulation. The most we ever had all winter long was 2 feet.

Anyway, the frost is completely out of the ground, even though we live in Northern Ontario, and I am just itching to start planting, again.