Planning a garden for this coming spring

[Frugal_Princess]

So I did 2 raised gardens (8X4) for my first time this past spring/summer and it was not a huge success
My soil was excellent, sun light was excellent, honestly all conditions were great, except my spacing was way way way off. I had 6 tomato plants in just half a raised bed so they then crowded out the rest of what was in that bed because well they didn't have room so my peppers didn't produce either
I did get many zucchini though, but they over grew so much that it killed off my cucumbers
My whole problem with the spacing issue was I honestly just didn't realize how big these plants would get.

So I started this thread for any advice that anyone can give me, any tricks anything really that can help for next spring.

I am also looking to know do I add just top soil this coming spring to the raised gardens? I did a 50/50 mixture of sheep manure and top soil when I first did the gardens.

Thank you for any advice oh and if it helps any I am in south eastern Ontario

[Mia001]

i have a small (tiny) garden just for the plaisure to eat from my garden and for fun
i only plant what i know will not need many space to produce

this year i planted 2 tomatoes little orange one and red grapes....they didn't over produced , but just enough to have some full hands
for the second time , i planted Pepper....had only one tiny :-(
ok, i know that doesn't help, so

tomato plants, you have to look for determined plants, they take less space / small tomatoes pants like the one i had also take less space ( you can even have them in a pot)

cucumbers can be planted near a fence and climb on the fence , so they take les space and i heard if you have good eart, they are very productive

also , if you like beans and peas, you don't need a good eart , they grow everywhere and you can plant them near a fence to let them climb....they produce well and some geen beans have nice red flowers.
to have a better production, you have to sow (sp?) again few times in the summer.....peas can be sow(sp?) early in the season as they don't fear freeze

hope i help

P.S. you can also search for compagnonaged (sp) plants ,those are plants that help each other in the garden
and there are also plants that cannot be planted near each other

[lecale]

I recommend Square Foot Gardening http://www.amazon.ca/Square-Foot-Gar...foot+gardening it has a ton of tips on how to garden in a small space.

You only need one zucchini plant because they produce like mad, and no more than 2-3 tomato plants.

[Frugal_Princess]

I recommend Square Foot Gardening http://www.amazon.ca/Square-Foot-Gar...foot+gardening it has a ton of tips on how to garden in a small space.

You only need one zucchini plant because they produce like mad, and no more than 2-3 tomato plants.

Hehehe I learned that about zucchini this year that is for sure lol, Thank you for the link I will check it out

[Frugal_Princess]

lecale here is a link for the first edition of that book on google books if you are interested as well

https://books.google.ca/books?id=EJV...dening&f=false

[lecale]

lecale here is a link for the first edition of that book on google books if you are interested as well

https://books.google.ca/books?id=EJV...dening&f=false

oh cool! I have someone who will like that!

[Frugalbigmama]

Will be watching the thread . We tried some pot gardening (as well as in ground) and some did well some did not. My 4 tomato plants did not do well at all. But the cherry tomatoes did well and we still have some ripening up in the house. Next year we will for sure use my mom's garden and go crazy. I want to batch cook pasta sauce etc for the freezer so will plan my items accordingly. I think I will start some seeds indoors this year to get an early start.

[ticul]

Love this thread. Thank you Frugal Princess for sharing.............................

[SnowFlakey]

Well, we got rid of our above ground swimming pool this fall, so hopefully this will be replaced with a nice garden. Ive done, what i call patio gardening for the past few years with exceptional results. I planted green onions in early spring and picked them as needed. When i picked the green onions, i always replaced with another bulb so we had green onions right up until early October. Also lettuce in containers works great. You just snip off the leaves as you need. We had lots of tomatoes (i had 6 plants) and i also had a hanging tomato plant with approximately 200 cherry tomatoes in total, which ripened gradually throughout summer, right into the end of August! I had some English cucumbers planted in a planter near the fence and we put in a trellis by the fence. The cucumber vines produced nice sized cucumbers. And the spices i had were great; nice yield throughout summer. This is patio gardening.

But in the past, in the back yard, weve also planted radish, carrots, beets, beans, peppers, zucchini and pumpkin.

To get really good results, you do need some sort of fertilizer. If you compost, then that will do the trick. If you dont, you can use processed sheep manure or you can use Miracle Grow. Processed sheep manure is best in fall when you let the earth rest. Miracle Grow you can use throughout the summer.

When we used to have the farm, we would order composted manure from the local farmer by the truckload and then spread it around on the earth in the fall before the farmer came to till with his tractor. For potatoes, we would buy special fertilizer from the local Co-Op, along with seed potatoes. Those were the good old days!

[Frugal_Princess]

Well, we got rid of our above ground swimming pool this fall, so hopefully this will be replaced with a nice garden. Ive done, what i call patio gardening for the past few years with exceptional results. I planted green onions in early spring and picked them as needed. When i picked the green onions, i always replaced with another bulb so we had green onions right up until early October. Also lettuce in containers works great. You just snip off the leaves as you need. We had lots of tomatoes (i had 6 plants) and i also had a hanging tomato plant with approximately 200 cherry tomatoes in total, which ripened gradually throughout summer, right into the end of August! I had some English cucumbers planted in a planter near the fence and we put in a trellis by the fence. The cucumber vines produced nice sized cucumbers. And the spices i had were great; nice yield throughout summer. This is patio gardening.

But in the past, in the back yard, weve also planted radish, carrots, beets, beans, peppers, zucchini and pumpkin.

To get really good results, you do need some sort of fertilizer. If you compost, then that will do the trick. If you dont, you can use processed sheep manure or you can use Miracle Grow. Processed sheep manure is best in fall when you let the earth rest. Miracle Grow you can use throughout the summer.

When we used to have the farm, we would order composted manure from the local farmer by the truckload and then spread it around on the earth in the fall before the farmer came to till with his tractor. For potatoes, we would buy special fertilizer from the local Co-Op, along with seed potatoes. Those were the good old days!

So would letting sheep manure rest over winter prevent the weeds that I seemed to get from it? Sounds like you had a very successful gardening year and I hope you get to put a garden in in replace to your pool

[Frugal_Princess]

Love this thread. Thank you Frugal Princess for sharing.............................

No problem I need as much advice as I can get when it come to gardening lol

[Frugal_Princess]

Will be watching the thread . We tried some pot gardening (as well as in ground) and some did well some did not. My 4 tomato plants did not do well at all. But the cherry tomatoes did well and we still have some ripening up in the house. Next year we will for sure use my mom's garden and go crazy. I want to batch cook pasta sauce etc for the freezer so will plan my items accordingly. I think I will start some seeds indoors this year to get an early start.

I wish I had the freezer space to do that, I am still trying to talk the hubby into getting another freezer, all we have is an apartment sized one :/

[lecale]

We use the Square Foot idea that you just mash all the plants together with no spaces. We did bush type cucumbers last year and vine type this year. The vine type took significantly more water. The bush type just threaded themselves into the tomatoes and no staking was required. I would go for bush type in a container.

We can't compost here (too much vermin, it's the city) so we just bought Miracle-Gro coir based pre-fertilized planter mix. We don't clear the container out at the end of the year because without the plant cover the squirrels will plant nuts in it and the local cats will see a toilet.

When things are young and spare we spike the bed with bamboo skewers, pointy side up, and a bag of cayenne pepper or chili powder (keeps away the mammals, that don't like the burn...but does nothing for birds). Anyway that has worked against squirrels and cats.

We start our own seeds indoors and the target date for having your act together (all your seeds, soil, trays, etc.) is March. That's only 4 months away so I traditionally use the cold months to decide (seed catalog) what to grow. I have the new Stokes catalogue and sheesh, $7 for a pack of seeds...but I have decided I want to buy the fancy seeds and not the grocery store seeds this year. E.g., I liked the way the bush cucumbers grew, but he didn't like the cukes off them 100%, so I will be looking for a new bush type cuke with blunt ends to try The other thing I can't get as seeds or a plant is grape tomatoes, and anywhere wants $5+ for that. The one year I resorted to buying 2 large PC plants at $4 each. (A small 4-pack of little plants is usually around $1.29 and I'd have to throw out half, and they'd be smaller than what I'd have if I started indoors anyway, and no place has them in "grape".) Anyway I have decided that it would be cost-effective to go ahead and use the seed catalogue this year, to get exactly what I want, and have big plants by May, and seeds for next year.

[SnowFlakey]

So would letting sheep manure rest over winter prevent the weeds that I seemed to get from it? Sounds like you had a very successful gardening year and I hope you get to put a garden in in replace to your pool

Lol, the only thing that gets rid of weeds is hard work and pulling them out!

[Frugal_Princess]

I have never heard of the cayenne pepper or chili powder but that is going to help big time, We had a cat in our garden a lot this year and it was driving me crazy, Going to do this for sure!

I live in a very big farming town and every year they have plant sales, but you have to be there about 2 hours early to get in line lol, I went to one plant sale in the town next to ours and I would swear the people there worked on commission, I bought 4 tomato plants all different kinds that I had never heard of because the lady made it sound like such a good idea lol
I have also made my mind up to just buy what I want or will use

I am so blown away how much there is to learn about gardening, and blown away about all the different kinds of things there are, I always was thankful to farmers but goodness they have their hands full :/