Doing a veggie garden, last year redemption?

J

Just fooling

Well-Known Member
Hello everyone, putting a veggie garden in again this year. Last year I had mostly a bad time and got behind on the weeds, took to much on and had a month of rain which drowned everything. And rabbits that ate everything.

Anyhow got her tilled today and have started making raised beds out of some wood I have around. I figure the raised beds may help as my garden area can be wet with to much rain.

Last year anything in a mound, raised bed or pot did well and everything in the ground struggled. So I've been building the wooden raised beds.

These are pics of my strawberries and asparagus beds I did last year. Both are still living at least. The asparagus I was told I would have to wait 3 years before picking it. Anyone have experience with growing it?

I will post my new beds tomorrow and try to keep a small garden journal in case any care to follow. Help is appreciated if you have any pointers. Veggie gardening besides tomatoes is all pretty new to me.
 

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Dawe... sweet poochie


Asparagus is grown for slips, like a tall growing edible grass. You're best off getting a bunch and planting it. The more mature the original plant the faster the slips will appear. But that'd still take a year. They can be transplanted of you have to move residences before you're satisfied with them. They're pretty long livers anyway.

I do only raised beds but i see droughts quite often in my area. I contour the slope of the land I'm on to increase the amount of captured water so i don't get channelling and erosion when it does rain. By contouring along the hill horizontally i get "steps" of raised beds. I dig the isles out and.toss the dirt upwards on top of the bed higher up. My beds and up being 12-24inches tall and i try and keep them about 10yards longs. The bed cannot flood now and, assuming the top is level, it won't channel water. Wood is nice aestheticly but not necessary since you'll be tilling your bed again. Simply raising it does the ticket. And termites like gardens since they remain damp.
 
Thanks for the reply and you've given me a good idea as well. I'm on a small slope as well And was going to put the boxes going up and down with the slope. But your idea would be better as I can see the water channelling like you said. Thanks!

Where I live we can have weeks of rain or total drought you never can tell. I was planning on watering from my pond but have yet to buy a pump.

Since I had a bunch of old treated wood around I made the boxes. Filling them is going to take some time. The local farmers are all getting hit up for free soil and compost today. I will do some mounds as well for zucchini, squash and cucumbers. I had good luck with all three of those last summer.

If I may ask how wide do you make your boxes? I did some at 14". They seem narrow but I only need them big enough for beans, peas, peppers maybe try some onions. Mine are only 12" tall. And the ones I did last summer only 8".
 
Here are the ones I did yesterday. I will till once again before placing them. The square ones I thought may work good for tomatoes? Last year my tomatoes in the ground all got the blight early. I had some in big pots that did 100% fine? Not certain what went wrong. I had thought maybe all the rain e had?
 

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Just fooling said:
Hello everyone, putting a veggie garden in again this year. Last year I had mostly a bad time and got behind on the weeds, took to much on and had a month of rain which drowned everything. And rabbits that ate everything.

Anyhow got her tilled today and have started making raised beds out of some wood I have around. I figure the raised beds may help as my garden area can be wet with to much rain.

Last year anything in a mound, raised bed or pot did well and everything in the ground struggled. So I've been building the wooden raised beds.

These are pics of my strawberries and asparagus beds I did last year. Both are still living at least. The asparagus I was told I would have to wait 3 years before picking it. Anyone have experience with growing it?

I will post my new beds tomorrow and try to keep a small garden journal in case any care to follow. Help is appreciated if you have any pointers. Veggie gardening besides tomatoes is all pretty new to me.
Click to expand...
yup cant pick for 3 yrs then ya go to go 25-30 yrs,i got some coming up now c if I can get pic up
 
Hmm, maybe I should have made mine wider. I have more I was going to make but now am thinking of doing big mounds. Maybe my small ones will be fine for beans and peas? Should I make them wider you guys think? Or would 14" wide by 12" tall work for smaller plants like beans and peas? Then do big nice mounds like yours iHearall for the larger plants.

I did just get 5 yards of nice horse manure compost from my neighbor I plan to mix that in with my native soil before I till again. It looks like black gold.

Do you guys use any sort of garden fabric or plastic? Everyone has been telling me to get some. Last year I used cheap fabric and the weeds grew through. So I'd pay for good stuff. The kids volunteered last summer to pull weeds but after a week lost interest.
 
nah pull weeds, it'll give you the chance to pay close attention to your crops and give you something to compost. if your mound is too narrow you may not have enough surface area to let the water permeate into the soil. The wooden beds will work great if you plant right down the center. i would recommend insect netting but that is a bit of an investment and needs a "skeleton" to cover. Also, you'll have to move it every day when you water. i had netting on my entire garden over spring while the plants were young but i removed it now that the weather is really hot and i have my companion crops in place.
 
Yea I wish for netting but I just priced cheap fencing to put around it and between the posts and fencing it won't be cheap. At least it should last many years.

You must live somewhere warm. We just had some snow flurries here two days back. June 1st is the typical time we have last chance of frost here. North east US.
 
Got some work done tonight. Late start for sure. Just been so busy.

Planted to raised beds with green and yellow beans. Put some tomatoes and some peppers in as well. Have squash, zucchini, onions, more tomatoes and cucumbers to plant tomorrow night.

I realized I'm almost a month behind my garden last summer. Not a good start.
 

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My strawberries are doing great. I planted them last yr And they have loads of berries growing now. And many blooms. It should be a good harvest.
 

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Made a few more raised beds and made a bunch of mounds. The mounds are pure compost. Its several years old. The beds are pretty much 50/50 with compost and topsoil. I added 8cu ft of perlite I had sitting around but it didn't go far.

In the new beds today I planted radishes and onions. Have another bed and half to fill with something. One I made large and square. What to put in that? As you can see garden design is not in my best skill. I'm already being hassoled over my waste of space by friends.

My mounds are far apart it seems? Last yr I made them closer and they were a tangled mess. I had hoped by making more room I'd clean it up a bit. We'll see how it goes.

So in the mounds are cucumbers, squash, melons, and zucchini.
 

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Here are the garden helpers. The reason I need a fence. Besides last yr the rabbits. I killed 13 in 7 days last yr in my lawn. Even ate a couple. Wasn't as good as I thought they would be but I felt like it was a waste to just kill them.
 

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In case anyone is wondering why I'm using all this wood it is just reclaimed treated wood. Been sitting around for to long and it has been painted before. The only good use was for this type of project. I wouldn't go buy new wood just to make a garden I don't care for proper.

Well this is the yr things are going to go well.
 

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@iHearAll- I'm interested in what types of companion plants you use? Last year I planted marigolds I had heard they keep insects at bay. They looked well if not anything else. I've some sunflowers and mixed wildflowers in seed packs but not sure if I should plant them alongside the rest of the crops?

Also I hear a lot about comprey (spl) and it is good for cannabis as well but I know nothing more besides that. I asked for it and was told it was a weed? I didn't get any farther into researching it more.
 
i use that weed guard stuff that they sell at lowes or home depot. not super cheap, but it's well worth it.. weeds will start to grow through it by the end of the season, but this year i tried to over lap it a bit to cut down on weeds some more..
i also have chicken wire fence to keep the dog out, the first year i didn't have it when she was a pup, and i'd find whole tomatoes she'd pick right off of the plant out in the yard..
 
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