new to gardening.

[jjordan2840]

I put out a small garden to test the waters with the kids. It is there responsibility ot take care of it this year. I'm building a house, so not much spare time for me. My question is, how big of one to go with next year when I can put some effort forth as well? We are a family of four. We would just like to supplement now, and eventually get it to be our main source. Any ideas or suggestions of what to grow, look for, or tips are greatly welcomed.

 

[Electronrider]

Grow a little bit every year. Once you get to the point that your garden is producing more than you can eat at a time, then you will have to get into canning or other food preservation methods.

Make time to help the kids with the garden. If you do not, then it will probably go to weeds and get chocked out, letting everyone down so to speak. Establish from the start that this is a family chore that you can all do together.

Find yourself a good sized part of your property that gets full sun all day long. Some time later this summer, make time to till up what you will be gardening next season. This gives time for all the dormant seeds to sprout, so you can till a couple more times this fall, and have better ground for when you start in earnest next season. A 25 foot square is a great start. this is plenty of garden for you to start out on, IMHO.

You can grow just about anything you want in Indiana, stuff like peppers and tomatoes need to be started indoors ahead of time for best results. Get over to the Purdue extension office, it is on 52, just past the mall as your headed south, on the right (west) side of the road. They are a wealth of information, and can help get you started.

Good luck, gardening certainly has a learning curve, but is one of my favorite chores to do around the house.

 

[Expat]

Electron gives pretty good advice. I have about 3500 sq ft and it takes a lot of time for a guy with a full time job. I put on an hour or two most days. During big planting days and then during harvest I will put in several full days. So,e crops just use a lot of space so what you grow affects how much space. I have 3 rows of potatoes so there is about 600 sq ft. Corn takes up space too but it wouldn't be a garden to me without it. Peas and beans bear a lot for the space they use, as do tomatoes and peppers.

 

[Loco179]

Here is a good site for a new style of gardening.

Permies: a big crowd of permaculture goofballs

Here is a link for a podcast on this style of gardening.

Designing Small Scale Forest Gardens | The Survival Podcast

Permaculture is all about building a system. I have already started converting beds and new plantings to different styles.

 

[jjordan2840]

Thanks for all your input. I had to spend sometime yesterday getting rid of the weeds. My kids arent keeping their end of the deal, but thats nothing new.

 

[Imeagher]

A lot of good advice. Just don't go so big that its no longer enjoyable, unless you make the kids do the weeding. We have made ours larger with rows farther apart so a tiller can be ran between rows. So much easier than pulling weeds. Good luck

 

[Big-Bear1991]

I just came in from pulling the weeds in mine...why didn't I read the part about leaving enough room for my tiller earlier??? I second that thought...great advice!

 

[jjohnisme]

Here is a good site for a new style of gardening.

Permies: a big crowd of permaculture goofballs

Here is a link for a podcast on this style of gardening.

Designing Small Scale Forest Gardens | The Survival Podcast

Permaculture is all about building a system. I have already started converting beds and new plantings to different styles.

+1 for Spirko's work. Been listening since 08 and his permaculture advice is unmatched.

 

[BigMatt]

We have made ours larger with rows farther apart so a tiller can be ran between rows. So much easier than pulling weeds.

The best advice you could take. Nobody in my family listens to me when I tell them to do it and they all have tons of weeds in their gardens.

My old 78 year old neighbor with one lung does it like this and he only has to do some light hoeing to get in between the plants.

 

[Rikkrack]

I know long ago thread, but use deep mulch. It not only retains water, but chokes out weeds. I usually don't weed my garden. Tilling is very bad for the soil. I did it for years until I took my permaculture course. Never will again.

 

[snorko]

A few years ago I turned an area of patio into a garden. Pulled up the pavers and removed much of the sand and very compacted clay soil underneath. Had a few yards of river bottom top soil delivered and built the raised beds below. Roughly a 14'x16' area and grew a tone of stuff. The three lower beds were each made with two 8'x10" boards cut in half with a couple 2"x2" stakes in the corners to anchor them.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I've been gardening for probably 20 years and there are some things I do pretty much the same as I ever did, but many things I do much differently based on what I've learned. The best advice, I think, is to get out there and do it the best way you know, but don't be afraid to experiment. If you do everything the same every year, you'll not likely learn as much as you will if you mix it up.

For example, one year I was planting tomato plants, picking off the leaves and planting them deep, like I had been told by many others, with the idea that if you plant them deep, the plant will send out many more roots all along the now buried stem. I decided to alternate my 30 plants, planting some at the same depth that were in the pot and some deep. I did the same thing for several years and I never saw an appreciable difference in the growth or productivity of the plants. Digging some up at the end of the season, I found that the original roots at the bottom of the plant were very well developed, but the new roots that grew out of the former stem were rather thin and not nearly as thick or long as the original roots. I still plant them both ways, but I don't think it makes much difference. I've learned many other things that do seem to make a big difference with tomatoes, but planting depth doesn't so much.

 

[PistolBob]

We don't weed. Once the plants are in the ground and have a week or two of hardening, I lay the rows with newspaper, two or three sheets thick. Then when we cut the yard we put the grass on top of the papers. It's a great mulch, the worms love it, as the grass and paper is composted into the ground, just ad another layer. Or you can buy that plastic roll much stuff, but I hate having to pick it up and dispose of it. Don't forget the lime.

 

[Cozy439]

Thanks PistolBob. Have often heard about the MULCH IDEA for gardens but I do not have a large source of readily available mulch. I do have newspapers delivered daily and the grass clippings are the most abundant during planting time. Do you have an issue with weed seeds (dandelions etc) from the grass clippings? Also, what about the lime? I like a slice with my CC&7.

 

[Rikkrack]

Call tree trimming places, your power company. Both look for places to dump and are very glad to dump in your driveway for free. They usually have to pay to dump it places. I am getting 3 truckloads from IPL this year. Roughly the size of a mini-van each dump for FREE. Lime will change the pH of your soil and make it go way too high. May end up killing plants.

Grass does work, but if you spray or your neighbors spray (overcast/downhill runoff) for weeds/bugs that may end up in your garden too. Also only use newspaper, not glossy inserts/magazines. Toxic chemicals leach into the soil and are accumulated by your plants. All parts of the dandelion are edible. And you can make dandelion wine. But dandelions present in your yard is an indication that the soil is too compacted, but they do bring up nutrients from deeper under the soil and break up the compaction if left. Adding mulch can also decompact soil because mycelium and worms will break up the soil under them mulch over time.

Permaculture has taught me many things I was ignorant about for the first 25 years of gardening and blew me away on other things. Glad to share more. I am a certified PDC consultant through Geoff Lawton.

 

[Aejsl]

Great advice. Gardens are like anything else. You get out what you put in. If you are planting a big garden plan on spending a lot of time. Start smaller and grow steady each year.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Thanks PistolBob. Have often heard about the MULCH IDEA for gardens but I do not have a large source of readily available mulch. I do have newspapers delivered daily and the grass clippings are the most abundant during planting time. Do you have an issue with weed seeds (dandelions etc) from the grass clippings? Also, what about the lime? I like a slice with my CC&7.

I'm also a firm believer in using mulch to keep weeds down. I've used newspaper, grass clippings, straw, wood chips, and plastic. I don't like to roto-till any more than is necessary to break up the ground in the spring. The clay soil at my place isn't conducive to roto-tilling unless the moisture is just right. Also, I don't like to waste the space planting stuff so far apart. AND, I'm one of those strange people for whom hand-pulling weeds is actually quality time.

As far as the need for lime is concerned, it's variable. My soil pH is OK without using lime, but I know others need to add lime to raise the pH of acid soils. I'm lucky and have a nice pH meter and probe for work, but I bet you could get a cheapie pH test kit any place that has garden supplies.

 

[Katana1]

I put out a small garden to test the waters with the kids. It is there responsibility ot take care of it this year. I'm building a house, so not much spare time for me. My question is, how big of one to go with next year when I can put some effort forth as well? We are a family of four. We would just like to supplement now, and eventually get it to be our main source. Any ideas or suggestions of what to grow, look for, or tips are greatly welcomed.

Start small and make small mistakes. You can start in as little as 10 sq. ft. You can always expand a little at a time. The more gardening experience you get, the better will be your garden and it will take less work to get there.

 

[Cameramonkey]

We don't weed. Once the plants are in the ground and have a week or two of hardening, I lay the rows with newspaper, two or three sheets thick. Then when we cut the yard we put the grass on top of the papers. It's a great mulch, the worms love it, as the grass and paper is composted into the ground, just ad another layer. Or you can buy that plastic roll much stuff, but I hate having to pick it up and dispose of it. Don't forget the lime.

We do this. I have a 200 square garden, and I hardly do ANY weeding. LOVE IT!

Start small and make small mistakes. You can start in as little as 10 sq. ft. You can always expand a little at a time. The more gardening experience you get, the better will be your garden and it will take less work to get there.

Ive been gardening here in my home (many years prior with my parents) for 10 years. every year I try at least 2 new crops to see what grows. Play around. Have fun.

And I found a 50/50 topsoil/composted manure mix from Greendell is DA BOMB! Expanded the raised garden this year, and everywhere I filled with this stuff the plants grew 20% faster, and the soil was looser than the clay crap I've been composting with yard waste every fall. Getting another yard and a half this fall to cover EVERYTHING and bury my old soil in preparation for next year. We have a raised bed, but its not very raised today. (just surrounded by timbers) We are slowly adding quality soil over time so as not to break the bank (or our backs).


The important part is to have fun with it. Experiment. And dont let failures get ya. I tried Celery for the hell of it. Didnt even germinate. I also laid down 14' of beets. MAYBE 8 seeds actually germinated. Thinking it was a bad package as our soil normally does awesome with beets.

 

[Pami]

Also when you're planning your crops, look into companion planting. I really like the book "One Magic Square" by Lolo Houbein, but there are a ton of resources that talk about it. A good example of companion planting is the traditional "three sisters" plot of corn, beans, and squash. Plant the corn, let it get about five inches high, then plant a bean next to each stalk. Put squash out for about every four corn/bean plants and let them crawl on the ground. The beans will use the corn as stakes to climb on so you don't have to stake the beans, and the beans provide nitrogen for the nutrient-hungry corn. The squash makes a good ground cover, so there isn't much weeding going on. Plant a marigold here and there to attract the squash beetles to keep them off your squash.

There are other things that make really good companions. Tomatoes and basil work really well together. Make sure you plant flowers that will attract natural pollinators, too. I completely failed at that this year, so I've had to let my basil flower to attract the bees. My sunflowers are bringing them in now, too. Hopefully when my squash starts flowering they'll be well pollinated.

I had a lot better luck last year with my little plot at my apartment garden, but the soil I started with was a lot better. I didn't do much amending to my soil here at the house this year, mostly just to see what I had to start with, so my crops have been sort of hit or miss. The peas were *awesome*, but I've only had four tomatoes actually fruit despite the numerous flowers. My Swiss Chard looked and tasted amazing last year, but the snails and grasshoppers have turned it into swiss cheese here at the house, so I haven't enjoyed any this year. The basil is still awesome. AWESOME. Love my basil! My garlic actually came out really well, too, considering I harvested it way too early in order to avoid having ants nest in it.

Anyway. Companion planting. Check it out.

If you're interested, our little garden adventures: Kirabug's Garden