djaychris
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2008 10:28 am
Location: western PA

Starting a vegetable garden....need advice....

I'm looking into setting up a vegetable garden in the spring. It is a rectangular small plot of land in my backyard and runs alongside my detached garage. It is maybe 10 feet wide and probably close to 20+ feet long. It has chain link fence on three sides, and the garage acts as the wall for the fourth side. The three chained sides face the East, West, and South, and the North side is shaded by the garage. We grew shrubs under the garage overhang (north side) this year and they seemed to do just fine. It appears to get decent sunlight during the majority of the day once the sun gets over my house ( I have a 2 1/2 story house east of the garden across the back yard). I was planning on using the portion of the garden running along the fence to grow blackberries, blueberries tomatoes, and some other climbing/trailing fruits/vegetables. The land is currently covered with grass, I plan on tilling and digging down this spring. As I've never had a garden before, I'm looking for any advice on how to start up...are there any plants you guys think would be particularly good for a land plot (long, narrow, and slightly shady) like mine? I'd love to grow some berries, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, and the rest I'm not sure of yet....

-Thanks
-Dan

american_gardener
Full Member
Posts: 22
Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:03 pm
Location: New Baltimore, Mich. Zone 5b

Well Dan..

There's so much to tell ya and not enough space. I guess first of all ya should till it up now... get yourself a soil test done if ya can. And put in all the leaves and organic matter you can find now for the winter. Till it all in and by spring you'll have a much easier time with the grass and weeds that'll want to grow there.

That's really not much space ya got.. if you really do want either blackberries or blueberries ya won't have room for much if anything else. Both of those can take up that much space all on their own.

Me.. I'd be just sticking with the veggies.. and possibly some strawberries in there. You can grow lots of tomatoes, peas, beans, lettuce and the rest of em if ya don't put in the blueberries or blackberries. A couple others you won't have enuf room for would be pumpkins, winter squash, or corn... those just take up too much space too.

Anyways.. first things first.. go out and collect up all those bags of leaves your neighbors are gonna be putting out by the road soon and till em into your new garden area. Then you really should get some test done on the soil even if it's just one of those store bought kits. It'll give ya an idea what your soil will need next year.

The planning part ya can take care of over the winter here.. sound's like most everything will grow ok with your situation.. just a matter of locating the right crops in the right amounts of sun.

Dave

GratefulEd
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:08 pm
Location: Zone 7/TN

With that amount of space, think about growing bang for the buck. Herbs that cost a good bit per bundle (like basil), heirloom tomatoes (sometimes $5 apiece at Whole Foods), bell and hot peppers, etc.

You should also think about vertical growers like pole beans, cucumbers, and any other vining vegetables that you can train upwards. Why limit yourself to two dimensions when you have three?

Good luck!

Ed

djaychris
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2008 10:28 am
Location: western PA

Thanks for the help so far guys. I like your ideas. I planted one blackberry plant against the back 6 foot wall of fence, and I'm going to keep it trained there. I also planted one blueberry bush in the corner. I'm going to do a row of climbing vegetables along the 20 foot length of fence, couple beans, couple peas, tomato, etc... I'm going to do a second row of lettuce, and maybe a few other plants that don't mind a little shade..... I like the idea of tilling it now and adding all the leaves I can to the soil before winter... I've also taken up vermicomposting, so I'm hoping to have a decent chunk of worm castings come spring...

-Thanks
-Dan

djaychris
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2008 10:28 am
Location: western PA

I have another question for you guys. I have a garbage can full of soil that was dug up from the installation of my chain link fence, and I have nowhere to put it. Unfortunately, I left it outside and it rained pretty hard, so now I have a garbage can full of mud....would it hurt to dump this mud over my garden soil after I dig up all the grass...then till it in?? I have no idea what to do with it, its so incredibly heavy I can't even lift the can.

-Thanks
-Dan

fun_n_thecountry
Full Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 8:36 pm
Location: PortAllen, LA

It may be difficult to till when wet, but should till out just fine as it dries.



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