I have a pretty small, 10'x5'ish plot of land to work with, plus all the space I could ever want for containers, and some less than optimal shady places scattered around where I could plant things.
This is my second year gardening, I grew corn and cucumbers last year in containers with a lot of success, and this year I'm hoping to expand my operation.
I would like to grow: lots of corn, lots of strawberries, peppers, cucumbers, peas, beans, cherry tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe and pumpkins. Perhaps a bit ambitious given that last year I only had about 20 corn plants (yes, it was a lot of containers! 1 gallon containers too, I'm surprised it worked at all in retrospect) and 2 cucumber plants.
I'm in Massachusetts, by the way. Not sure how well all the melons I'd like to do will work here, but I'm gonna give it a shot.
I thought growing a large amount of stuff was hopeless until I remembered that the Native Americans used to grow corn, beans, and squash together. I thought hey, maybe I can do the same thing.
So I've been thinking about this the past few days. Here's my current plan for the season:
I'll probably do all of the strawberries and cherry tomatoes in containers. I can put them right up against a fence which can act as a trellis, should be convenient. I have 1 and 5-gallon containers, not sure which would be best for them so I'm planning to try some of both (probably 1 plant per pot for the 1-gallons and 2 or even 3 for the 5-gallon containers).
I'm hoping to be able to do the melons and pumpkins in the shadier areas (in the ground between some shrubs). I put my cucumbers there last year and they did great. It's not optimal but I think it could work.
I'm not entirely sure what to do with the peppers. I imagine they would do very well in smaller containers. I'm actually planning to do 3 different kinds of peppers: Bell, Chili, and "sweet banana" peppers.
With the actual plot of land I'm planning to grow my corn and beans, but I'm not sure what the best thing to accompany that would be. Cantaloupe and watermelon like a lot of sun and they are both plants that stay low to the ground, so that might be a good substitute for squash in this situation. Would be better for the melons than being off in the shade, too. The problem is that it seems like a rather small space for melons, I'd either only be able to do a plant or two or they would be cramped.
I wish I had a big open plot of land to work with, but this is what I've got right now. I feel like I'm getting in over my head, but think how much I'll learn and my garden will be great next year!
I'm almost completely new to this, so any advice you have is appreciated. Many thanks for your help, this is a great site.
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gardenvarietyfarmer
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I'd recommend two books, each of which is useful for intensive methods as opposed to traditional row methods.
John Jeavons, How to Grow More Vegetables... (7th ed.)
Mel Bartholomew, Square Foot Gardening (the 2005 revision)
I've managed to bring a whole 96 square feet under cultivation, plus a few containers. While I can't say we ate a good portion of our food from the garden last year, we *did* have enough of certain foods so that DH got tired of them...but the dogs and I didn't have any problems!
I use a combination of SFG and Jeavons' methods as they work for me; maybe you can get some good pointers, too.
I checked the books out from my library last year and read through them before I bought them. No use spending $ if I won't use the book...
Happy gardening!
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
John Jeavons, How to Grow More Vegetables... (7th ed.)
Mel Bartholomew, Square Foot Gardening (the 2005 revision)
I've managed to bring a whole 96 square feet under cultivation, plus a few containers. While I can't say we ate a good portion of our food from the garden last year, we *did* have enough of certain foods so that DH got tired of them...but the dogs and I didn't have any problems!
I use a combination of SFG and Jeavons' methods as they work for me; maybe you can get some good pointers, too.
I checked the books out from my library last year and read through them before I bought them. No use spending $ if I won't use the book...
Happy gardening!
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
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gardenvarietyfarmer
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- Posts: 6
- Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:07 pm
Hello,
I used to plant a pretty small plot with good success. This was about 28 years ago. During that time I bought a troybuilt tiller and a book came with it. The name of the book is Garden ways "Joy of Gardening" written by Dick Raymond. He had extensive info regarding companion planting and "sowing" some seed vs planting seed. I used to sow my southern pea seed with very good success. I would cultivate the soil, sow the seed by hand, take a garden rake and lightly firm the seed in the soil and then pull some soil over the seed. This would allow a bumper crop in a small space and also self mulch the seed because they were sown pretty thick. He talked about and practiced "block" planting also. The book is a pretty good read.
Hope this info helps.
Jeff H
I used to plant a pretty small plot with good success. This was about 28 years ago. During that time I bought a troybuilt tiller and a book came with it. The name of the book is Garden ways "Joy of Gardening" written by Dick Raymond. He had extensive info regarding companion planting and "sowing" some seed vs planting seed. I used to sow my southern pea seed with very good success. I would cultivate the soil, sow the seed by hand, take a garden rake and lightly firm the seed in the soil and then pull some soil over the seed. This would allow a bumper crop in a small space and also self mulch the seed because they were sown pretty thick. He talked about and practiced "block" planting also. The book is a pretty good read.
Hope this info helps.
Jeff H