User avatar
Tintedwinter
Full Member
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 2:51 pm
Location: Hemet, CA

Good starter vegetables?

So me and the family got a small raised garden kit and set it up in the back yard. We want to grow herbs and vegetables and were wondering what would be good to start out with. We are not experts and very new to gardening in general. It's only a 4'x4' little garden with a trellis on the back. Any suggestions?

User avatar
digitS'
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 3925
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 1:10 pm
Location: ID/WA! border

It must be starting to be quite warm there in Hemet by now.

How about a collection of snap beans? Yellow wax, purple-pod, green (of course) and a pole bean on the trellis. . .

Lots of gardeners consider beans the easiest of their vegetables to grow. If I can keep the cottontails out of them ;) , they are easy for me.

After about 3 months, you could pull all the bush beans; they will have been picked clean by that time. The soil can be amended and at the 1st sign that the weather is cooling off - you could plant a salad garden for the fall.

Lettuce and assorted other greens, radish, carrots . . . :)

Steve & his 2¢.

User avatar
Tintedwinter
Full Member
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 2:51 pm
Location: Hemet, CA

Oh man, that sounds fantastic. How much of that do you think would fit in a 4x4? I really hope my knowledge gets to the point where I don't need to ask that haha. The beans sound good though. So does the lettuce garden, yum.

User avatar
digitS'
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 3925
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 1:10 pm
Location: ID/WA! border

Well, let's see: if you've got 4 x 4 = 16ft².

Beans at 3 plants per ft² :wink: , that would be 48 bean plants.

I'll let you do the calculation on lettuce and such but I think you may be surprised how many servings of snapbeans and salad you could have :) .

[url=https://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/ext/Pubs/HO/HO_124.pdf]Intensive Gardening, Purdue (click)[/url]

[img]https://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/Digit_007/Just%204%20Fun/abacus.gif[/img]
digitS'

User avatar
Tintedwinter
Full Member
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 2:51 pm
Location: Hemet, CA

Outstanding! Thank you so much for the suggestion and information. This is gonna be fun!

cynthia_h
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7500
Joined: Tue May 06, 2008 7:02 pm
Location: El Cerrito, CA

You may also be interested in the book Square Foot Gardening (rev. 2005) by Mel Bartholomew. Your 4' x 4' bed is the size he recommends, and he has some plant spacings for this size. Your public library may have a circulating copy; mine does. :)

You'll want to look carefully at veggies/herbs which prefer warm/hot weather to those that prefer cool/cold. We're in warm/hot weather times right now: squash, tomatoes, beans, eggplant, and their friends.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

User avatar
Tintedwinter
Full Member
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 2:51 pm
Location: Hemet, CA

Truly? Thanks Cynthia! I may have to check it out. And if possible I do believe tomatoes will be in my garden haha.

User avatar
PunkRotten
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1989
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
Location: Monterey, CA.

Maybe a tomato plant, pepper, and basil if you like these.

User avatar
jal_ut
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7447
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

You could try a tomato plant in a tomato cage, and also a couple of cucumber plants in a tomato cage. Then a row of bush beans, about 12 plants in a 4 foot row6 inches from the edge. Then plant some radishes all around the edges and between the tomato and cukes. You might slip a pepper in there too right in the center.

You can also plant 16 corn plants in that 4x4 if you want to make it a corn patch.

Lots of possibilities. Plant what you like to eat.

Like squash? Plant 3 zucchini and 3 crookneck squash in that 4x4. You will be amazed.



Return to “Vegetable Gardening Forum”