MrRogersLV
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Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 9:23 pm
Location: las vegas

New Vegetable Garden Layout help

Hello, I recently purchased a house (1st time home owner as of November 2012) - the house has a little over 2 acres of land and I have been tossing ideas around in my head for a few weeks trying to come up with the best layout for a vegetable garden.
I have never had a place like this - my last garden was at a rental house and it was on a west facing wall for afternoon shade and was a total of 4'x20' so this is going to be quite a bit larger

I am located in the Middle of Las Vegas, NV so I am a little concerned about the heat of the sun in mid summer and have been trying to figure out the best way(s) to lay out the garden.. N-S, E-W or maybe planting rows of corn in between rows of peppers / tomatoes to create a shade barrier for the plans in the mid to late afternoon.

any advice, trial or knowledge, would be great!

Thank you!

I couldnt figure out how to add a photo here yet so I attached a link to another forum so you can see the layout of the land.

MrRogersLV
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 9:23 pm
Location: las vegas

I cant get the link to come up! email and ill send photos or maybe someone can explain how I can attach a link.. I copy paste it in from garden web and it just doesnt come up.. does this site block links to other forms?

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applestar
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Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Welcome to the forum :D
2 acres -- nice! -- I envy your space!
There are many members from your area who will hopefully share their expertise. :wink:

Instructions for posting photos can be found here:
https://helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3724

Many other tips and suggestions for new members can be found in this section:
https://helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=23

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hendi_alex
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Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:58 am
Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina

If no restrictions are in place, it might be useful to consider some kind of shade cloth arrangement on the west side of the plot. I would certainly use shade cloth in some capacity, even if just to give relief to the most sensitive plants. In a neighborhood with restrictions, one might have to be a little creative in how to support the cloth or with its height.

Longer term if there is some kind of relatively vertical growing tree or tall shrub that doesn't have overly invasive roots, perhaps plants some kind of natural shade to the west. Even then shade close would continue to be useful in lots of situations.

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I just moved to Phoenix I think I can give you some help.

I found the Arizona Cooperative Extension office online an printed out the information about when to plant, how to plant and which plant to plant first. Vegas elevation is 5000 ft and almost as hot as Phoenix in July.

Soil in Phoenix is Alkaline here with 8.5 hp. Find out what your soil ph is. Add something to reduce ph to about 6.5 ph. I have found it is impossible to buy good supply of garden in Arizona they just don't sell the stuff. I bought everything I need on ebay. Sulfur will lower ph.

I bought cow and steer manure $1 per bag at Lowes and Home Depot. You probably can too.

Get your seeds started in pot inside NOW. You can get a 1 month head start on the summer heat. Keep seeds warm inside the house when the plants come up through the soil they need to go outside in full sun during the day.

Next get a compass and lay out your garden rows in a North South direction. You need to do this for 2 reasons but the #1 reason is afternoon sun and heat is extremely hard on certain plants.

This is my garden plan.

Row 1, I will plant 1 row of Okra in the first row west side of the garden. Okra likes it hot and dry and full sun.

Row 2 to 7 will be corn planted in rows 1 ft apart. Crowd the corn it tricks the plants into thinking this is a large crop you get better pollination this way for such a small crop of corn 6 ft x 15 ft. Corn will grow tall and shade the shorter plant in the hot afternoon sun.

Row 8 is tomatoes. The tomatoes will do fine until summer heat corn will be tall shade and dead by then. This is why rows need to be planted exactly north south to take advantage of taller plant shade for afternoon sun.

Row 9 is Blue Lake Bush beans.

Row 10 is 3 kinds of squash.

Row 11 is bell peppers. Peppers can take the heat they should get full sun all day.

Make rows a few inches deep with your garden hoe. Put seeds in the rows then cover the seeds with cow manure $1 bags from Lowe's.

3 kinds of melons will be planted about 8 ft away from row 11 in row 12. Melons like hot weather and dry sandy soil, they need lots of water.

I moved to Arizona from Tennessee it gets very hot in TN too 107 for 6 weeks last summer. I learned some interesting tricks for planting in summer heat during the last 35 years of gardening in TN. Crowd the tomatoes plants 2 ft apart in rows so they shade themself in summer heat. Plant tomatoes next to corn so the taller corn will shade tomatoes in the hot afternoon sun.



If you do not have a compass you can calculate 12 noon by, sun up + sun down divided by 2 = 12 noon.

Using a 24 hr clock if sun comes up at 5am and goes down at 21pm = 26/2=13, 13 is 1pm

Put a tall pole in the garden at 1 pm the shadow will be north/south.



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