New to Vegetables and Gardens

[noobgardener]

Hello everyone!
I'm pretty new to gardening and everything. This year I want to start a small vegetable patch. My seeds are on their way (I know...a little late) and should be here by Monday. I'm planning on building a raised be about 2 feet wide and shaped like an L to fit a spot on my patio. Here's a list of the seeds I have on order:

Onion (Bunching
Chives
Lemon Mint
Bell Peppers
Hot Peppers
Arugula

I'm going to buy the rest of the herbs as plants later and plant them as well.

Basically I need advice on a couple things.
1. What sort of soil mix should I use to fill the bed?
2. I read somewhere that planting arugula in-between pepper plants is a good idea because the peppers provide a little shade.
3. I want to plant the plants near each other but I don't want to choke anything out. can I plat herbs between mu peppers without compromising the peppers?

Any other advice for growing vegetables?

[Oakley]

Hey noobgardener,
I'm still new myself but I figured I could point you in the right direction at least about companion planting. I've been reading up on it a lot. If you go on google and search for it, the amounts of information are endless. Heres a link to get you started. It gives you a basic idea of is and isn't good around eachother.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

[shadylane]

Hello Noobgardener!
I'm sure you could find black dirt almost anywhere in 50 pound bags there is aged manure also depending on your wants.
You could take the method of calling upon a small excavation company if you have means of picking it up. I don't think they would deliever a small amount.

Planting Bell peppers (depending on the variety) grow up to 3' while other grow to 2-3' and bush out half their size. Arugula needs full sun as well as peppers and grow up to 2'. May want to give some elbow room in between.

The lemon mint and also called "Horse Mint" among other names is a genus of Monarda Citriodora and grows up to 1-2'.

I'm thinking of larger terms of gardening but I would think 2' wide isn't going to be wide enough for what you have in mind. You may want to re-think your size due to competition on moisture/nutrients and root growth of each plant.

[Gary350]

I learened a trick to make peppers grow good when I lived in Tenessee. Put 5" of peat moss on the surface of the soil, the width of the tiller, the length of the row, till it into the soil. Peppers grow 4 times faster, much taller and produce a larger crop and sweet bell peppers are 5" diameter, great flavor too. My pepper plants often were 7 ft tall before frost killed them last week of Oct. Tomatoes and other plants like it too.

[hendi_alex]

You will love arugula. It is easy to grow here in SC and will do even better in the summer for you. Arugula tends to bolt if planted in late winter or early spring. When you see signs of flowering, just pull some of the old plants and sprinkle fresh seeds in between the plants that remain. Arugula that is planted after the weather has warmed will grow all through the summer without bolting. Here in central SC I plant a succession of arugula and keep it growing year round.

As far as filling the beds. When my beds were new, I used a blend of fresh leaves, partially composted material, and large bags of potting soil mix from the big box store. As the leaves gradually break down, soil will be needed to add from time to time.

I grow my pepper plants in 3 gallon nursery pots and they do great. They tend to prefer a morning sun only location, as the late afternoon sun is a little too harsh for them after about mid June.

Chive are pretty tough and hardy. I grow mine in 2 gallon pots, but if put in a raised bed would probably put them in a corner area. They will last many seasons, so you wouldn't want to disturb them when refreshing or raking the soil for the next panting.

The arugula will do just fine interplanted. When the arugula starts to bolt, I usually let one or two plants go to seed. Then just broadcast the seed for the next succession planting. It is extra rewarding to start a batch from your own seeds.

[noobgardener]

Maybe I'll just plant the peppers and arugula in the raised bed and the rest in containers...I think that might be a better use of my space...

So my soil is very much clay and very compacted...I was going to build the bed around 20" off the ground. I've seen people use gravel in the bottom of their beds and some not. Any advice on this?

[hendi_alex]

I don't think that the gravel would be necessary if the beds are on high ground and the water drains away from the bed area. If the area is low, then gravel might be a good idea or mound some of the clay base so that is is higher than the surrounding area. I also blend some perlite in with my soil mix, so that water drains a little better. When planting in 100% synthetic soil, it is easy to have the soil too heavy such that it gets water logged. My very sandy soil has lots of bad nematodes as well as lots of disease spores, so my beds are filled with 100% organic material.

[noobgardener]

Ok one more question. I know mint spreads pretty bad, should I plant it in the raised bed so I'll have it for next year or just stick to the container?

[hendi_alex]

All forms of mint are best grown in containers, and be careful even then as it will grow over the sides or out the bottom and spread. Only put mint in the ground where you don't mind it being the dominant ground cover.

[imafan26]

What everyone said. The planter is not very big. When you get your seeds try not to plant the whole package. You do not have enough room for it all.

Tall plants need to be spaced wider apart and short plants can be planted under them.

Mint definitely needs to be planted in a container by itself.

It will be good to divide your planter in sections for different types of plants and put plants with like needs together.

I usually plant spreading longer lived plants in pots. They need their own space. Eggplants, kale, peppers, chard, and citrus fall in this category. When they are young they can be kept closer. As they spread you can move the pots.

I put the smaller longer lived plants together rosemary, thyme ,sage the dry herbs in one section. Parsley, cutting celery, green onions in the moist section.

I have plants that are going to be harvested in 60 days or less in another section and designed for successive plantings. and I have a trellis on the northernmost end for climbers. peas, beans, lettuce, beets, spinach, etc.

Bush crops like zucchini and bush cucumbers take up about three feet of space so I put them in containers. Vining squashes watermelon, pole beans and cucumber are trained on an overhead trellis system.