I'm fairly new to gardening, we kind of had a garden the past three years. First year we kind of tried at it at first then kind of gave up as time went on, last year was a down year where we only grew a few tomatoes, squash and cucumbers. This year we planted late but actually rented a rototiller and worked some land approximately 35" X 10', we added soil and manure that we bought at home depot and worked that in to the land.
We then planted the following plants we bought from home depot: regular red and cherry tomatoes, broccoli, strawberries(plus some plants came back from last year about 15 plants in all so far) & zucchini. Later we planted string beans, squash, green peppers and spinich we also bought at home depot. At the time we originally planted we also started a bunch of seeds in one of those black trays with the clear plastic cover. Most of them didn't take but we did get one carrot(we think), some corn and watermelon and a couple of mystery plants, the seedlings are all still very small but stil alive in the ground.
We have two gardens the main garden where the tomatoes, broccoli, squash, zucchini, strawberries, eggplant, cucumbers, some string beans, some corn, carrots, lettuce(we think) and the mystery plants are. In the back garden we have the potatoes (15 stalks so far), some string beans, watermelon, some corn and raspberries.
I was watering every day for a little while at first then the rains came and I've barely watered had to water in weeks. I had some problem bugs but we bought some bug stray for roses and vegetables and that seemed to work pretty well. We still have a bunch of ants that just won't die, I've tried the ortho rose and vegetable bug spray and that worked well on all the bugs buit the ants. I've also put down a bunch of the Sevin white power dust all around my property because we had a trillion different ants. The sevin worked for the most part but we still have a lot of ants in certain parts of the land.
I fed them all about 1 month ago with the basic miracle grow blue stuff in the skinny white plastic bags for veggies and flowers and just fed them again today. I feed them the normal way then take the dipenser off and crack the seal and walk around and dribble some of the blueish water and maybe a crystal or three on the base of the plants where the mulch is. After I do this to everything I then put a small adjustable nozzl;e on my garden hose and water all the blue stuff into the ground. As long as I water the blue stuff in I don't have any problems with the leaves or stalks getting burned.
Along with the veggies we have about 35 petunia plants, 25 snap dragons and a bunch of others that I cannot remember the name of right now (brain freeze). We have a rock wall about 4 feet high that run around the entire outside of the upper deck of our property and it has a space about 10 inches wide that runs around the entire base of the wall. We plant all the flowers in that space alternating flowers & colors. It looks great!
Everything is growing, so far we have seen nothing but some strawberries. There are some tomoatoes but they are still green, the broccoli is going good but the corn is small (10 inches) and so are the cucumber plants.
We really like gardening and we're thinking of expanding and making a bigger garden where the main garden is (maybe 55' x 10') and we could expand the back garden to something like 100' x 50', but a lot of both gardens would only have sun part of the day. I'd like to tear up the grass in the back/side and I could start another garden there 150' x 75' or more.
We like to stick to but maybe not plant all of the following veggies and fruits: tomatoes, potatoes, summer squash, zucchini, broccoli, cucumber, string bean, carrots, sweet corn, peas, eggplant, lettuce, spinich, garlic, sweet basil + blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cantaloupe , watermelon & pumkins.
I live in the northeast if that makes any difference?
That being said I have the following questions: what am I doing wrong? Should I be using more or different types of fertilizer? What bug spray should I use for the bugs? I just started composting by making a composter out of one of my garbage cans. Should work prety good according to the instrustions I got off the internet.
Which vegetables should be planted with which ones? Do I have to rotate crops if I start each year by rototilling and adding fresh bought top or potting soil, manure and fertilizer? What fertilizer should I use and with which vegetables, fruits etc? What books are good for beginning and more advanced gardeners like myself?
I know I've asked a lot. If someone could take the time and answer my questions I'm sure I and a lot of other people will get a lot of use out of this thread. Thank You in advance for the help.