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Digging in the dirt (that is, Gardening)

GeodGeod swim, swim, hungryRegistered User regular
edited April 2011 in Help / Advice Forum
I'd like some tips advice about gardening. I usually do my veggies on my 11th floor balcony in pots, but this year my apartment complex has plots actually on the ground. This is a whole new experience for myself, I usually just dump potting soil in a few containers so I'm a bit lost. My plot is 6x6, so not huge, but should suit my needs. I'm assuming that I should get some sort of fertilizers and soil to mix in with the normal soil. Correct? What type of fertilizers and junk should I put together? Any other advice? Should I worry about some way to control weeds? I'll probably be putting tomatoes, peppers, pole beans, strawberries and some other stuff in there. Thanks!

Geod on

Posts

  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I'd just get some miracle grow and keep it watered. Strawberries may be a bit much for 6x6 though (I think they need a fair bit of room)

    (I may be wrong about that last part)

    Xaquin on
  • lonelyahavalonelyahava Call me Ahava ~~She/Her~~ Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    strawberries are going to want to roam. much like any other vined thing, like squashes, cucumbers, and even tomatoes. I would strongly suggest keeping your strawberries on your balcony (they actually make a strawberry pot. it's really cool looking) and using your plot for things like salad greens and the like.

    I have picked up a book that I am in love with, The Vegetable Gardeners Container Bible. The same author has a regular Vegetable Gardeners Bible That i'm going to assume is just as good as the container one that I picked up.

    Lots of great advice and knowledge. He's pretty keen on organics and things, so you might have to nip and tuck here and there, but still.



    personally? I would grow at least 1 tomato plant, Roma or Plum variety, because they're so useful in everything from salads to sauces and so on. I would try to plant some carrots and maybe also trellis up a cucumber and some pole beans. Also, bell peppers are fun and fairly easy.


    i'm down in the southern hemisphere right now, so i'm planning my containers for next spring (start planting in october) and it should be rather fun to see what I can get to grow.

    Good luck!

    lonelyahava on
  • RuckusRuckus Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Xaquin wrote: »
    I'd just get some miracle grow and keep it watered. Strawberries may be a bit much for 6x6 though (I think they need a fair bit of room)

    (I may be wrong about that last part)

    Strawberries don't produce much the first year either.

    For a 6x6 plot, I'd recommend a row of Tomato plants, a row of Onions, half a row of Jalapenos plants, half a row of Garlic, and a row of Potato plants. Maybe some corn, if you're feeling nasty.

    Weed-wise, I'd recommend just pulling them out every 2-3 days, I mean 36sqft isn't very much territory to deal with.

    Ruckus on
  • MetroidZoidMetroidZoid Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Look into Square foot gardening and Companion planting. You can fit a ton into a 6x6 plot, if you plan it out right. For example, plant onions / garlic underneath your tomatoes. Also look into vertical gardening; cucumbers take up a lot less space growing up instead of out.

    MetroidZoid on
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  • Forbe!Forbe! Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Look into Square foot gardening and Companion planting. You can fit a ton into a 6x6 plot, if you plan it out right. For example, plant onions / garlic underneath your tomatoes. Also look into vertical gardening; cucumbers take up a lot less space growing up instead of out.


    I was about to post that first book. It is good shit. It is all about maximizing gardening space to provide the best yields.

    Forbe! on
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  • EntriechEntriech ? ? ? ? ? Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Forbe! wrote: »
    Look into Square foot gardening and Companion planting. You can fit a ton into a 6x6 plot, if you plan it out right. For example, plant onions / garlic underneath your tomatoes. Also look into vertical gardening; cucumbers take up a lot less space growing up instead of out.


    I was about to post that first book. It is good shit. It is all about maximizing gardening space to provide the best yields.

    Thirding this. Square Foot gardening is much more efficient than your traditional rows.

    Entriech on
  • Ashaman42Ashaman42 Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Square foot gardening is what I'm sort of doing in my garden this year. Though I have not worked out what to put where yet and most things are still in seed trays and pots.

    So far I've planted out two lettuce and that's it :)

    My best advice is to plant things you'll actually eat. And that burying a plastic cup and half filling it with beer is apparently an effective slug trap, only just tried that so not seen for myself if it actually works.

    Some people recommend weed control by laying either cardboard or a weed control membrane and planting through that.

    Another tip is to bury empty plant pots or the top half of plastic bottles (upside down) next to where plants are going to go in and once the plants are established watering through these, send water directly to the roots rather than the soil surface. You lose less water to evaporation that way.

    Ashaman42 on
  • GeodGeod swim, swim, hungryRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Awesome, thanks for the help guys. I'll definitely look into the square foot gardening. I'm also curious, does anyone do anything with their soil? Like mix things in like fertilizers or peat moss, or just plop the plants in the ground.

    Geod on
  • rockmonkeyrockmonkey Little RockRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    The wife and I are trying square foot gardening for the first time this year. This weekend will be the 4th weekend since we planted. He dad has been doing square foot gardening for years and he helped us get set up this first time. Our isn't pretty, we built the box and bought plenty of top soil and fertilizer and lined the bottom with cardboard before dumping them in. We planted two rows of texas sweet onions, one row of beans and then a row of climbing peas up the back. We also did two separate tomato round sq ft style with chicken wire and then lining the sides/bottom with cardboard. Then finally we have a potted tomato round on our deck.

    We eat/use lots of tomatoes and onions in our cooking.

    We've had horrible storms this week and plenty of tornados popping up in the state, but all of our stuff is still standing and they are growing like crazy. Just glad we decided against potatoes since we've had so much freaking raining lately, I hear that's not good for potatoes.

    I'd recommend sq ft gardening because really it was easy, doesn't take up much room and seems like it's going good so far.


    Geod wrote: »
    Awesome, thanks for the help guys. I'll definitely look into the square foot gardening. I'm also curious, does anyone do anything with their soil? Like mix things in like fertilizers or peat moss, or just plop the plants in the ground.

    our 4x4 sq ft garden box we alternated a layer of soil then a layer of fertilizer, back and forth until we had the right level in our box, the last layer being soil.

    rockmonkey on
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  • minirhyderminirhyder BerlinRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I sort of have a similar-ish question. Can someone recommend me some good farming/gardening books?
    I'm interested in growing fruits/veggies but I don't know a thing about it. So I'm looking for some Farming 101, Farming for Dummies-esque books.

    minirhyder on
  • rockmonkeyrockmonkey Little RockRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    minirhyder wrote: »
    I sort of have a similar-ish question. Can someone recommend me some good farming/gardening books?
    I'm interested in growing fruits/veggies but I don't know a thing about it. So I'm looking for some Farming 101, Farming for Dummies-esque books.

    Like myself and others above have recommended for the OP I'll again say, Square Foot Gardening. This is the book I have: All New Square Foot Gardening

    Tells you what you need to know, and you'll always continue to learn extra little tidbits as you go along from others, some good tips, some bad, but at that point it's like cooking a good chili, you tinker and tweek and ultimately develop your own recipe of what works for you.

    And just as someone said earlier, try to stick to planting what you eat a lot of.

    rockmonkey on
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