Your Questions About Gardening

GardenersCardiff answers:

On sweet corn I figure one ear per stalk and I usually plant it in 8×8 foot beds not long rows for better pollination. An 8×8 will produce more than 30 ears.
One zucchini plant will feed you and all your neighbors with more than you can eat.
One runner bean pole per person is plenty for fresh eating.
Lettuce like zucchini is easy to over plant. I plant a couple feet of row per week in the spring and again in fall.
Tomatoes are the prim-a-donas of the garden, I plant two early, two mid and two late season varieties and any two will produce enough for me and friends.
I plant Kale like my lettuce a couple feet at a time.
I have strawberries growing everywhere in my many flower gardens. It’s fun to munch berries while I’m weeding.
Beets etc. – The secret for garden newbies is to start small. Over doing it will overwhelm you at first and is the reason most new gardeners give up.

EDIT – I just remembered your in the UK. Forget about sweetcorn and tomatoes, I couldn’t get either to grow when I lived in Gilford. My ex father-in-law in Chichester grew tomatoes in his small conservatory. Thompson&Morgan or other English seed companies have probably come out with new varieties that would work in our warming global climate, I haven’t gardened there since the mid 70’s.
Get together with my contact Judy’s Rabbit, she’s a knowledgeable UK gardener and a hoot to boot..

RScott

GardenersCardiff answers:

To start with, it will take some time and experience before you are growing all of your food, but it is a noble goal. I have about a half acre garden and 18 chickens and still have to buy a little food. Anywyas…

First thing to do to start a garden is to break the ground. A gas powered tiller is the typical choice, or a tractor and a plow and disc or tiller for the tractor. You CAN do it by hand with tools you can get at lowes or elsewhere, but that can be nearly impossible. Even though it does pollute, I would recommend getting a tiller – not a gas cultivator, but a real tiller.

Once you’ve broke the ground adequately you may want to test the soil for nutrients. You can get a soil testing kit at some hardware stores, or most coops or farm supply stores. This will tell you how much fertilizer you need to add to your soil. You can skip this step, but then it’s guess work as to how much you need to add and what balance of nutrients are needed. That said, a lot of people never test and have great results.

Next, fertilizer and soil amendments. I am a fan of composted manure. A good, reasonably powerful organic fertilizer is composted chicken manure/litter. You can buy this at Lowes, coops, farm supply stores, etc. Apply according to instructions on bag, if your soil is already somewhat fertile then you don’t need to add a whole lot, and till into ground well. Composted cow manure is another good choice – it is much less potent than chicken manure and lacks the smell, though composted chicken manure does not usually carry a terribly odor.

Now, your soil is tilled, fertilized, and ready to be prepared for planting. Read the seed packet to determine when and how that type of seed should be planted. In general, you will want to make rows that span the full distance of your garden, leaving enough room to easily get in between rows to harvest vegetable, remove weeds, and other general maintenance. You can make the rows by pulling a hoe in the ground while walking from one end of the garden to the other, going as straight as possible. Plant your seeds X inches apart, where X is the inches indicated by the seed packet for row-type crops. Cover the seeds with dirt and LIGHTLY firm the ground over and near them. Water well to encourage germination. Alternatively, you can soak your seeds in water overnight before planting, then a little less water can be used after planting.

Wait for plants to begin appearing. Depending on your vegetable choices, this could be from about 5 days to a couple of weeks. Do not let weeds overtake the crops in their infancy. Water every day or two depending on how hot, dry, etc the weather is. As the plants grow, continue to remove weeds and to water as needed. Weeding with a hoe or cultivator is helpful to not just remove weeds, but to let more air down into the soil near the roots.

Some plants may need staking, such as bean vines and some types of tomatoes, etc.

Finally, mulching. When your plants are nearing maturity, you can add an inch or so of mulch all over the garden, except on top of your plants. This will help maintain the proper moisture level as well as keep weeds under control with less work. As the mulch decays it will also have a mild fertilizing effect.

Of course, pick your vegetables when they are ripe, or to your personal liking.

Vegetables that I would recommend considering are: squash, sweet corn, purple hull peas, lima beans, garden beans, tomatoes, okra, peppers.

I threw this “Everything to know about gardening” together very quickly, and it is very far from everything that you could know. Hopefully it is enough to get you started with a small garden though, and as you gain experience your garden can become bigger as you feel more comfortable.

Good luck and happy gardening!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Most vegetables that people grow in home gardens are annuals. Most need to be replanted every year. Tomatos, beans, peas, peppers, squash, pumpkins, lettuce, cucumbers, etc. Are all annuals. A few will reseed themselves if you let the fruit go to seed at the end of the season, but most are not dependable enough that you could count on it. (You might get a few random tomatoes coming up, but probably not in the spot you want!!).

Asparagus and artichokes are two perennials (plants that will come back next year) that I can think of.

Good Luck!!