Vegetable gardening this growing season?

[CA expat]

What will you be growing?
If prepping influences your plant choices, how so?

I live in Indy and don't have a lot of room to work with. Would love to get some input about maximizing utility of the available space.

Thanks

 

[1861navy]

This year I'm gonna grow the usual Kentucky pole beans, crookneck squash, a long with red potatoes, carrots, lettuce, some herbs like sage, dill, thyme. Also gonna try a "wild garden" where you encourage certain edible/medicinal "weeds" to grow. Things like mallow, dandelion, plantain, purslane, thistles, etc.

When I lived in a city and had a garden, I used square foot style gardening, basically raised bed. It works well with the right soil mix on certain crops that don't require a lot of root space. Not as good for beans and squash, works alright on tomatoes. You pretty much divide a raised bed into square foot sections and plant in the divided sections.

However I just made a bunch (10 or so) 1ft. Boxes individually for things like carrots, baby spinach, sage, etc. The nice thing was I could make as many as I had room for and didn't require a large area for growing a reasonable amount of food, considering the size of the boxes. The downsides were plants like tomatoes and beans get root bound too quickly in such small boxes, they still grow and produce, just not like they do in the ground.

Another thing I did was make two compost piles. Why? Because good stuff always just naturally grows out of compost. After 1 year in a 4x3 compost space I had 2 healthy bean plants, 3 healthy tomato plants, 1 good potato vine, 1 poor Tuscan cantaloupe, 2 healthy borage plants and 1miserable onion. All I did for this was compost, and thin accordingly that's it.

 

[Shadow]

I'm going to try some thing different this year. When I lived out in the country I had a very large garden , now we live in town and don't have the room. The last owners had put bushs that had thorns all around the house , must have done this to deter theifs, well those had to go ! So I am going to plant tomatoes and peppers around 3 sides of the house, one side has nice loose soil so I will plant onions and carrots , maybe some beets. I have a 12 x 12 shed , I think there I will plant cabbage , broccoli,stuff like that .

 

[CA expat]

Excellent. I will try out the square foot technique this year. I think it should really help because last summer we had poor yeild relative to the space we dedicated for gardening. 1861navy, any tips for keeping dogs out of compost? We switched to a compost roller (which ia not working out as well) because our dogs loved to roll around in our pile.

 

[Jeepster48439]

http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/J...52427741228140_5628700731927344719_n.jpg.html

Condo living makes one look for unusual ways to do things. This was my herb garden last year.

 

[skulhedface]

Broccoli seeds sprouted today. Peas going out at the end of the week I think, plus a few on St Patrick's day for luck. Still waiting to see if my asparagus and berry bushes survived their first winter. Experimenting with mouse melons and red pontiac potatoes this year.

Edit: OP, If you want to maximise your output, make a plan for succession planting. Such as direct sowing your summer cucumbers between the spring peas, transplanting tomatoes between spinach/lettuce plants. I don't think prepping has influenced my plant choices much but it was how I got into gardening in the first place.

 

[dusty88]

I have more land than time, so I'm not experienced at squeezing a lot into small space.

The things I have really appreciated growing are:
Perennials:
asparagus. Yields second or third year, depending on how you buy it. Continues to spread into a larger patch.
Strawberries are a good companion plant for the asparagus.

Herbs: an herb variety really makes for better meals and more fun cooking. A small packet of some fresh herbs at the store can be $6-10, so it's a great thing to grow at home. You can put quite a few herbs in one area, in several pots on your deck/patio, or in a vertical arrangement called a herb spiral. Some will overwinter (like sage) especially if you plant them in a warm microclimate (like next to the house). Some herbs can be frozen (rosemary and parsley are almost like fresh herbs).

As far as annual vegetables, tomatoes are a great yield for the money. If you get indeterminate, you'll have tomatoes to use for months. If you plant a determinate variety like Romas, you'll get a high yield largely all at one time (which is great for canning).

Potatoes can go in now, then you can plant something else with them (the plant itself wilts and falls over when the potatoes are done, but there is generally no hurry in digging them up so I usually wait until whatever is close to them has been harvested).

Melons and pumpkins are awesome, but take a lot of space unless you trellis them (which is a pain IMO).

Pepper varieties are also nice for summer eating, plus freezing or canning for cooking with all year, and each pepper plant takes up just a little space.

Also be creative and see if you have any other spaces in your yard to utilize. If you are getting mulch anyway, sometimes I throw extra potato seedling cuts under a new pile of mulch in the flower bed and get some extra potatoes (and easy to harvest just by moving the mulch). You can also put climbing plants (like pole beans) at the base of some shrubs.

There are hybrid forms of squashes and cucumbers that grow more in a "bush" style which might be helpful so you don't have long vines everywhere.

Edit: as to your question on prepping: I have started to choose more perennials. I've added composting and poultry and integrated them with gardening. I plant at least some things that I can freeze, can, or dehydrate.

 

[eldirector]

I don't know what all my wife has planned, but this year will be at least:
- Cucumbers
- tomatoes (2 or 3 varieties)
- sweet peas
- broccoli and cauliflower
- Cabbage
- onions (red, yellow, white)
- green and red peppers
- green and red beans (if I get them in early, I can re-plant at least once in a year)
- Romaine lettuce
- lotsa herbs

Would love to try sweet corn again, but we don't have the room (and my wife won't let me till up the yard). I'm sure she will experiment with some random stuff as well. Zucchini always does well, but neither of us like it. Watermelons have always tasted strange out of our garden. Radishes tasted odd, too. Carrots never have done well, but I'd like to try them again (we eat them by the ton).

 

[grunt soldier]

My asparagus isn't up yet but I went and just checked my 1500 garlic plants and most all of them are up and running about 2 inches tall. I haven't bothered starting anything this year I'll probably just buy all starts as I have been so busy it's stupid.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I just started my plants today. Peppers, Tomatoes, and for the first time, Tobacco.

I decided to start plants this year, because I've not been happy with any of the pepper plants that I've gotten from garden centers or any place else in the past. The last time I had a great year with peppers was the last year I started my own.

And yes, the Tobacco is a prepping-influenced crop. I do like to try something new each year and I've about run out of things I've never grown. Tobacco would be one of the best barter items I could think of, post SHTF.

 

[CathyInBlue]

Question for optimum veggie garden area optimization… I know it's not safe to directly fertilize food plants intended for human consumption with human manure, but does that admonition extend to gardening over the septic tank's leech field? Maybe just don't grow root-froot type crops, taters, carrots, onions, etc., but what about peppers, `maters, `cumbers, beans, melons, herbs, etc.? If you're space limitted, the leech field would seem to be optimized for gardening.

 

[1861navy]

Excellent. I will try out the square foot technique this year. I think it should really help because last summer we had poor yeild relative to the space we dedicated for gardening. 1861navy, any tips for keeping dogs out of compost? We switched to a compost roller (which ia not working out as well) because our dogs loved to roll around in our pile.

The best tips I had for composting and keeping dogs and a large portion of critters out were: Don't compost meats, dairies, fish, oils, or anything that has residue from those kinds of foods on them. Make a fence around the compost pile if you haven't already. I just sharpened some sticks, then stuck em in the ground to hold up some hardware cloth, poultry net works too. This was easily removed and stuck back in to allow me to get in and turn my compost. Lastly, vigilance also works well, but is tiresome and time consuming.

 

[1861navy]

Question for optimum veggie garden area optimization… I know it's not safe to directly fertilize food plants intended for human consumption with human manure, but does that admonition extend to gardening over the septic tank's leech field? Maybe just don't grow root-froot type crops, taters, carrots, onions, etc., but what about peppers, `maters, `cumbers, beans, melons, herbs, etc.? If you're space limitted, the leech field would seem to be optimized for gardening.

I personally wouldn't, because most of our diets are not truly organic in composition, this helps create more issues with bacteria. On the other hand some organic producers i believe use human sewage waste for fertilizer, as did many of our ancestors. Poop is poop, it varies in composition so much its generally safest not to grow in it or directly fertilize with it, but not all poop is created equal.

 

[skulhedface]

Question for optimum veggie garden area optimization… I know it's not safe to directly fertilize food plants intended for human consumption with human manure, but does that admonition extend to gardening over the septic tank's leech field? Maybe just don't grow root-froot type crops, taters, carrots, onions, etc., but what about peppers, `maters, `cumbers, beans, melons, herbs, etc.? If you're space limitted, the leech field would seem to be optimized for gardening.

Maybe. It would depend on how well your system is working and what types/quantities of chemicals go down your drains. I would think that the more shallow rooted plants would be safer.

Planting Vegetables Over a Septic Leach Field | Today's Homeowner

 

[eldirector]

Agreed ^^^^. Mostly, to protect your septic, not your stomach.

The risk with human poop is pathogens. However, IMHO, that risk is largely mitigated if it is your own family's poop. Everyone has likely been exposed to the pathogens prior to eating the, ahem, fertilized plants. Additionally, if it is mixed with other material and well composted, it is now very rich dirt and has a whole new set of pathogens to replace the originals.

In areas where dysentery and cholera are more common, it is from more direct poop contamination of water and/or food. You also need someone WITH the pathogen to kick-start the process.

So, if you aren't sick, and your poop is composted to the point it is no longer really poop, then it is likely (I am not a doctor, so YMMV) safe enough.

Managed to mention "poop" 5 times (oops, 6)! I'm so immature sometimes...

 

[Leadeye]

Recently I've been experimenting with store bought beans to see if they could be planted, harvested and planted again. Had very good results with walmart black beans last year. Going to try another this year. It's not worth the effort considering the low price in the store, but good information to know.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Recently I've been experimenting with store bought beans to see if they could be planted, harvested and planted again. Had very good results with walmart black beans last year. Going to try another this year. It's not worth the effort considering the low price in the store, but good information to know.

I've done that before also. The only difficulty I had was not knowing the growth habit of the beans. I planted some black beans once, thinking that they were bush-type and then had to scramble to set up a trellis when they started wanting to climb.

 

[Lee11b]

I put in raised garden boxes for my wife. We absolutely love them!!! No, more stooping to pull weeds, and there seems to be less weeds. We love our ever=bearing spinach, have had trouble getting the everbearing strawberries to produce like they did the first year.

 

[Zoub]

This is at our house in Indy. I took these in 2007, the first year I tried this technique so there have been some minor changes which I will list. The bed is also longer, deeper, bigger etc and every year the plants grew over the top of the 6' fence and I would cut them back. We also had good luck with oregano, basil and peppers in front of them. Eventually I moved peppers to their own bed and just grew herbs in this bed with the tomatoes. Then we created beds just for herb plants and included them in the landscaping as well. Plants like sage, purple basil and oregano look pretty good on their own.

I used the Florida Weave Technique combined with my idea of attaching it to the fence posts. I used large stainless eyebolts with threads for wood and 8' lengths of rebar. I put two eyebolts into each post and the posts are 8' apart. One change was to add a third eyebolt in the middle. Near the end of the season there was enough pull on the rebar that it flexed a bit in the center. At the end of the season, you cut down the plants and strings, pull the rebar and put it away. Eventually I just left the rebar in year round.

I put 4 plants in each 8' run. Starting at the first rebar I put a plant at 1', 3', 5' and 7'. Frankly its better to use 3 plants in an 8' run. I tried a few different varieties and this fence runs East/West so plants face South. Open space behind the house to the east so they got sun from 6am to 4pm-5pm easy. It was very efficient. Do not use some weak string. Use a hay bale twine with a pound test that is fairly high. These days I use a large orange spool of the bale twine and keep it in an empty cat sand bucket with the twine coming out a hole in the bucket lid. I just leave the bucket out in the garden with a knife in it to cut the twine. I should have put the hole in the side of the bucket, not the lid, because I have to leave the bucket on it side to keep water out of it. You probably don't need that much twine but it has multiple uses and others with larger gardens who try this will want more. Now I use metal fence posts in a larger garden.

Twine



View from patio, in general camera angle is to the Northeast

See top eyebolts on rebar

Test plants not in a raised bed, the bed of course did better and I extended it going west towards house. And I blew out those flimsy boards and used something more substantial once I knew I liked this set up and location. I used railroad ties and cement landscape stones on the downward sloping east end.

Closer view of strings and rebar

You have to be diligent about keeping up with the string runs early on and you must trim the plants to create air flow and let sun in. These plants ended up getting pruned quite a bit but produced a lot of fruit. In addition to adding soil to the bed, I turned the soil going down at least 2'. I turned it in the Fall as well and kept adding to it because that location had the classic clay crap left after having the topsoil removed for the rich folks homes. I use a mix of peat and topsoil and even some perlite.

 

[mom45]

Asparagus and garlic on an ongoing crop here.

I always plant dill, cucumbers (make refrigerator pickles with these plus the garlic), green onions, carrots, beets, tomatoes, butternut squash, zucchini and whatever other seeds happen to end up being purchased.

I plant lots of flowers and we have fruit trees too so it all keeps me pretty busy with weeding and watering.