Grow what you like to eat and then...
learn to like to eat what you can grow!

100 hot jalepenos and habaneros is too many. Plant more beans/peas and cucumbers.

Shane

Buy and use a moisture meter instead of guessing.

No family of three needs two yellow squash and two zuchinni plants! You'd think after all these years I'd know better.

Lay chicken wire under all new raised bed so squirrels and gophers can't get to the veggies. For old bed without chicken wires, sink pots into the ground for planting. This is from someone who's been fighting vermin for twelve years.

hoe and cultivate at least once after every watering or rain to get those nasty weeds before they get a chance to get a foot hold

1.First prep(till) the land and then fence around.
2.Never use cheap plastic fence to fight ground hogs, deers etc.

90% easy to grow plants, 10% experiments, makes for a happy gardener.

oh boy this is getting good! keep it going!

Avoid over-crowding the plants and the people!

Laying down cardboard and then topsoil/compost and planting directly into that is a million times better than digging out turf and/or weeds.

Sanitary in...sanitary out.

It only takes one "infected" (disease/weeds/etc) garden tool, hand, shoe, etc. to screw up many beds of soil/plants.

You don't got to be overkill about it, but if you've spent an hour cutting brush around your property you don't want to drag you clothing and tools over to your veggie garden without a quick cleanup.

Thin ruthlessly.

Jim

Plant extra to share. Don't plant the zucchini so close together. Don't plant so many cucumbers. I had to find homes for 225 (we ate some everyday).

Make sure you get all the grass out of the bed and then edge!

Also, water, water, water! We have hot, dry summers :)

Grow plants that grow well in your soil. Instead of tying to change the soil for the plants you would like to grow

Curt~

Grow plants that grow well in your zone, too.

Try a handful of new plants each year, not 20 new things.

Mulch. Doesn't have to be pretty.
No more (or very few) weeds, hardly any watering.
Don't do it when your soil's already dry though...

Pea pods and ripe tomatoes at the same time for stir-fries - - Plant snow pea seed at the end of July (the hottest week of the year, here). Harvest peas in October.

Dry or freeze dill if you want to use it with pickling cucumbers. Dill is usually finished with its season before the cucumbers are ready for harvest.

digitSteve

Thanks digit, I will try that! First time for planting those and canning dill pickles.

These are great tips ! I need a moisture meter....

Right now the only one I can offer is start more than you think you need if you start from seed. Not all seeds will germinate and journal, take notes....learned this one the hard way.

Best tips I've gotten:
-Don't bother with spinach, plant chard instead.
-Don't plant a 30 foot row of radishes at one time, who is going to eat them at when they are ready at once?
-Leave the tomato plants along during the summer heat, they will come back when it cools off again in Fall (central texas here)

and my favorite: Don't grow what you won't eat, unless it's exceptionally pretty.

Get a soil test.

Successive planting, especially in long season regions.

Hydrogen peroxide made the difference for my getting better germination rates, fighting damping off and rooting more cuttings, with its only residue being air and water. It is my propagation duct tape.

how do you use the hydrogen peroxide?? Soaking seeds? spraying?

Learn how to measure your soil temp - it's easy - and use it to know when to plant, not air temps.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Soil Temp Planting

If I had to pick 2 I'd say 1) never let the weeds get out of control and go to seed otherwise you will pay the price for years to come, and 2) plant at least twice as much as you think you'd want to account for an "off" season.

Hang a small shower caddy (like you hang from the shower head)next to the garden hose. Tuck in a pump soap and a nail brush to clean hands.

Have a gardening problem, who's going to sort it out? Garden Webbers :-) sorry so new to this I don't have any great incite, oh! got one, don't sweat, it's only a plant, now if I could find away to follow my own advise I would be sorted :-)

Grow what you realize grows well in your garden. I found that certain vegetables - chard/peas/beans/eggplants/favas/mustard/zucchini/cauliflower/broccoli/turnip etc do well for me and radish/carrots/okra/soybean/cucumber/pumpkin/corn etc don't do so well.

I ensure that I always plant those that do well and then continue experimenting with the ones that don't. I realize I am getting better results - I had about 5 lbs okra last year which is like 20 times more than the year before.

MULCH IT ! MULCH IT !MULCH IT !

Mulch does more:
== reduces weeds growth
== keeps plants roots cool
== keeps moisture longer (less frequent watering)

LET THE AIR FLOW
Air stagnation is invitation to many plant diseases.
== Stake/cage/treliss your plants, if you can.
== be pro-active! Manage your plants, prune/trim them/thin

AFTER ALL HAS BEEN heard and SAID, YOU HAVE TO DO IT.
NOTHING CAN BEAT knowledge gained from one's OWN EXPERIENCE.
experience, ANOTHER NAME FOR OUR MISTAKES.

- Bring water to the garden. Life is much easier since I trenched a hose bib out across the lawn to the garden fence.
- No garden space will ever be big enough. You'll always want to expand!
- Don't hire anyone to work in your garden without supervision.
- Start early under row covers. I got monster cool-weather plants this way.
- Keep your seed beds moist.
- Use drip irrigation.
- Don't start seeds indoors too early; baby plants take the best.
- You can never have too much compost.

bump

Remember there's always next year, and that your gardening skills will grow better with each season.

Don't order more than you're really going to plant.

Good tools are worth their weight in gold.

Gardening and travel vacations don't mix.

If you are going to grow your own seeds or plant a spring garden then don't schedule your vacation away from home during the same time.

Vacation time for gardeners is the fall. ;)

Dave

My gardening tip - if you are on the market for a new house, try to buy one from a gardener. My townhouse came with ten 3x6 raised garden beds, black raspberries, and a mulberry tree. I just added to what was there.

Check the weather forecast DAILY, especially early in the season.

I like Dave's travel vacation tip. I'll add this. Do not try to evade Dave's rule by leaving your garden in the care of others during the height of the season. Nine times out of ten you will regret it.

Jim

Experiment often. You can get more into your space than you think. Those numbers about distance between plants and rows refer mainly to mechanical harvesting. I got all of this in a 300 sq foot, triangle shaped space. This is field pumpkins, corn, yellow squash, green beens, bell peppers, habenero peppers, tomatoes, sunflowers, watermelons and black eyed peas. Last year in the same space I grew a 200 pound pumpkin, a 305 pound pumpkin and more watermelons and bidwell casaba melons than I could eat.
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Get yourself a box or two of non-latex (some folks are allergic) examination gloves like the doctor or dentist uses and wear them in the garden. Infinitely better than cloth or leather gloves for transplanting seedlings because you can really feel what you're doing and have less chance of being rough with tender rootlets. Also, you don't get tons of dirt under your fingernails. I put a few in my pocket every time I head out to the garden.

Oh, I like that tip, especially because my hands would stay warmer. Question though, how often are you able to re-use the gloves?

Chamomile tea for starting seeds. I learned the hard way after losing a couple flats of seeds that didn't germinate.

Search on gardenweb for "chamomile" for the techniques. After two lost flats of seeds I got 99% germination with the tea and coffee filters method.

I'll never germinate seeds again without it.

Most seeds will last 2-5 years, if kept cool and dry. Just use the couple seeds you need and save the rest for the next year.

If you're going to start things from seed, be sure to supply lots of light, and be prepared to pot up 1-2 times.

When you think everything is "done" at the end of the year, don't tear it out. Throw on some mulch and leave it through winter. Today I harvested chard, lettuce and broccoli from plants that overwintered and regrew. The carrots overwintered as well, but they're tough, so the horse will get those.

Build your soil, build your soil, build your soil.

"- Start early under row covers. I got monster cool-weather plants this way."

nygardener, would you have a few pics that show your setup? or a brief description of it? or both that you would post? It would be greatly appreciated!

Pick off the leaves right up to the top and always plant tomatoes in a shallow trench lying on their side so all of the stem is buried.It will grow roots on the buried stem.

Mulch tomatoes as soon as fruit starts to appear to prevent blossom end rot which occurs with inconsistant watering.

Plant cole crops and head/romaine lettuce in a 3-2 pattern.As they grow,they will fill in the space and shade the ground.

Plant onions,beans,radishes,beets,carrots in rows 3-4 feet wide.Just so you can reach the middle from both sides.Allows for more plants and less of your garden in paths.

Place melons on overturned 4 inch pots or coffee cans to get them up into the sun.Warms up much faster than lying under the leaves.If you use cans,make sure to punch a hole in the bottom to drain out water.

and it just keeps getting better! thanks all

Replying to tishtoshnm, you can't reuse the exam gloves, but they're so cheap I don't mind. (I get them in boxes of 200, and use them in the kitchen as well. I'll NEVER mix a meatloaf without them again!) I get mine from Sam's, where they're much cheaper than at the drugstore.

These are at Harbor Freight and they are very sturdy...completely reusable also,unless you are doing a lot of real rough work ;-)

and did I mention they are ON SALE NOWWWWWWW ;-)

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Wow, that is a great price! I'm a big fan of those gloves. They are light, durable, and easy to take off. After each use, I let them hang on stakes to keep dry. I always wear double, and replace the outer one after it shows holes or rips (usually 6 - 10 uses).