Lots of ?
Lots of plants to fit in the size garden you have! Here in the Tulsa area you can pretty much put anything in now, however some things will be slow to start. Trellis the tomatoes. I like cages, but use a really tall one. 6 feet at least. Peppers will likely need some support. A stake or some other support to keep heavy limbs of the plant from breaking when they are fully loaded. Whether to fertilize depends on what your ground is like. Is it a raised bed? It is a square foot type bed with high compost or just garden soil with no amendments? If no amendments you will need to fertilize some. Don't overdue it especially with nitrogen. You will get all green-no tomatoes. I garden with mostly organic methods, so I lean toward compost and organic fertilizers but you can use plain old fertilizer with tomatoes and get along fine. Cukes will do great on a chain fence just realize some of the cukes will be on the other side. It is available to reach to pick them? The direct seeded pepper will be slow to get going as it has been cool and wet. It may have rotted with as much rain as we have had. Peppers take up to 14 days to germinate so if it has been longer than that you may want to replant or buy a transplant. I can't see how you could get all you have in a plot 4 by 10. At least, not enough to be worth the harvest amount. For instance you would need a row at least 10 feet to get enough peas to provide even several meals. Have you gotten the info from the OSU site. Lots of good info telling when to plant, how to plant, how many plants to provide the harvest you want etc. I dropped the link. good luck. I have been gardening for 30+ years here in the Tulsa area.

Here is a link that might be useful: OSU vegetable gardening information

lol.

Raised bed. Topsoil with mushroom compost and manure. I have a three year old and am just starting gardening; if I get a few peas that will be okay; I'm just not sure which of these plants take up tons of room, which is better bang for the buck, etc.

I did tomatoes in containers last year. I hope that by putting them in the ground I can get them to bear more.

Thanks-

Amanda,

You didn't say if the beans are bush beans or pole beans. If they are pole beans, you can grow them on the fence or on a teepee, trellis or tall tomato cage.

If it were my bed, I'd probably plant the cucumbers on the fence. I'd plant the two tomatoes more at the western end of the bed and plant the peppers to their east so the tomatoes can give the peppers a little relief from the sun during the hottest part of the summer. You could plant the cukes on the fence about 1' from each other, then the beans on the fence just a few inches from each other if they are pole beans, and the same with the peas. Peas ought to be in the ground already, and so should carrots, so I'd get them into the ground as soon as possible.

Tomatoes can go into the ground now, but be prepared to cover them if the nights dip into the mid- to lower-40s. Remember that George's forecast for the other night was 50 and the low went to 32 and his plants froze back. While it is rare for the forecasters to miss a low by 18 degrees, I have had them miss it by 18-22 degrees here a couple of times too.

Peppers should go into the ground only after the soil temperature is consistently 55 degree and warmer. Peppers that are exposed to soil temps lower than 55 degrees can remain stunted and be poor producers. I usually put peppers in the ground a couple of weeks after I plant tomtatoes just to be sure the ground is nice and warm.

Since this is more of an experimental year, go ahead and cram everything in tight together and see how they produce. I've planted using the Square Foot Garden method and had really good productivity in very well-enriched, well-watered (but NOT over-watered or over-fertilized) beds.

Since your soil is well-enriched, the tomatoes might not need any additional fertilizer this year. It is hard to know the first year in a new bed. As long as the plants are growing well and have good color, they don't need extra fertilizer. I like to give my tomato plants one handful of Espoma Tomato-Tone Organic Plant Food in the planting hole at planting time. I'd cage the tomatoes, and if you are buying cages, watch for the Texas Tomato Cages in stores because they are pretty sturdy.

I usually recommend new gardeners follow the OSU planting dates, but that would be hard this year with the recurring late freezes. The stuff I put in the ground at the recommended planting times has frozen several times, so just watch your weather and adjust planting dates accordingly. I just replanted seed potatoes last week to replace the ones that have frozen to the ground three times--and I originally planted them LATER than OSU recomments. It just has been that type of year.

Gardening is a learning experience. You'll learn as you go along and, eventually, you'll find a planting routine and schedule that works for you. The weather here, though, always throws us a few curve balls in the spring.

Dawn

Lol. I have no idea if they're pole beans or bush beans. I'll see if I can find a picture and see what they look like. :)

Great info. This will give me lots of help as I plant what I can tomorrow, and I wouldn't have thought to wait on the peppers, but I sure will. Thanks Dawn!!!!!

Amanda, as suggested above peppers need temperatures well into the 70s to germinate. I sprouted several kinds indoors, including the red bells I sent you. The kind I sent you had a 100% germination rate for me, so I would expect yours to be along any day. I put mine under my kitchen xenon lights to germinate. Xenon lights are not good for growing, but the heat mine put out are just right for germinating a variety of things. I've never WS peppers so I can't tell you from experience what to expect. However, with the cool damp days we've been having I would expect them not to have germinated yet.

Given the size of your plot I think you will benefit by incorporating square foot gardening techniques into your garden. The FAQs in that forum won't make you a master gardener, but the concepts are generally useful. They will also help you evaluate how far your space will go. ONLY YOU can prioritize how much of a given crop you want, and possibly which crops will stay and which must go, for lack of space.

I gardened my entire childhood, and I've had my current vegetable plot for 7 years so you might think I could do things partially blindfolded. Not so. I still have to make tough choices because I want to grow it all and currently don't have the acre of space I want prepared. I am making a significant change this year to the crops grown in the existing plot, and adding additional space as well. Given a finite space, and in order to work through all the issues I wanted to consider, I found it very useful to put things on a paper grid. It's much easier to makes changes on paper than to realize in situ that you wish you'd done something different. A written plan also makes planting much faster. As I shared previously, I tend to put taller things to the north and shorter things to the south, with the exception of salad greens. They go on the far north side, and the taller stuff shades them as summer goes into full swing, effectively extending harvest time of the greens.

DON'T LET PERFECTION GET IN THE WAY OF RESULTS. It's a common mindset among new gardeners to want to do everything perfectly. For all the work involved, we want results, and we don't want to be embarrassed. It's really good to be prepared, but if you expect perfection you will always be disappointed. In gardening, there are just too many variables beyond your control.

By having a well amended, weed free planting space you are well placed for success, and much further along than others who will be gardening for the first time. The folks at the SFQ forum are very gracious about critiquing newbie gardening layouts, but they want you to put some skin in the game. If you can scan a diagram of what you think should go where they will give you lots of feedback. I've also seen people describe their layout using letters. This time of year has many such posts, so a quick look there should give you some ideas on how best to communicate your plan. Putting something in writing accomplishes so much. It will build confidence and address fears. It will call attention to good ideas and point out things that could be done better. And if you give us something in writing as a starting point, are all much better able to give you feedback.

Transplant the cukes as soon as that second set of leaves shows up. Cukes really resent being potbound. I've not WS carrots, but I'd be tempted to move them at the sprout stage. By the time they have true leaves they'll also have a significant taproot, and taproots don't like being transplanted.

Good cages (as opposed to weeny cages) are best in my opinion for your tomatoes. Next would be a bamboo tripod and then the Florida Weave. I'll be using all three methods. If I had the resources all my tomatoes would be in cages, but I have limitations. Therefore, I'll be using all three to make do with what I have.

Amanda, you are well on your way. I hope these thoughts will help you. We're all cheering you on!

Most of it's done, save the peppers and the ws veggies I'm still awaiting (and plop went those carrots, too seedmama). I put all the purchased and the tomato plants that I thought -might- be salvageable into the ground. If the ws ones end up looking better, I'll pull the stragglers and replace them.

Can't wait to get the peppers in the ground. Yum.

I -hope- that by asking questions I've headed off a few really dumb mistakes but the whole experience is a giant learning curve, right?

Thanks for all the tips!

Amanda,

There's not much I'd classify as "dumb mistakes". And, for what it is worth, most rules are made to be broken. I break some rules all the time and most rules some of the time. There's only a few rules I just won't break. LOL

I don't care if someone has been gardening for 8 week or 8 months or 8 years or 8 decades, there's always going to be challenges--whether it is disease, drought, pests, hail, tornadoes, snow in July or whatever. We all just learn to roll with punches, go with the flow, and if something doesn't work out this year, try again next year. Sometimes, I feel like the more I learn, the less I know "for sure". So, being flexible helps too.

More than anything else, gardening has to be enjoyable or it isn't worth doing it.

Dawn