Welcome sharlacr

My garden is also west facing (in our west facing backyard) and was full of crabgrass and bermuda.

Try mulching between your plants with cardboard of several layers of newspapers. I learned that trick from Dawn, and I could kiss her for it. It smothers the grass and weeds, helps keep moisture in the soil, and as it breaks down it will enrich the soil.

Good luck with your new garden! As my knowledge increases mine has become more and more productive, and my family is currently eating fresh lettuce, herbs, sauteed greens and onions, strawberries, and raspberries from mine daily. It is saving us a lot of money and providing fresh organic produce which we would be otherwise hard-pressed to afford. (Actually we could afford it, but I balk at paying sky high prices for organic fruits and veggies when I can just grow my own for the cost of seeds and water).

Jo

Sharlacr,

Welcome to the forum. I hope you have as much fun here as the rest of us and that the info you pick up is useful. I also hope you have a bountiful garden this year.

Now to address a few topics you mentioned: Depending on your soil type, the type of bermuda grass you had, and how well-established the bermuda was, you likely will be fighting bermuda for years. It helps if you dig up every bit of it as soon as it sprouts in your garden. The longer you let it grow, the stronger it becomes. You also can keep the bermuda grass down by putting down cardboard or newspaper around your plants and piling mulch on top of them. The cardboard or newspaper block light and keep it from reaching the soil, which will slow down any bermuda grass attempting to regrow from seeds, roots or stolons. The mulch holds the cardboard and newspaper in place. As a bonus, earthworms love cardboard and newspaper, so they'll soon discover it, will eat it and then carry 'it' down into your soil in the form of earthworm castings (aka worm poop) which will further enrich your soil.

PEAT: Peat moss is controversial for 2 or 3 reasons. Some people object to is use because it is mined and transported great distances. For that reason it is not the most sustainable option. Another issue with peat moss is that once it gets really wet, it is very slow to dry, and once it gets really dry, it is hard to re-wet. Also, peat moss is 'dead' in terms of biological activity. So, it isn't healthy and alive with all kinds of biological life like compost would be. The decision to use or not use peat moss is an individual one. The only time I'd say that using peat moss actually might be harmful to a gardener's soil would be if you have really acidic soil to begin with. In that case, peat moss will make soil more acidic and soil that is too acidic limits the kinds of plants that will grow in it.

KNOWLEDGE: It is alright if you don't know what you're doing yet. There is no better way than the learning-by-doing method. All of us didn't know what we were doing when we first started gardening either. I can read something 100 times in a book, but I don't think I fully understand it well until I've experienced it first-hand in my yard or garden.

THIS FORUM: Although Garden Web has forums for virtually every gardening-related topic you can imagine, this is my favorite forum. On many forums, you'll talking with people who grow in soil, climate, weather, etc. that are totally different from ours. What works for them in their soil and with their climate and weather may not be what works for us, so I prefer this forum where we're all in the same region of the country and face similar soils, weather and climate.

ONIONS: Oh, don't touch those onions yet. They likely aren't ready, but you didn't give us enough info. When you say you planted on Mother's Day, did that include the onions? If so, and if you are growing them for bulbing onions and not for fresh green onions, then they are a long way from being ready. By 5", do you mean 5" tall or that you see bulbs in the soil that are 5" across? Your answer to that makes a big difference in whether or not someone here can tell you if your onions soon will be ready for harvest, or not.

TOMATOES: This will perform a lot better if you cage or stake them,but how much better they perform will vary depending on your soil type and on how wet or dry your average summer weather is. Most tomato plants can regrow from the roots at least one time if they are snapped off, frozen to the ground, devoured by deer, etc. After that, whether they can rebound again just depends on how old the plants are and how vigorously they're growing.

CUCUMBERS: Cukes like warm soil and warm air temps. As soon as the conditions are right, the plants will take off and grow like mad assuming they are healthy. Once nighttime lows are staying consistently above 60 degrees (and, hence, soil temperatures are as well), the cucumber plants will grow just fine. Just be patient.

SUCCESSION PLANTING: You have several options for how to use the area occupied by the onions once they are harvested. I usually follow onions with bush beans or pole beans, winter squash, summer squash, melons, okra, or southern peas (these are heat-loving peas like blackeyed peas, pinkeye purplehull peas, zipper peas, crowder peas, or cream peas; but NOT cool-season peas like sugar snap peas, green shelling peas or snow peas).

It is wonderful that you have a nice, sunny spot for a garden, Often, folks who live in towns and cities don't have enough sunlight because they have to contend with shade from the buildings and trees on neighboring properties.

Dawn