Please help a newbie

17 years ago

Hello, I recently escaped apartment life and have always helped my parents in their gardens over the years, and I feel like it's finally time to do it on my own. However, I'm renting my house (but know the landlord quite well) and would like to put in a raised garden to grow some veggies for myself. I wanted to get a rough idea what size to plan for--I have a limited space that gets ample sunlight to grow vegetables. Here's what I'd like to grow:

tomatoes, green beans (bush), bell peppers, cucumbers, and possibly squash

I do want to note, most of these will be to feed just one person and I don't mind staggering my plantings (I can freeze squash and green beans if needed). Is this even possible in a raised bed about 4'x8'? If not, what size would you recommend?

TIA!

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Comments (5)

jbest123
17 years ago
Welcome TIA. ItÂs not only possible in a RB itÂs preferable. The size will depend on how many plants you want. The squash will be the space hog though. I will be trying some zucchini on a trellis this year, there are compact type winter squash, and I have had good luck with them. Scan the forum to see what other people have grown in there RB/SFGs.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal
thebug1971
17 years ago
TIA,

I think a 4' x 8' bed should be plenty of room as you are starting out. I would place a trellis along the 8' length of the bed. That would be enough room for 3 tomatoes, 4 cucumbers, and a couple of vining squash. That would leave 24 squares available for a variety of peppers, and staggered bush bean plantings.

My $.02...

TheBug
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charlsie142
Original Author
17 years ago
TheBug and John,

Thank you both for your responses and tips! I will definitely read more in this thread before getting started.

By the way--TIA= thanks in advance, not my name.. :) Thanks again though!

charlsie
ribbit32004
17 years ago
Raised beds are certainly the way to go if you're renting. When your lease is up, you pick 'em up and carry them with you. You can sprinkle some grass seed behind and it will be perfect. Start off with the one box. You'll soon have more, don't worry. :)
liisa_rwc
17 years ago
Hi Charlsie

I'm also new to veggie gardening (outside of the few tomatoes and cucumbers I have grown in containers) and SFG. I'm finding this forum to be very helpful and everyone is just great.

I also live in a rental and am lucky the landlord will let me do anything I want to the small back yard (17x30). Currently I have two SF beds ready to go, one is 5x3 and the other is 3x9. I will be adding two more 4x8 beds (I will be feeding up to 7 people if all goes well).

As a side note, I have found the book called "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" very helpful in learning the needs of each veggie I'm planting. It also has a great companion planting guide. The Farmers Almanac has a planting table on page 202 I found extremely helpful for me since I was feeling very overwhelmed on when to get everything planted in my area. I was able to use this table and write down a schedule on a calendar as well as when to start seeds.
I'm not so overwhelmed now.

I'll be blogging about this new adventure on my garden blog and will post later today about my 2009 plan and planting list.

Look forward to hearing about your garden this year... and everyone else's :-)

Liisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Liisa's Garden Journey