Overwhelmed

11 years ago

I've dabbled in plants and gardening for a long time, but it's really been more study and research than actual doing, because I didn't have the space.

Now I'm living on just under and acre and will have some sizeable area for a garden plot. Thing is, I'm overwhelmed at the moment. I've read so much and have seen so many things that when I stand outside and think of the flat grassy patch I intend for my garden, I don't know where to start!

I'm compiling a list of what I'd like to grow, down to the specific varieties. I'm including soil temp, spacing info, germination info, when/whether to transplant or direct sow, etc.

What I am not sure of is how to start my new beds. I've read of lasagna gardening, double-digging, tilling, and I'm just not sure how to get started.

Any tips for me? How can I condense all my info into a viable garden? Help me break it down into steps so I can eat some awesome food this summer!

Featured Answer

agardenstateof_mind

11 years ago

You don't specify what you wish to grow in your garden - vegetables? herbs? ornamentals? A combination is really nice, and the herbs and flowers will attract beneficial insects (pollinators as well as parasites and predators of the bad bugs) and makes for a pleasing garden.

Your county cooperative extension office of Rutgers is a great resource. Rutgers has a slew of fact sheets on gardening - veg. & herb gardening fact sheets can be found at Rutgers Fact Sheets - Veg. & Herb Gardening

If you're starting with a vegetable garden, the recommendation for a beginner is about 100 square feet. You can always expand from there. Do a soil test - either get the kit from your cooperative extension and send it away to Rutgers or get a kit and do your own for a ballpark idea of your starting point. Don't forget pH - it will affect your plants' ability to uptake nutrients.

If there are animals in the area that can be expected to snack in your garden, best to think about fencing if possible - there are repellants, but exclusion is the most effective strategy.

Start with vegetables that are easy to grow in your area, vegetables that you like, and ones that just aren't the same when purchased at the market. Some of the easy ones are lettuces and leafy greens of all kinds, peas, tomato, summer squash, green beans.

The more I learn about soil and the organisms that inhabit it, the more I lean towards the various methods like lasagne gardening and Ruth Stout's approach (here's a reprint of a great essay she wrote back in 1954: Stout - The benefits of working less in the garden).

Don't overthink this. The plants know what to do ... your job is to provide the conditions they'll need to do it: good soil, sun, moisture.

How fortunate to have such a large area to work with! My little veggie/herb garden is limited to 10'x11' as that is all that gets sufficient sunlight. It's a delightful little "potager", though, my zen space. I hope you'll enjoy every phase of your garden, too.

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Comments (6)

jean001a
11 years ago
Contact your county's Extension Service office as they can direct you to university pubs and more for your area.

PS:
Just because you have lots of space, doesn't mean you must have a large garden.
Start small!

Here is a link that might be useful: locate your County's Extension Service office
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
11 years ago
That's the BEST advice you could possibly get right now! Contact your Extension office and start small.
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west_gardener
11 years ago
I agree with jean001a , start small and find your own type of gardening. And have fun experimenting.
PRO
User
11 years ago
One way to start small is with a few raised garden beds. You can make your own or buy a kit.
asm198 - Zone 6a (MO)
11 years ago
Our extension office has a list online of recommended planting dates for each vegetable, as well as suggested varieties and I've found that very helpful. Beyond that, I use the spacing and transplant/direct sow information on seed packets as a guide.

As far as the beds, last April we reallocated a section of our backyard to a garden and what we did was fairly simple. We marked off the sections, then used shovels to remove the grass. We edged the beds with 2x2s, not because we were doing a raised bed, but so there was a clean separation between garden space and yard space.

This is where what we had PLANNED to do differed that what we actually did. We had planned to use a tiller to till up the soil in the bed, add soil purchased at the local garden center, and some decomposing leaves to mix, then till again. That way, things could at least sit for a month before we started planting. However, we never had a long enough break in the rain to do any of that, so we ended up putting in new soil and leaves a week before we planted, then tilled everything the day we planted. It wasn't ideal, but things grew and we had a decent harvest.

I'm sure that's not the right way to do things, but doing things right would have meant no garden last year and I decided that less than perfect soil conditions would be better than no garden at all.