Tips wanted for starting a small garden.

N

NO F-Bdy Bs

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May 3, 2007
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We just moved into our new house. Its a semi-rural area, about 3mi out of the city limits.

I have a few acres now, and would like to start a small garden. Nothing big, somehwhere in the size of 20x20ft, give or take.
just something to grow a few things, and for a hobby, and possibly for SHTF. I live in upper Louisiana.
Id like some suggestions on what to grow.
Here is what I have to deal with.

1.Louisiana summer. It could go 2 months without rain, though, we are on well water, and have a pond very close, so I can keep it watered pretty easy.
2.100+deg days in the summer. Average Highs are low 90s in the day, mid 70s at night. High humidity.
3.No shade. I dont have ANY trees on my land. We have planted a few Pear trees, but they are still quite small. So whatever it is, its gotta like sun, all damn day.
4.Something that is fairly low maintence. I dont mind a little work, but I typically work 12hr days. Not looking to spend 2 extra hours messing with plants when I get off. Nor do I want to spend thousands of $$ on soil additives.
5.Something that is pretty tough. That can take the sun, lack of rain, ect. I dont want to have to prune everyday.
6. We dont need a TON of bearing. Just enough for a family of 3, and give some extra to my folks.


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Okra, sqaush, eggplant, cucumbers, tomatos, onions and maybe sweet potatos should all do fine if your soil is decent. I grow one every year about the size you mentioned, plus an herb garden and it is more work than people think but fresh vegatables are worth it in my book. Chris
 
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I mound the dirt up in long rows 3.5 feet by 20 and plant close together to get a living mulch. They used to call it French intensive gardening or square foot garden. Water only down the beds and never walk on them. Keep grass clippings etc in the paths between the beds you won't have to walk on mud and recycles back into the garden. Minimal work.
 
I used to garden in our back yard but the deer are tenacious around here. Most of the stuff they didn't eat was taken by slugs and a fat woodchuck. Why couldn't he be happy just chucking wood?:grumpy:

I decided to plant a large container garden on the flat roof of our shed. It worked great. No repellants, anti-slug pellets, no chicken wire barricades, no weeds, no nothing.

It produces a good deal less than a 20x20 plot but it works for us.

I planted different heirloom tomatoes, peppers and lots of herbs. I'm gonna expand the operation to include lettuce, cucumbers and zucchini for the blossoms. It's a lot of work initially, but by the end of the summer when you bite into a tomato and realize that this is what a tomato really tastes like, you'll be a happy man.

For shade, you could probably rig up some thin fabric over the rows. Gardening stores have the stuff or you could check out the Lee Valley gardening catalog online or order one for free. Lots of gadgets, but there are good ideas there too.

Have fun!

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/index.aspx?c=3
 
I have a raised bed that I started last year. Here it is resting for the winter

downsized_01190910381.jpg


I bought all plants last year but am trying an indoor greenhouse to sprout seeds this year. The plants that found did the best in the heat and with less water were the squash and zucchini. My tomatos did horrible, but it was my first year and I am still learning. Eggplants attracted a lot of ants, but my basil seemed to work in keeping the rest of the bugs away. Bell pepper took FOREVER to come up and only produced a couple of peppers per plant - my Jalapenos put out a lot as well as my banana peppers. I'd imagine the bell pepper is also attributed to my newness in gardening.

I have to put up a fence because my dog gets in there and makes a mess if I don't - that and we've got A LOT of rabbits.

Good luck bro - I agree it's work, but it's fun if you enjoy that sort of thing. I like taking care if it and often bring a beer out to tend to it :) If everything goes well this year I'm going to build one of a similar size next year.

One peice of advice - if you do a raised bed do it narrow enough where you can reach to the middle from both sides so you don't have to walk in it. A huge advantage to a raised bed is you deal with a lot less weeds.
 
One good summer squash kept watered will keep you in squash. one grape tomato plant will keep you in salad tomatos plus enough to snack on couple rows of green beans
Roy
 
groundhogs will kill you if you don't kill them. a fact.

like it or not, a miracle gro plant growth stimulator has the ideal mixture of elements needed for tomatoes. Go all natural, then add Miracle Gro...maybe in camo...so you don't feel hypocritical. Work out a system to easily water the tomatoes every day, once they start growing.

If you can get some OLD manure..and till it into the soil, a couple of times...you will take what you have and make it much richer. Fresh manure is too "hot" to help.

Don't buy a new roto-tiller...ever. They get used about four hours a year for most folks, find one used. Worth the $100 or so. You will find 20 feet by 20 feet is a LOT of spading.

Check with your new neighbors...it will give you a chance to meet them, and find out what they have had that worked, and didn't work.

If you like gardening...you will love it.

Congrats on the new place.
 
A big resource are seed catalogs, they have a zone map that will give you a good indication of how well a certain variety of plant may thrive. its imperfect, but given that there are hundreds of different varieties of veggies, and all are not equal, it is a good start.

the farmers almanac has some good info as well.
Old wives tales about tomatoes liking cucumbers or whatever it is, mostly are true.

gardens are a great thing, especially for kids. then you can start you own juice and jam making.

if you have cabbage butterflys (the little white ones) a tennis racket is a great method....
 
I've tried gardening here in south central Idaho but living in ag country it's tough as far as pests. Zucchini was pretty easy as were herbs in containers but tomatoes, leafy things, etc. were more trouble than they were worth. If the SHTF, we will all learn and deal with the issues of gardening in our different regions but until then, I'll go to Costco and the farmer's markets.
 
Kismet said:
groundhogs will kill you if you don't kill them. a fact.

like it or not, a miracle gro plant growth stimulator has the ideal mixture of elements needed for tomatoes. Go all natural, then add Miracle Gro...maybe in camo...so you don't feel hypocritical. Work out a system to easily water the tomatoes every day, once they start growing.

If you can get some OLD manure..and till it into the soil, a couple of times...you will take what you have and make it much richer. Fresh manure is too "hot" to help.

Don't buy a new roto-tiller...ever. They get used about four hours a year for most folks, find one used. Worth the $100 or so. You will find 20 feet by 20 feet is a LOT of spading.

.
Click to expand...

+1 word for word :thumbup:.

I have one of the micro tillers I bought used for 30 dollars, replaced the fuel line and cleaned the spark plug and it runs like a champ, the perfect size for a backyard garden. +1 on the miracle grow and Lowes carries 50 pound bags of composted cow manure, I till that in and cover my garden in straw, not hay, to hold in moisture, works like a charm.

I may be bragging but I grow some pretty vegatables. :D Chris
 
runningboar said:
+1 word for word :thumbup:.

I have one of the micro tillers I bought used for 30 dollars, replaced the fuel line and cleaned the spark plug and it runs like a champ, the perfect size for a backyard garden. +1 on the miracle grow and Lowes carries 50 pound bags of composted cow manure, I till that in and cover my garden in straw, not hay, to hold in moisture, works like a charm.

I may be bragging but I grow some pretty vegatables. :D Chris
Click to expand...

I think John Wayne said, "It ain't bragging, if you can do it."
I am learning a lot in this thread. :thumbup:
 
One of the advantages you SoCal people have is a growing season about 11 months long. When I lived in WLA it seemed like we could grow tomatoes year round.
 
Why do tomatos split? I had this issue BAD last year. I've heard it's because of too much water.
 
we do raised bed's and a small greenhouse with many different types of vegtables. we grow tomatoes in buckets and potatoes in old truck tires with compost (works fantastic!). you might also consider subscribing to magazines such as backwoods home and countryside. both are excellent resources for gardening and other self-sufficent living ideals.
hope this helps!!
 
tomatoes splitting can be from too much variance in the watering, or growing too fast AFAIK. did you cage them? or are they a ground variety?

other times it might be just odd genetics. the stock for producing vegetable crops is dwindling, as many variety are becoming extinct as the seed can only be stored for so long, and it is expensive.

CSG, where will you find seeds to plant after the fact? assuming that you will be able to grow things is kinda naive IMHO, given how hard getting good seed is getting.

Skimmerhorn, do you continually stack the tires and add soil? it is pretty amazing how "deep" you can get potatoes to grow.
 
gadgetgeek said:
tomatoes splitting can be from too much variance in the watering, or growing too fast AFAIK. did you cage them? or are they a ground variety?

other times it might be just odd genetics. the stock for producing vegetable crops is dwindling, as many variety are becoming extinct as the seed can only be stored for so long, and it is expensive.

CSG, where will you find seeds to plant after the fact? assuming that you will be able to grow things is kinda naive IMHO, given how hard getting good seed is getting.

Skimmerhorn, do you continually stack the tires and add soil? it is pretty amazing how "deep" you can get potatoes to grow.
Click to expand...

I should have caged them but couldn't find any at the local stores so I used a bunch of stakes and tied them off. I probably stressed the plant from being tied up all over the place.

We don't get much water in the summer hear so I water every day but not a lot.

What's the trick? Watering at night or in the morning? I've heard watering at night causes fungus on the plants.
 
I am not sure what causes them to split, I don't think it is staking and tying them though. Before the cages became popular, I still raised tomatos by staking them and didn't have a problem. I will do some internet snooping but I suspect it is some kind of infection or parasite. I use sevin dust on my tomatos to control tomato worms and very rarely have a problem with splitting, so maybe it is controlling whatever causes the splitting too. Chris
 
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