First food garden

hehehe sorry.. had to chuckle :)
now for your next attempt … what did you learn (besides treasuring your local supermarket).. how can you work with the environment … ..
detective work!! I do believe that farming and gardening is all about being a good detective

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

First, congratulations on starting to grow your own food!

It can be very frustrating to pour lots of time and energy into a project and then see that it does not live up to expectations. Don’t give up on organic farming! In my opinion, using pesticides will make your problem worse in the long run as pesticides tend to kill off the pollinators and predator insects faster than the insects that devour our vegetable plants. As Debbie said, gardening is filled with lessons that will make your next attempt more successful if you are observant and open to change. In organic gardening, you try to work with nature rather than fight against it.

Think about your soil. It is hard to tell from the photos, but it looks like it is sandy. You might need to build up your soil by adding organic matter (compost, mulch, green cover crops).

In the photos, I see lots of bare, sunny ground. That is an optimal place for weeds to take root and grow. “Weeds” are plants growing where we don’t want them to grow. In a classic vegetable garden set-up, they tend to be the annual grasses (rocket grass!), herbs or flowers as these are pioneer plants, waiting to take advantage of open ground. Mulching around and between plants will help keep them down. Also, mulch will prevent the rains from washing away your precious topsoil.

Plant eating insects love to see a block of the same delicious vegetables growing together. It makes it very easy to feast and have a population explosion. Next year, try mixing up some of your vegetables to make them harder for the insects to find. Two examples to get you thinking: Corn will grow better if you plant beans (nitrogen fixers) to grow up the corn stalks and spreading squash to shade and protect the ground under the corn stalks. Lettuce, raddishes, dill and parsnip can be grow together and then, as you harvest the ones that are crowded (remove the whole plant), plant bush beans in the openings you make.

Let us know a little more about where your garden is located, such as your climate or zone, because it will make it easier to help you. Enjoy the gardening adventure, it can be incredibly rewarding!

-- Robin, Massachusetts - "Live simply so others can simply live." M. Gandhi

Wow, incredible tips… we had heard about the mulching but didn’t do it. We’ll have to try all this in the spring. We’re in central Florida, and the ground is very sandy and nutrient poor, although we did fertilize it a few times.
Thanks for your help!

You are very welcome. Now that I know where your garden is located, I have some an idea that can help you get your garden ready for the next growing season. Since you are not covered in snow right now, you might want to plant a cover crop over your garden area to increase fertility, protect the topsoil from erosion and block out potential weeds. You could grow a nitrogen-fixing crop such as cool weather loving peas, Dutch white clover or winter rye. You can till these cover-plants right into the soil in the spring. Give them a week or so to break down and your soil will already be better for the winter care.

Good luck and I look forward to reading about your second garden come spring!

-- Robin, Massachusetts - "Live simply so others can simply live." M. Gandhi

A very good post to invite advice and suggestions from experienced gardeners. I am thankful to Robin for giving such a valuable advice to improve the vegetable garden.The very purpose of starting GT site is fulfilled by such discussions. I wish more GTs(out of 825) should participate and make GTs at par with LJ.
Sharad

-- Bagwan-- “If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in their life, then it means they have never tried a new thing in their life”.-Albert Einstein

me too Sharad.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

Me too. When I see someone new sign in, then they disappear, I wonder. Are they just looking? I am so curious, I love to hear and see what someone else is doing in their garden in their part of the world.

So, if there are any ‘lurkers’ out there just waiting for an invitation to particpate, here’s your invite from me. 8^))

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

Rengelking~ I can TOTALLY sympathize with you, as last year I tried planting probably an acre’s worth of seed into a 5×5 lil plot of back yard, (he he he) I did not amend my soil, mulch or anything….just weeded and watered everyday…I got to see the few ears of corn the bugs ate, a rotten squash or two, and i actually recognized the green leafy part the carrots, but none ever actually came up….. now, the greens were great! However since my family doesn’t eat them much it was only I that enjoyed them…..oh well, such is life, we live and we learn, right? I have already bought mulch (wink) and am actually going to start seeds INDOORS in March instead of in the yard in June, lol

and oh, btw, I have been “amending” my soil with kitchen scraps all winter…no it’s not proper compost, but better than nothin’!

-- Jessica~ Oklahoma zone 7 “A genius always presents himself as a fool” ~Anon.

memories.

My first garden. I use a shovel to try and cut my own sod which only served to severe my spine or at least thats what my back felt like. Renting a roto-tiller I tell the soil, constantly bending over and pulling roots out, till and till and till until my whole body felt like a bouncing super ball.

Then I plant veggies and they grew like wildfire. then a rabbet came by and ate every single plant.

So I bought fencing and fenced the garden in…....replanted…......the rabbet jumped over the fence and ate every single plant. I was never more hungry for rabbett stew !!!!

So I made the fence taller, dug fencing into the ground and alas….......I beat the rabbet but the huge trees that surrounded the garden came out in full leaf, and every shred of sunlight dissappeared…........sighhhhh

-- Central northish Ontario

One good way to help with the tomato worms is to put collars around the plants when you plant them.A lot of people use larger tin cans like the size from canned tomatoes or plastic tubs that ice cream comes in or anything along that line.It just has to be large enough so the plants can grow properly and not too large that they stop the sunlight on the seedlings.Bury part of the can in the ground around your plants.Also now is a good time to start a compost pile.It will really help your soil.Also add some cow or sheep manure to help your soil.Since your soil is really sandy some peat moss would also help to keep moisture in.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Thanks, yes, we started a compost pile last year… we’ve got quite a bit ready for this year. We also used manure last year, quite a bit, and also fertilizer… we got a pretty fancy soil test kit, and the soil, even though it looked sandy, was measuring up. My wife was also trying to get the lady bugs to go in and protect the garden, but they kept flying out. Thanks for the great stories and the great tips… I’m looking forward to getting the garden going again.

rengel i’m going with the sfg method this year. Check out the book by mel bartholomew. Sounds perfect for you. I’m also not a fan of turning the soil. Pretty sure the only purpose of turning the soils is to stir up the weed seeds.

My late father-in-law was a chemical engineer. He said the trouble with people and pesticides is the notion that if a little is good, a lot is better. Therefore they do a lot of damamge. I plan to use pesticides – in moderation. Can you still buy them? They didn’t ban them yet? My husband thinks we have to drive to the USA to buy pesticides.

-- Erika, Hastings, ON

Ontario banned all pesticides, herbacides, and insecticides last year. The only exception are herbacides like “Round-Up” for eradicating Poisin Ivy. It is my understanding that if you hold an agricultural GST/HST # that you can still purchase them which takes sales in excess of $7,000.00

Quebec has yet to ban them.

Personally I think its rediculus. It is impossible for me to grow potatos (aside form a twice daily,on my knees and squish every potato bug and egg by sytematically turning over every leaf) with out pesticides.

Driving down the DVP in Toronto and looking at the lush forest on the west side only to think “what beautiful trees” only to find out thjat almost every one of them is dead, and the green you see is the dog strangling vine or checking out a pristine lake, returning 3 years later to see purple leaf strife completly consume it…....is disturbing to me.

What a great idea…...............ban pesticides.

-- Central northish Ontario