Gardening Space Article this Morning
Just letting you know that there’s an error in the captions on this morning’s article on space planning in the garden. The illustrations were of a traditional row garden (1′ x 4′) and a planting diagram for wide row or square foot gardening (2′ x 2′). The traditional row was mistakenly labeled as a wide row.
The point is to show that you can plant much more using a wide row planting method than by using traditional rows. In the illustration of bush beans, 4′ square of wide row planting allows you to plant 36 bush bean seeds versus 8 for the traditional row. Note that yield per plant will be smaller, but since you can plant so much more in the same space, your yield per square foot will be much higher.
Although square foot gardening advocates 4′ x 4′ plots, you can use the 1′ square planting diagrams in any configuration in a wide row. Place 3 1′ square boxes adjacent to each other for a 3′ wide row.
Is anyone else using wide row or square foot gardening?
May 5, 2012 - 11:32 AM
A question KH. yOU READ ABOUT BLACK GOLD CASTINGS AND COMPOST. hOW DOES THE HOMEMADE KIND STACK UP TO THAT? Mainly interested in using it for potting and transplanting, so would need it to be real fine. D. Carol, how about your recipe for your compost. Size, materials, etc. Thanks to both.
Black Gold Castings refers to earthworm castings, which make great compost. You can also do your own earthworm composting at home, letting the worms eat your kitchen scraps.
I’m sure we’re like most backyard composters. Our kitchen scraps go in the compost pile, but so does our yard waste. So, one’s not necessarily better than the other; just depends on how you want to compost and what you want to compost. Everything in the compost pile eventually breaks down to nutrient-rich material if you wait long enough.
You can read more about home earthworm composting on Fine Gardening’s website at http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/worm-composting.aspx. Earthworm composting is a great activity to do with kids, too.
Anybody on board with apple/fruit trees? I noticed the tips of my apple tree turning brown and dead. Looks exactly like what the locust swarm would do, but nobody on da Knob has seen or heard any. D. Carol, how about your fruit trees?
A good read on katy dids.
http://www.magicicada.org/magicicada_i.php
http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/
wdbrand – I have been outdoors and forgot to look at the blog here. No magic formula for me for composting. We throw in our vegetable scraps and coffee grounds. Also have added some of the straw from our goat shelter and the droppings under the chickens’s roost. We haven’t had a compost bin for a couple years – had been just burying the scraps in a trench in the garden but decided to do a bin again this year. As we are planting in the gardening, we are finding lots of earthworms. When we find a grub of some insect – we give them to the chickens as a special treat.
Of course, our garden is fenced in and in the winter we let our chickens free range over the garden. We have also planted crimson clover as a cover crop. Saw these giant mosquito looking bugs coming from in and around the crimson clover but then discovered they are called “Crane Flies”. They are not really a pest.
Apple Trees – have not noticed that on ours this year. The Man of the House thought it might be a borer of some sort. I have a friend who is a Master Gardener so I will check in with her and see if she knows.
You mentioned you had a black heart cherry tree once. I have one close also and every year a lot of small cherries start dropping way before they turn, You notice that? Similar to the ole saying June Drop on apple trees. Might be the same type of thing.
I was pleasantly surprised while working the soil for our raised garden, pulling weeds and newly emerging black walnut trees, that we have developed an earthworm rich environment in the raised bed. I worked in some new top soil, composted manure, and humus into the soil to get ready for planting, which I’ll start once the cold front blows through this week. Some of our plants are ready to go, others need a little more time…but by this weekend, I’m hoping to have everything in the ground.
Hi Karen! I have to apologize — I’m the Extra section designer who mislabeled your illustration. I should have known better; I was so interested in your article that I used it as an example to my husband of what I’d like our garden to look like in the future. So I’m very sorry about that.
I have a few questions for you. First off, our garden has a terrible problem with weeds. We use some of our horse manure in our compost, and I suspect that there’s the problem — we don’t turn it often enough, we don’t let it sit long enough, etc. But also, we’ve been building our garden up with pickup truckloads of topsoil and garden soil, compost, humus and peat moss for the past four years, but it’s still not “raised.” It looks a little better immediately after we add soil and till it up, but the next year it’s ground level again. We have two separate gardens on a slight hill with a four-foot grassy walking path between them and no barriers between the gardens and the grass, so weeds creep in that way too. What I’d like to do is turn our garden into what yours looks like (to other folks, I’m referencing the photo of Karen’s garden on Page 3 of Sunday’s Extra.) No grass at all, no barriers needed, and no more tilling. What did you do to get your garden to that place? How did you kill the grass and how do you keep out the weeds?
We’re thinking of laying down cardboard over the grassy walking path (power lines run underneath so no tilling there), lay newspapers down over the gardens, dump all our compost (which isn’t much right now) and a couple of pickup truckloads of store-bought compost or garden soil on top of the gardens, heap the soil in rows as you have, and dump a couple of truckloads of mulch over all of it. I’d love to know if there’s a better (or less back-breaking) way.
Also, we have 20 broccoli plants in the ground right now. They’re still small, but more than half of them developed tiny heads that quickly went to seed. What could have caused that? And, if I cut those off, will the plants continue to grow and produce side shoots that get as big as the main heads were supposed to?
Thanks so much, and again, I’m sorry for the mistake on your article!
Hi Gretchen,
Horses only digest about 1/4 of all the grass and grains they consume, so horse manure can contain grass and weed seeds. That’s a really common problem. You should also make sure it’s well composted before putting it around your veggies.
Here’s how we did our garden: the first spring, we tilled the whole area, then laid out where we wanted our beds. Tilling usually loosens about 8-10 inches of soil. Then we scraped all the loose soil off the walking paths and moved it on top of the planting beds, raising them by another 4 inches or so. We also added two pickup trucks of free partially composted leaves from the town of Blacksburg, and compost from the pile in our backyard.
You have the right idea on the paths. Lay cardboard or several sheets of newspaper on the paths and mulch on top. We discovered those rolls of brown paper in the painting aisle at home improvement stores are great for this. They make laying down the barrier very easy and break down in a few years. The manufacturer actually began marketing them for landscaping a few years ago. As for mulch for the paths, we got a free delivery from a local tree trimmer.
We intend to eventually put barriers on the beds to hold the soil in but haven’t done it yet, mostly because we are waiting until we can get a cheap source of materials. Our new raised beds are built from the waste from a sawmill so the wood was very cheap. When we get more, we’ll do the long beds too. In the mean time, we’re not losing that much soil, probably because the beds are well-mulched too.
Yes, the first year is a lot of work, but after that, it’s pretty effortless. No tilling after the first year and the soil stays nice and loose in the planting beds, since we never walk on it. The mulch in the paths needs refreshing every few years. Ours is about to get another layer, courtesy of the apple trees in our yard that came down last year.
About your broccoli: it sounds like the warm weather made them bolt. Broccoli likes cool weather. If they’ve sent up stalks and flowered, you’ll just need to rip them out and try again in fall. Probably not what you wanted to hear!
Sigh. And by “Sunday’s Extra,” folks, I mean “Saturday’s Extra.”
D. Carol, any word on what might be causing the tips of my apple tree to turn brown and die. I just noticed my sons two apple troos are doing the same thing, and he lives in W. Salem. I’d swear it was katy dids except I haven’t seen or heard one. This has happened in less than a month. My son hasn’t seen or heard one either. Anybody on board that has any clues, jump in here please. If it’s controllable with spray, I need to be doing it pronto.
Hi wdbrand and D. Carol! Familiar faces! So wd, what can I do about the water issue with my garden?
As far as my apple trees, they are looking good right now. I’m just down the mountain from you wd.
wdbrand – I checked my apple trees and they are fine. Could the brown tips be frost damage? The black heart cherry trees are at least 50 feet tall and are on the edge of the woods. With them being so tall and being in the woods, I don’t go there to see if they have dropped any fruit. I would also assume that the wild animals are eating the dropped fruit. I have had my eye on some of the saplings but noticed that something has eaten all of the leaves off of them – deer?
Nurse dry garden – since we are on well water and the levels in the well have a tendency to drop during dry weather, we have started collecting rain water. We used rain barrels but they would overflow with the water and I couldn’t see it all going back into the ground. So we have those big 300 gallon metal farm troughs/tanks (2) and then 2 big 300 gallon round plastic farm tanks that we collect water in. We pump the water from the plastic farm tanks to the metal troughs in the garden. We also have used soaker hose from the troughs to the rows in the garden.
I can’t believe that about the broccoli, Gretchen! You might still be able to find someone who has some broccoli sets for sale and can replant them. Ours do not go to seed until late July.
My apple and pear trees also have a lot of brown tips, especially where there is young fruit. I am certain my trees have fireblight. Based on what I’ve noticed around the area, it seems to be a bad year for that. It varies from year to year depending on the weather conditions at blossom time. Last year there was hardly any. There is no effective spray at this point. There are several spray recommendations beginning at bud burst. It seems controversial as to whether breaking off the effected branches is necessary to prevent spread. I think it is more important to do that on pear trees.
John in PF. I had about come to the same conclusion. Never had it before this year on a 15 year old tree tho. The only thing I could think of. As far as control, it needs to be done back in the bloom and then kept up with. Several different things used at different times of spraying. But control is recommended since the fungus will or can eventually kill the tree. Nasty stuff.
Nurse d g: What D. Carol said is the same general system I used, only all home made out of scrap and parts. There are two ways to do it. One is gravity flow and the other is a pumped system. Not knowing your garden location in relation to your water storage system, I can’t tell which one would be needed. Easily checked with a lock level to get the amount of drop from water source to garden tho. And simple. Would take about 2 minutes. You mentioned living just down from me so I’ll be glad to check it for you. Free service to the first 10 folks who respond. If interested, let me know and I’ll post my e-mail so as to keep clutter off the blog. Also, thanks John. I’ll keep the board posted on this.
I don’t currently have a water collection system set up. Being in a neighborhood has cramped some of my ability to have anything elaborate. I have about a 1 acre lot and my garden is in a flat area probably 75yds from my house, out closer to my apple trees. The garden itself is not very big at all. I only have room for about 2 more rows of plants and my cucumbers. I’m a complete novice at this LOL. I grew up with my parents always raising a garden, but this is the first time I have attempted to raise my own.
My idea was to have a rain collection barrel up next to my house. Then we would just fill water buckets and cart them out to the garden via the lawn tractor and trailer. Honestly, my garden is small enough that this wouldn’t be a huge issue. Problem is, my hubby is very concerned about attracting more mosquitoes by having the barrel. We already have a mosquito issue in our back yard. So if I can figure out how to handle keeping the mosquitoes at bay, I think I could convince him to do the rain barrel.
Nurse…most rain barrels don’t have any openings on the top for mosquitos to get into. The only openings are usually the overflow. A simple one can be made with a 55-gallon plastic trash can with lid. Put a house connection at the bottom (well sealed of course), and an overflow outlet at the top. Cut a square hole in the lid to fit where the gutter downspout can enter, and set it in place (some downspout mods are probably needed though). And make sure to create a strudy, level pad for it…they will weigh a lot when full.
We’re looking at getting a large cistern tank and putting it under our deck, then tying the downspout drains off the back half of the house into it. Ideally, I’d like a screening filter just outside of the tank and a pump inside the tank to pressurize the flow, since our garden is slightly uphill of where the tank would sit. I think it’s doable though.
Tomato stakes. Bambo works fine. If you have access to a patch, cut what size and length you want and put in the rafters to dry. Lasts a long time, and it’s free.
Not be an alarmist, but folks should stay tuned to the up coming weekend weather. Since the cold front will push thru tonight and skys will clear, tomorrow will be maybe below seasonable temp wise. If the wind lays, a perfect situation will develop for radiational cooling and a low dewpoint, allowing the temps to drop. It doesn’t have to be 32* to frost. I think Roanoke proper will do fine. However, out lying areas, sheltered valleys, higher elevations just might be prone to a frost. Again, check your weather forecast since it will be mighty nice and tempting to stick stuff in the ground. Wander over to Kevin Myatts board and see his forecast for the next two days for updates. Or, ask D. Carol, as she is well aware of what MIGHT/COULD occur. Hopefully, it’s not another May 22, 2003 type deal. Just a heads up.
Gretchen – if your broccoli had been in the trays/container too long, it might have started heading up and then when you planted it, it just continued. You could still try getting some more plants and plant them. I have not been able to find anyone who sells broccoli plants in the summer for fall planting.
Yes wdbrand – I am keeping my eye on the temperature for the upcoming weekend. The NWS says my lows for Fri/Sat morning will be in the upper 30′s. The tomatoes and peppers are not in the garden yet – still waiting on warmer temperatures.
I’ve just started setting my tomato plants outside to get them used to the temps. They are definitely not ready to put in the ground yet. I did notice that I have some lettuce coming up, but it should be fine even in the colder temps. My green beans haven’t peeked through the ground yet, so I feel like they should be ok too. If my thinking on this is wrong, please let me know.
Thanks Other John! I’m still trying to convince the hubby. I even sent him a picture of what the rain barrel should look like LOL.
DC, you’ve mentioned ground tepms before. While researching katydids, I read an interesting fact. Seems when katydids drop to the ground, they burrow in to around 8″. Article also said they emerged when the ground temp was between 64* and 68*. A natural thermometer.
wdbrand – katydid info sounds interesting. That would be a good sign as to when to put the tomatoes in the ground etc. We keep records of what we grow and when they are planted and harvested etc. – what works and what doesn’t. We do not put the tomatoes in the ground till in June – that is up here on the ridge. One person we know does not even plant their garden until June.
I’ve got to get an accurate probe for taking ground readings. Talked about a lot on the board, but purely guess work.
Update on temp probe DC. Found what I want here in Roanoke at a H/AC supply house. From about 0* to 120* for around 5 bucks, wholesale. Will be getting one tomorrow.
@ Nurse and OJ, I have a drum for my rain barrel and have even spray-painted the outside a dark green color but I need to finish setting it up. I plan to do it the way OJ suggested, but one other thing I heard is if you do cut a square or circle in the top for the gutter downspout, you can cover any remaining open areas with some screen to keep large bugs and leaves and such from getting inside.
Today was moving day. I evicted two rain gauges to their summer homes. Tomorry will be eviction day for anything with green on it. They will get a dirt bath.
My good friend, Doppler Carol, alerted me to this blog. This is definitely a risk taking season for me and I had 67 tomato plants riding out the nippy Floyd temperatures at 2722′ elevation. I mulched my rows yesterday with newspaper covered by about 6 inches of straw and all appear to have come through okay (a few were already blooming). Some of the peppers and squash plants were under row covers and some under milk jugs, which aren’t quite as attractive as the $30 cloches in garden catalogs, but do the job well. Milk jugs also work well as mini greenhouses for starting seeds. My early vegetables and perennial flowers stayed outside getting good light through Feb. and March (remember a year ago when we were still getting snows?)with only an occasional check to see if any needed watering. The only downside came when the plants outgrew their jugs and I ran out of room for the flats of transplants prior to May planting times.
With the forecast for rain the next couple days – the last tray of broccoli is going in the garden; maybe some more lettuce/greens; the leeks; and hopefully the gladiolas. Holding off on the tomatoes and the peppers till the ground is a little warmer. Friday was perfect broccoli growing weather up here on the ridge.
DR, I would say you might have pushed it a bit. May 15 to 22th is fairly standard for Check/Floyd. I would have had my stuff out by the first cept I have to cage and net it to keep the varmits out. And that’s too much trouble to try to cover if they call for frost. Without cages you could cover. Good job.
wdbrand- You’re right and I’ll see if the pushing pays. We’ve always waited until May 15 for tomatoes until this weird year. Our farm is prime deer habitat so the big garden has a twelve foot high tensile fence with three strands electrified and chicken wire at the base. We still get the occasional buck jumping through when the apples ripen. Groundhogs and raccoons have no respect whatsoever for the fencing. The latest tip I’ve heard for deer repellent is to fasten drier sheets to fences and shrubs. I used binder clips and two really fragrant brands mixed together. So far, the hostas are untouched.
Everything went in the ground this morning. I was hesitant what with this frog strangler on the way, but the low 70′s, no wind, and overcast sky won out. Zero wilting today. Everything was turning yellow or was getting root bound and live or die,it was time for it to go.
The garden is loving this rainy weather!!! I even put some of the houseplants out so they could enjoy the shower. The last tray of broccoli is in the ground along with the leeks, salad greens and the glads. The tomatoes, peppers and sweet potatoes (still in their containers) are outside on the porch “hardening off”.
Welcome DR to the garden blog!