I just set out 2 gardens. One at my son's house and one at mine that both families are going to share in. Make sure you have picked a very sunny spot for your garden.
Corn...very easy. Plant in the row 4 inches apart and 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep. Space your rows about2 to 3 feet apart.
Tomatoes.....just go buy some ready to grow plants at LOWES or Walmart. Dig a hole deep enough for the base of the plant. You can also tear of a couple of the leaves at the bottom of the plant to help stimulate growth. Water with a bit of Miracle Gro every other week. I try not to fertilize mine too much. Never water a tomato from the top of the plant; always at the base and preferably NOT in the HEAT of the day.
Potatoes....dig your furrow 'row' pretty deep. I cut my potatoes where there is an 'eye' on each part. Then I plant them close together in the furrow. Cover and "HILL" them up. You will have to 'hill them up' on occasion as they need plenty of room to root out. Also you want to make sure you don't have any potatoes showing through the dirt causing them to turn 'green.' There will be what we call "potato bugs" on the plants at times. They look like an orange beetle. Get you either some pesticide dust or simply go down the plants and pop the bugs between your fingers which is much better than adding pesticides. (Your fingers will turn a bright orange) but is well worth it.
Green beans and beans of all types except "pole" beans. Plant these as you would corn. Most of these are 'bush' type beans and grow in the row together in one long line.
Squash and zucchini, okra, and other veggies...just read the back of the package and it will tell you how to plant, how deep and your row spacing. Don't forget to water preferably in the late afternoon. Don't forget to save some space on the side or in a spot by itself for some good watermelon and cantaloupe.
You can make your own 'natural' fertilizer by adding leaves, twigs, pine cones, potato and veggie peelings and other organic matter that will break down. NO MEAT. Add water and cover. Put in a sunny place and let the stuff break down naturally. Make sure it is a big enough container. Stir periodically. After about a month, get an old jar and gather the juice. Add the juice to your watering can and add water to make it look like tea. Your plants will love it.
Also collect and rake leaves and grass cuttings and simply put them to the side of your yard somewhere. Add organic material, peelings and such and let these ferment for a time. Continue adding stuff periodically. Turn with a pitchfork or some tool on occasion. This will eventually turn to some great garden mulch.
Some say only some roaches would survive a nuclear holocaust… but these roaches would be mercilessly crushed by our beloved indestructible u/Mary911 (and end in the compost) should they try to disturb her Godly peace.🤗💐
Oh thank you for making me laugh. I got home at about 11:30 with the kids. That was after I cleaned a few things for her and went outside to plant some onion sets and some garlic cloves, then I hilled up my potatoes and got the weeds out from between the rows. It was hard trying to do that and keep up with Ninky because her other 3 brothers refused to watch her while I did this task; but I got it done. You simply have to look at it as a 'Labor of Love' for when the time comes to 'chomp' into some of that fresh produce that God's loving sunshine and rain so tenderly helped spring to life for our benefit.
I did leave out a few crucial things like Make sure you weed and hoe the garden; unless you're laying down plastic between the rows. But with todays inflation, who's got the spare money. I put on my "Gumbo Mudders" that is my rain boots and some garden gloves and a floppy straw hat and go to work. Thats all there is to it. You work hard, then you reap the benefits of a good harvest. Amen.
Got to go, time to cook Supper. I'll read you when I can. Take care my friend.
Also you can throw down certain herbs and flowers which will actually improve the taste of the veggies and keep bad bugs away. Thyme, marigolds, basil are all very easy to grow.
Not an expert Gardener myself but I've done tomatoes the last few years and yes, this kind of thing (basil around the tomatoes) is supposed to also help with pests.
Late on my garden this year, been injured. This OP serves as a much needed reminder!
Nasturtiums also kept the aphids away. Also using big tin cans cut on both ends around the plants keep out varmits and then the plants draw the heat from the can.
My experience with marigolds is they attract slugs so when cooking we keep all the egg shells all year long in a bucket and we crush them and pour the shred on the soil when we plant the tomatoes and others : slugs hate crawling on shredded egg shells. Then, before the sun gets down, I take my shears and go behead any slug approaching the vegetables for a night snack, the ones coming later will focus on eating their cadavers. Slugs really are a pest.
If you plant corn, plant a lot. Even 10 stalks is not enough. Two dozen would be a minimum to ensure the flowering process is successful.
YouTube and rumble videos are verrrrry helpful. Lots of backyard farmers out there sharing their experiences. It can be a lot of r&d and expenses. Learn from their mistakes! Less costly.
YES! Everyone loves that corn on the cob in the summer months. Fresh cut fried corn on the stove. Mmmm! Reminds me of my grandmothers. And how we canned the corn by the quarts. Nothing like home canned good corn in the cold winter months.
Thank you! Anything else you recommend I plant in 7a for August? I have seen cabbage and root veg do well. I have a greenhouse that is getting way too hot and humid so im moving it into a shady spot of the yard to try to use it this year.
Good. We are all here to help one another out in times of need. God bless. Hope your family are all well and safe. Always ask if you need something. Someone on here will come to your aid; that's what we do.
Good advice! If you are space limited you can grow potatoes, cukes, carrots and many other veggies in 5 gallon bucketsl. I prefer the food grade but really any will do. Put 6” of soil, seed taters, straw or more soil on top. No more than 4” above the taters. Wait until the leaves get to the top of the bucket and fill with soil and straw. Water every three days. I have 18 buckets of potatoes, 6 of carrots and parsnips and another 3000 sf of other veggies.
If you have plenty of space look up the Ruth Stout method for potatoes. Just prepare the soil (i always add lots of bone meal for taters), place your seed potatoes directly on the soil, dont dig. Add 6 to 10 inches of straw. Just water every couple days when it is dry. No dig harvest in the Fall. I have a 300 sf garden like that every year and get plenty to eat, store and share.
Tomatoes take a little extra care but freeze well. Pinch off all the lower leaves, dig a deep hole, put rock phosphate in the bottom (tablespoon). Plant as deep as you can. Look at the hairs on a tomato stem - those are future roots if the have soil around them. Makes very sturdy plants. I only have to stake the big tomatoes. Important to pinch off all suckers (they form in the notch of many stems) - they will grow leaves, not tomatoes. Prune the bigger leaves off if necessary.
Pole beans need either some cane, wood, or plastic poles or fencing for them to grow up. I planted some one year in with my corn and it tore my corn down. I was told that by an old-time farmer. However I don't know how to do it with the corn, so if you plant any pole beans, you will need to buy or find some wood, tobacco sticks or something tall for them to grow up. That's why I left them out.
Makes sense. I was just wondering if there was a problem with the plant itself because I have in my possession not only pole bean seeds, but also bean poles!
I grew them last year for the first time, and the yield was massively better than the bush beans in the same amount of space.
But it seems as though finding bean poles is not easy, and alternative materials are not cheap.
Yes. You are so lucky that you have some bean poles. I would probably have to go buy some or some chicken wire and string it up which costs more money and right now I haven't the time. Yes I love the Kentucky Wonder pole beans. They are so delicious. And I have 6 packets of them, but I had to resign them to another year and then maybe I can cut some heavy tree branches or something to grow them up. There are several things to do to run them up; but like I said, I haven't the time right now. And seeds will keep. I put mine in a container and keep them in a cool dry place until next year. So everything is okay there.
Good luck with your garden my friend. Wish I had them bean poles of yours. Haahaa.
Just watched an IG account showing how to use feed bags for frowning potatoes:
Cut 1 inch slits every couple inches down two sides to allow for water drainage, then roll the sides down and put soil in bottom.
As potatoes grow, raise the sides of the bags until end of season. At the end of the season just slit cut one side of the bag downand lay it flat to harvest.
I don’t have anything that needs those kind of feed bags, but it looked like a good method?
Sounds great! I may need to try that. I also saw where you could plant potatoes in a cardboard box; a pretty good sized deep one. I may try that one too.
Sorry UncleRico1; I was in a hurry when I sent that this morning. I leave the house at 6 to babysit my grandkids all day until about 5 or 6 PM. So I was running out of time. Thanks for that; I forgot.
Pole beans call for POLES. If you are running low on money or can't find anything to grow them up then it is much better to plant bush beans. I tried growing some pole beans up my corn stalks one year as an old farmer once told me. But the beans bent the corn over. You would need some cane poles, tobacco sticks, or even some fencing for the pole beans to grow up. That's why I didn't suggest it.
Ah ok. As a pede with a big pole, being short on poles is not in my conscious. I had heart the pole bean / corn trick and was going to try it, good to know, I'll be sure to have a back up.
The only way the pole beans would grow up the corn (maybe) is to plant the corn first and then let it get about a foot tall and then plant the beans. But we don't have time to give that a try right now. All I know is that planted together, the beans will pull the corn down.
Great info, thanks. Corn is impossible to grow in our area of zone 7A. Squirrels climb to get the ears and the stalks fall over. If we stake they still damage the corn.
Squirrels also dig up everything we plant, EVERYTHING. We have to lay down mesh to get plants started. Any fresh tilled soil is always dug up. We live in suburbia with thousands of native oaks.
We use a old cement mixer and mix grass clippings and last autumn's leaves and store it in 55 gallon trash cans for use later on.
Maybe you should invest in a small greenhouse. You can build one yourself with wood framing and some heavy plastic. Add a door and there you go. It should keep all the bad critters out of your plants. Other than that, I don't know what to tell you to do. I have a neighbor down the road who built a raised bed and put posts in each corner and then squared it up at the top. They covered it with some plastic one winter; I don't know why; but uncovered they had corn and several other veggies in there. Hope this helps.
Thank you for the ideas. We pretty much given up and have several roles of wire mesh. We are looking into a hoop type of greenhouse, where 10 ft pieces of PVC are formed into a semicircle and covered with plastic. Although it might be easier to just fill the frame like you alluded to.
Hey! That hoop house made out of pvc sounds great. You could probably even make a square or any other shape with pvc. I'll have to pass that idea on; if you don't mind. Great hint. I wish you all the luck and pray you have an abundance of crops this year. God bless.
I just set out 2 gardens. One at my son's house and one at mine that both families are going to share in. Make sure you have picked a very sunny spot for your garden.
Corn...very easy. Plant in the row 4 inches apart and 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep. Space your rows about2 to 3 feet apart.
Tomatoes.....just go buy some ready to grow plants at LOWES or Walmart. Dig a hole deep enough for the base of the plant. You can also tear of a couple of the leaves at the bottom of the plant to help stimulate growth. Water with a bit of Miracle Gro every other week. I try not to fertilize mine too much. Never water a tomato from the top of the plant; always at the base and preferably NOT in the HEAT of the day.
Potatoes....dig your furrow 'row' pretty deep. I cut my potatoes where there is an 'eye' on each part. Then I plant them close together in the furrow. Cover and "HILL" them up. You will have to 'hill them up' on occasion as they need plenty of room to root out. Also you want to make sure you don't have any potatoes showing through the dirt causing them to turn 'green.' There will be what we call "potato bugs" on the plants at times. They look like an orange beetle. Get you either some pesticide dust or simply go down the plants and pop the bugs between your fingers which is much better than adding pesticides. (Your fingers will turn a bright orange) but is well worth it.
Green beans and beans of all types except "pole" beans. Plant these as you would corn. Most of these are 'bush' type beans and grow in the row together in one long line.
Squash and zucchini, okra, and other veggies...just read the back of the package and it will tell you how to plant, how deep and your row spacing. Don't forget to water preferably in the late afternoon. Don't forget to save some space on the side or in a spot by itself for some good watermelon and cantaloupe.
You can make your own 'natural' fertilizer by adding leaves, twigs, pine cones, potato and veggie peelings and other organic matter that will break down. NO MEAT. Add water and cover. Put in a sunny place and let the stuff break down naturally. Make sure it is a big enough container. Stir periodically. After about a month, get an old jar and gather the juice. Add the juice to your watering can and add water to make it look like tea. Your plants will love it.
Also collect and rake leaves and grass cuttings and simply put them to the side of your yard somewhere. Add organic material, peelings and such and let these ferment for a time. Continue adding stuff periodically. Turn with a pitchfork or some tool on occasion. This will eventually turn to some great garden mulch.
HAPPY PLANTING. Hope this helps.
Some say only some roaches would survive a nuclear holocaust… but these roaches would be mercilessly crushed by our beloved indestructible u/Mary911 (and end in the compost) should they try to disturb her Godly peace.🤗💐
kek!
Oh thank you for making me laugh. I got home at about 11:30 with the kids. That was after I cleaned a few things for her and went outside to plant some onion sets and some garlic cloves, then I hilled up my potatoes and got the weeds out from between the rows. It was hard trying to do that and keep up with Ninky because her other 3 brothers refused to watch her while I did this task; but I got it done. You simply have to look at it as a 'Labor of Love' for when the time comes to 'chomp' into some of that fresh produce that God's loving sunshine and rain so tenderly helped spring to life for our benefit.
I did leave out a few crucial things like Make sure you weed and hoe the garden; unless you're laying down plastic between the rows. But with todays inflation, who's got the spare money. I put on my "Gumbo Mudders" that is my rain boots and some garden gloves and a floppy straw hat and go to work. Thats all there is to it. You work hard, then you reap the benefits of a good harvest. Amen.
Got to go, time to cook Supper. I'll read you when I can. Take care my friend.
Also you can throw down certain herbs and flowers which will actually improve the taste of the veggies and keep bad bugs away. Thyme, marigolds, basil are all very easy to grow.
Not an expert Gardener myself but I've done tomatoes the last few years and yes, this kind of thing (basil around the tomatoes) is supposed to also help with pests.
Late on my garden this year, been injured. This OP serves as a much needed reminder!
WWG1WGA
Nasturtiums also kept the aphids away. Also using big tin cans cut on both ends around the plants keep out varmits and then the plants draw the heat from the can.
Chamomile keep some bugs away
Yes Ma'am. I hear that marigolds are the best flowers to plant along the edges of your garden. Great hints. Thanks.
My experience with marigolds is they attract slugs so when cooking we keep all the egg shells all year long in a bucket and we crush them and pour the shred on the soil when we plant the tomatoes and others : slugs hate crawling on shredded egg shells. Then, before the sun gets down, I take my shears and go behead any slug approaching the vegetables for a night snack, the ones coming later will focus on eating their cadavers. Slugs really are a pest.
Quit stealing my ideas; haha. That's what I've been doing with mine.
If you plant corn, plant a lot. Even 10 stalks is not enough. Two dozen would be a minimum to ensure the flowering process is successful.
YouTube and rumble videos are verrrrry helpful. Lots of backyard farmers out there sharing their experiences. It can be a lot of r&d and expenses. Learn from their mistakes! Less costly.
YES! Everyone loves that corn on the cob in the summer months. Fresh cut fried corn on the stove. Mmmm! Reminds me of my grandmothers. And how we canned the corn by the quarts. Nothing like home canned good corn in the cold winter months.
Do i still have time to germ seeds? Zone 7a
Seeds germinate quickly for corn. You should be good to start now, but don’t plant outside until consistent 70 degree temps.
It is late to germ seeds now as they will be trying to mature in high summer, but you can plant in August and have a nice October harvest before frost
Thank you! Anything else you recommend I plant in 7a for August? I have seen cabbage and root veg do well. I have a greenhouse that is getting way too hot and humid so im moving it into a shady spot of the yard to try to use it this year.
You can do it in an InstantPot.
Wealth of knowledge! Thank you!
You're so welcome. Hope it is beneficial to you and others who may never have had the opportunity to plant something. Good luck and God bless.
Saved this post as informative!
Good. We are all here to help one another out in times of need. God bless. Hope your family are all well and safe. Always ask if you need something. Someone on here will come to your aid; that's what we do.
Good advice! If you are space limited you can grow potatoes, cukes, carrots and many other veggies in 5 gallon bucketsl. I prefer the food grade but really any will do. Put 6” of soil, seed taters, straw or more soil on top. No more than 4” above the taters. Wait until the leaves get to the top of the bucket and fill with soil and straw. Water every three days. I have 18 buckets of potatoes, 6 of carrots and parsnips and another 3000 sf of other veggies.
If you have plenty of space look up the Ruth Stout method for potatoes. Just prepare the soil (i always add lots of bone meal for taters), place your seed potatoes directly on the soil, dont dig. Add 6 to 10 inches of straw. Just water every couple days when it is dry. No dig harvest in the Fall. I have a 300 sf garden like that every year and get plenty to eat, store and share.
Tomatoes take a little extra care but freeze well. Pinch off all the lower leaves, dig a deep hole, put rock phosphate in the bottom (tablespoon). Plant as deep as you can. Look at the hairs on a tomato stem - those are future roots if the have soil around them. Makes very sturdy plants. I only have to stake the big tomatoes. Important to pinch off all suckers (they form in the notch of many stems) - they will grow leaves, not tomatoes. Prune the bigger leaves off if necessary.
Good luck!
Great advice. I hope this helps all our friends on here. It's good to trade tips.
Why no pole beans?
Pole beans need either some cane, wood, or plastic poles or fencing for them to grow up. I planted some one year in with my corn and it tore my corn down. I was told that by an old-time farmer. However I don't know how to do it with the corn, so if you plant any pole beans, you will need to buy or find some wood, tobacco sticks or something tall for them to grow up. That's why I left them out.
Makes sense. I was just wondering if there was a problem with the plant itself because I have in my possession not only pole bean seeds, but also bean poles!
I grew them last year for the first time, and the yield was massively better than the bush beans in the same amount of space.
But it seems as though finding bean poles is not easy, and alternative materials are not cheap.
Yes. You are so lucky that you have some bean poles. I would probably have to go buy some or some chicken wire and string it up which costs more money and right now I haven't the time. Yes I love the Kentucky Wonder pole beans. They are so delicious. And I have 6 packets of them, but I had to resign them to another year and then maybe I can cut some heavy tree branches or something to grow them up. There are several things to do to run them up; but like I said, I haven't the time right now. And seeds will keep. I put mine in a container and keep them in a cool dry place until next year. So everything is okay there.
Good luck with your garden my friend. Wish I had them bean poles of yours. Haahaa.
Just watched an IG account showing how to use feed bags for frowning potatoes:
Cut 1 inch slits every couple inches down two sides to allow for water drainage, then roll the sides down and put soil in bottom.
As potatoes grow, raise the sides of the bags until end of season. At the end of the season just slit cut one side of the bag downand lay it flat to harvest.
I don’t have anything that needs those kind of feed bags, but it looked like a good method?
Sounds great! I may need to try that. I also saw where you could plant potatoes in a cardboard box; a pretty good sized deep one. I may try that one too.
*growing potatoes - sorry for typo
Just to add my two cents, find out what zone you're in. That will help you determine what to plant and when. This will help: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/planting-zones/usda-planting-zone-map.htm
Sorry UncleRico1; I was in a hurry when I sent that this morning. I leave the house at 6 to babysit my grandkids all day until about 5 or 6 PM. So I was running out of time. Thanks for that; I forgot.
why not pole beans?
Pole beans call for POLES. If you are running low on money or can't find anything to grow them up then it is much better to plant bush beans. I tried growing some pole beans up my corn stalks one year as an old farmer once told me. But the beans bent the corn over. You would need some cane poles, tobacco sticks, or even some fencing for the pole beans to grow up. That's why I didn't suggest it.
Ah ok. As a pede with a big pole, being short on poles is not in my conscious. I had heart the pole bean / corn trick and was going to try it, good to know, I'll be sure to have a back up.
The only way the pole beans would grow up the corn (maybe) is to plant the corn first and then let it get about a foot tall and then plant the beans. But we don't have time to give that a try right now. All I know is that planted together, the beans will pull the corn down.
Great info, thanks. Corn is impossible to grow in our area of zone 7A. Squirrels climb to get the ears and the stalks fall over. If we stake they still damage the corn.
Squirrels also dig up everything we plant, EVERYTHING. We have to lay down mesh to get plants started. Any fresh tilled soil is always dug up. We live in suburbia with thousands of native oaks.
We use a old cement mixer and mix grass clippings and last autumn's leaves and store it in 55 gallon trash cans for use later on.
Maybe you should invest in a small greenhouse. You can build one yourself with wood framing and some heavy plastic. Add a door and there you go. It should keep all the bad critters out of your plants. Other than that, I don't know what to tell you to do. I have a neighbor down the road who built a raised bed and put posts in each corner and then squared it up at the top. They covered it with some plastic one winter; I don't know why; but uncovered they had corn and several other veggies in there. Hope this helps.
Thank you for the ideas. We pretty much given up and have several roles of wire mesh. We are looking into a hoop type of greenhouse, where 10 ft pieces of PVC are formed into a semicircle and covered with plastic. Although it might be easier to just fill the frame like you alluded to.
Hey! That hoop house made out of pvc sounds great. You could probably even make a square or any other shape with pvc. I'll have to pass that idea on; if you don't mind. Great hint. I wish you all the luck and pray you have an abundance of crops this year. God bless.
Great ideas. Thanks for them all.