23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I add hardware cloth to any new bed (NOT chicken wire! It's holes are too big and it rots after a couple of years!) due to our gopher problems!
Anywhere you live, I would ask some neighbors or the extension office what to expect for your area. Gophers, moles, voles, rabbits, groundhogs etc.. I would especially go with the neighbors, cause while I have never seen a rabbit wild in this area, 5 miles away they run rampant! Nancy

Thanks again, Nancy! You are a wealth of information today! :-)

Thanks to all for your replies! I think my initial plans were a bit ambitious... Sounds like I need to downsize quite a bit. I was originally planning on laying it out as a square foot garden, so I was thinking one plant per square foot = 64 plants in an 8x8 bed... Which is definitely too crowded, now that I really think about it.

The 8x8 bed wasn't really a choice... It came with the house, so we figured we'd just go with it our first season here. Next year, we'll be building several smaller beds that are easier to maintain.

Thanks again!

There is a square foot gardening forum here that might help you out. Nancy

D and others have given you some good advice. Toms 2 feet apart are fine. As D said....toms need 3 things: sun, sun, and more sun. I got caught with my pants down last year on my tom support system. Indeterminates must be supported well. This year I used 4'x8' welded wire panels used for concrete mesh. They are lashed between 8' T posts. I think I should be dialed in better this year.

I'd love to see that arrangement, you don't have a photo do you?

One of these days it will warm up and dry out a bit up there in Dakota.

I am blessed to have been able to plant a couple things out in the gardens...sugar snap peas and onion plants. The lady called this morning that the onions were in. I set them out with fertilizer this morning. the ground works up like a dream on my amended beds. Where the soil is less amended, it is somewhat wetish. The Candy onions were large and had nice live roots on them.

Just so you know I'm not kidding, I work in Syracuse, NY. I live about 25 miles away from Syracuse.

Take a peek at this one too (5 worst winter weather cities in US):
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather/2010/09/07/5-worst-winter-weather-cities/

Feel better now?

Here is a link that might be useful: Top Snowiest cities in US 2013/2014

I always leave mine too, but they flop all over everything when they get tall. I'm thinking of giving them support this year. Anyone try that?

I get some twine and wrap it around a few times. It keeps them out of the paths. Nancy

If you like snow peas, there are some early varieties that don't grow but about 2 feet tall. They would probably work. I think burpee has a carrot called little fingers that can be planted one inch a part, great container carrot, and then one called short and sweet. I think it's a 3 inch carrot. My experience with edible pod peas is that they put on from the bottom up, so you may find that you could get a bit of a harvest before they got root bound. In my area, the heat gets to peas before they would naturally peak out, So I often just get a few pickings. Zone 6 probably is better for peas.

Sure, you can plant any and all of them in 7.5" deep soil, as long as they are watered and fed. That includes peas too.

Depends what tools you have to work it with.
My beds 25ft x 7 ft. I weed with a shuffle hoe. I have 10 of these beds. I put a peice ply wood (1 ft. x 8 ft.) across them to plant.
i used to have 3 foot wide bed , To me They were alot of trouble.

I suppose it depends a lot on what i'm planting .. for example, four rows of corn could all be in the same bed. But tomatoes need ample space so a single row is fine.

Agree with the above but please don't layer your additions. That creates drainige and rooting problems. Rather mix in all the ingredients you add well throughout the bed.

Your woodland soil should work fine but can't say for sure without seeing it. And adding in lots of quality compost can only make it better. It may take a day trip out of the coutny to find cheaper stuff.

Good luck.

Dave

It sounds like your beds are already in place but I'll say this anyway.

What I do to suppress cost of materials and soil amendments is to match the plant root requirements with box size. As a result, I have cost saving 5 inch beds on top of clay-ish soil that work out well for things like spinach and kale. From deeper root systems like tomatoes that love their roots well drained, I have higher beds.

For me, the main importance of raised beds is to keep soil from being compacted, to drain the water more freely, and to avoid weeding. Unfortunately my clay soil means I have to import compost, etc.

My groundhogs adored my squash plants...

thanks for that great experience-ridden advice. I will use that info to plan things outside-the-fence!

Posted by garyfla 10 Florida (My Page) on
Sun, Mar 9, 14 at 7:24

Hi
i went to visit my daughter in se Kansas and carefully chose May to avoid the cold weather Was snowing on the day we arrived!!! .
Thankfully it has not done so since . Whenever I start to whine about the weather i always think of Kansas lol gary

Yuup native NE Kansan here....... May snow is not uncommon

We're had several days of 60 mph wind gusts. Posted pics of my low tunnel fabric, sigh....... Parts of Nebraska are getting a blizzard & it's 78F here!

My hot peppers right now more then a foot tall. flowering and branching... Good news? No, bad) They have 2 more inches to grow to overgrow the window I have for them... And I can't even set up my portable heated green house on the deck as usual - the heater is no match to freezing temps that expected for at least 3-4 more weeks...
And ground is still frozen...
I try to convince my tomatoes to slow down... Looks like they do not understand either English or Russian)

like a fat green onion. But I didnt plant green onions, I starter white onion from seeds.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
To my understanding :
There is no difference between what is called GREEN onion and just onions in early stage. Any onion harvested young and early is called GREEN onions , scallions. Some onions are bred as BUNCHING onions that would not bulb much. BUT they are all ONIONS.

You could try pulling them apart and planting a few and tossing the rest into dinner. Your best source of information would be the seed packet. If it is a bunching onion, you may as well eat them now. If it is a bulbing onion, you could try a few in the ground to see what happens.

Looks more like ultraviolet damage to me (the first pic anyway). The lights may be too close or they may be getting light when it is too cool. Ensure that it is at least 70 degrees during the photoperiod.
The leaves also look very tender. On warm days, try exposing them to some sun and wind to harden them off a bit.

I had this problem with eggplants in the past and it went away when I exposed them to some sunshine to force some hardening off.

This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Mon, Mar 31, 14 at 11:02

ok. that makes sense. I keep my house on the cooler side...I don't run the furnace unless it gets below 60. I thought the lights would keep it warm enough. I can set them out on the porch this week since the weather will be in the 70's all week here.
Thanks!