Newbie gardener questions

[SnootyHen]

Last year I had tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, orange and red peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, basil, parsley and marigolds to attract bees and deter bunnies. I have a raised bed that's about 4'x8' (actually 2 adjoining 4x4 beds) and was planning to expand to a few more beds this year except that I have puppies who are tearing the life out of my yard right now so I may stick with what I have until they grow out of that. I definitely want to plant most of the same veggies but I think I over-crowded the beds last year because my zucchini took over and it was hard for much else to grow in that area. I have a couple of questions and please talk to me like I am a small child because while I grew up with vegetable gardens, it was basic dirt, water and sun and no supplements or treatments. Stuff grew or didn't. That's kind of what happened last summer too so I am hoping to up my game this year.

1) Is there anything I should do to my beds this year before planting? Aside from turning it, should I add any supplements? I look at the gardening supplies aisle and am just overwhelmed because I have no idea if any of it is needed or helpful.

2) How do you control zucchini? Tomato towers? I tried just staking them last year and it wasn't enough.

3) Are there supplements, sprays or anything else I should be applying through the season outside of just water and sunshine?

Anything else that you would tell someone brand new to help them be more successful?

 

[Percheron chick]

Work in some aged compost into your beds yesterday. If you DL your chickens, go ahead and take a few bucketfuls, spread a nice thin layer, water or hopefully it will snow and in 2 months you will be ready to plant.
By going up, you can save half the space in the garden. Cukes and zukes adapt well to trellises. Select varieties that have smaller fruit. If you have trouble with fungus on the leaves, this will help a lot because you water the roots not the leaves. Look up cattle panel trellis. Makes an attractive arched support. One tomato plant with a few pepper plants is plenty for one 4x4 bed. Stake and cage tomatoes. Put your herbs in pots (parsley is a perennial if you didn't turn it under last fall)to free up a little space. I think if you go up, everything on the list will fit but don't add anything.
Once the garden is planted, mulch. It will help regulate the soil temperature, help retain moisture and as it breaks down over the summer will add nutrients back into soil.
I will add that if you can, before you plant, turn the garden then give your girls access to the beds for a few days. Let them feast on any grubs and larvae. Get in front of any summer bugs.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I would send off a soil yes before adding amendments. You should be able to send one off via your county extension office. I’m sure other places do it but it’s easy and cheap to send it off there. When you buy seeds try looking for zucchini varieties that say compact or container those should grow as big.
I would also recognize setting up some kind of fence to keep the puppies out of the garden bed once it’s planted or they may dig it up or chew on the plants.

 

[THEChIcKeNwhisperer354]

Last year I had tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, orange and red peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, basil, parsley and marigolds to attract bees and deter bunnies. I have a raised bed that's about 4'x8' (actually 2 adjoining 4x4 beds) and was planning to expand to a few more beds this year except that I have puppies who are tearing the life out of my yard right now so I may stick with what I have until they grow out of that. I definitely want to plant most of the same veggies but I think I over-crowded the beds last year because my zucchini took over and it was hard for much else to grow in that area. I have a couple of questions and please talk to me like I am a small child because while I grew up with vegetable gardens, it was basic dirt, water and sun and no supplements or treatments. Stuff grew or didn't. That's kind of what happened last summer too so I am hoping to up my game this year.

1) Is there anything I should do to my beds this year before planting? Aside from turning it, should I add any supplements? I look at the gardening supplies aisle and am just overwhelmed because I have no idea if any of it is needed or helpful.

2) How do you control zucchini? Tomato towers? I tried just staking them last year and it wasn't enough.

3) Are there supplements, sprays or anything else I should be applying through the season outside of just water and sunshine?

Anything else that you would tell someone brand new to help them be more successful?

I know nothing about gardening but, BYC has a sister website called TheEasyGarden.com. Its like BYC only everything is about gardening.

 

[Sally PB]

What do you do with the poop from the chicken coop? It can go on the raised beds in the fall/winter after the plants are gone. The rest of the time, it needs to go somewhere else, and most people make a compost pile and put it there. (The reason it shouldn't go directly on the plants without breaking down some first is because it has so much nitrogen in it at the beginning that it can harm the plants.) I put my coop poop, including the PDZ, in the compost. PDZ is a naturally occurring mineral, so it can go into the garden.

As far as what to "amend" your soil with... did you ever have your soil tested? That will tell you if there is something it needs. If your plants grew well, though, they probably got what they needed.

Do you really need to grow zucchini? It, like all squashes, takes a LOT of space. Usually people have too much and give it away. (I like it ok... but I'll buy one when I want it, instead of giving it the space in my garden.) I've never tried squash of any kind on a trellis, but I have grown cucumbers up my fence, which is the same idea. They did very well.

To control your tomato plants, use a tomato cage. But you probably should stake them too. My 'maters get big enough to pull the cage over. You can save some space by having the tomatoes at the ends of the beds so that their sideways growth only takes space on one side.

Do you know what kind of soil you have? Sandy, clay? Try this: water your soil so that it sticks together. Take a handful, and squeeze it into a ball. Put the ball on the palm of your hand, and poke it with a finger. How well does it keep its shape? If it falls apart, it's sandy. If it stays in a ball, it's more clay. Compost and mulch work well with both.

Ask questions any time!

 

[Acre4Me]

I would send off a soil yes before adding amendments. You should be able to send one off via your county extension office. I’m sure other places do it but it’s easy and cheap to send it off there. When you buy seeds try looking for zucchini varieties that say compact or container those should grow as big.
I would also recognize setting up some kind of fence to keep the puppies out of the garden bed once it’s planted or they may dig it up or chew on the plants.

Agree with all this.

getting a soil sample analyzed can be helpful. However, if you don’t do this, just buy a balanced fertilizer (like 10-10-10), and add per instructions. Other additives for peppers snd tomatoes is calcium: either crushed egg shells, or bone meal, or gypsum into the planting holes. Compost is helpful for all plants.

keep puppies out of the garden if possible.

squash: many varieties and compact ones can still produce a lot.

 

[SnootyHen]

My adult dogs never had a problem staying out of the garden so I never fenced it before. But I just rescued 2 babies and they are in their mischievous monkey stage right now. Being huskies, that could last anywhere from another few months to a couple of years. LOL!!! Right now they urge to dig and play in empty garden beds is high so I am constantly chasing them out. I am hoping that in time it will be less attractive to them or they will have learned that they get in trouble every time they go there and maybe stop? Maybe. We've only had them a few weeks so they were completely lacking any basic training at all and have come a long way but with rescues (and huskies) it's always a guessing game.

Thank you all so much!!! This is great information! I loved gardening last year and if I can manage a little more success this year, I can definitely see expanding the beds and trying some of the more complicated things. I kept it simple last year but definitely over-crowded.

We do use zucchini a lot for zoodles and stir fry type meals so it was nice to have them but I think I will plant one instead of 4. The one (I named her Audrey II) killed the other 3 and 2 of my cucumbers anyway.

My tomatoes (regular and cherry) did great until late summer when the voles and mice took notice of them and started chomping at them. My peppers didn't do much of anything. I think I got 3 total peppers out of 8 plants.

Keeping the herbs in pots is a great idea so I can bring them inside more easily in the fall.

So grateful for all the information and suggestions!!

 

[Sally PB]

My peppers didn't do much of anything. I think I got 3 total peppers out of 8 plants.

I haven't had very good luck with bell peppers of any kind. Jalapenos and habaneros will give me oodles of peppers, especially the habs. But you don't need many of those because they are soooo hot!

I'm to the point where I'm not going to give bell peppers the space. Maybe a couple, but that's probably it.

If you get your soil tested, let us know what they say, and we can help interpret. They'll probably test for pH (acidity/alkalinity) and the Big 3: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium. They may test for other things too.

When you buy fertilizer, you'll see numbers on the bag, like 10-10-10. That refers to the Big 3, and they are abbreviated N-P-K. They may not have the letters, but they always refer nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, in that specific order. So that 10-10-10 is called a "balanced fertilizer" because it has all three in the same percentage by volume.

If your soil was very lacking in Nitrogen, you could add something like bloodmeal, and the numbers on the bag might be 24-0-0. Then you are adding Nitrogen, but not the other two.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I have an amendment mix that I mix in, but it's basically a nutrients-only version of the same amendments that were in my soil mix before, so it's just replenishing what was there. I also make compost from chicken poop, dried leaves, and whatever else compostable that comes from the kitchen/garden, so that gets added in late winter/early spring each year.

I haven't had very good luck with bell peppers of any kind. Jalapenos and habaneros will give me oodles of peppers, especially the habs. But you don't need many of those because they are soooo hot!

Same. Small peppers grow well (I do shishitos) but bell types really favor a longer, hotter growing season than I can provide.

I'm really lazy with zucchini/summer squashes. I do train them up a trellis but after that I just let them sprawl over the edge of the garden bed and onto the ground. But admittedly... I don't like zucchini so only getting a couple fruit is fine with me.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

The few of mine that even grew were green so long I thought maybe I planted the wrong kind. I had to brown-bag them to get any kind of color.

I’ve started doing that with mine what the sun doesn’t scorch is usually chewed on by bugs or rabbits if I leave it to color up. Not sure I’ll grow more than a couple plants next year. I might try growing a different sweet pepper or even baby bells since they are supposed to produce better.