New Vegetable Garden Ideas?

[hoggs222]

I am thinking of putting a garden in the backyard. I would like a raised garden (border of timbers or landscaping blocks). I've got plenty of room along the back fence (East side of yard, with a 6' privacy fence on the east side). I was thinking of a 10x20 or 15x30. Main vegetables would be tomato's, possibly corn, peppers, etc. and some spices including dill, chives, garlic?

I have some general questions...How many inches of soil do I need? Do I need to put a weed tarp down beneath the soil? Does anybody have any suggestions on good material to use for border, fencing, etc.

Also, do you have any pics of similar gardens, plans or ideas?

By the way....I'll probably have to buy plants this year from what I've read so far.

Thanks,

Hoggs

[fisherking01]

Many vegetables do well in a fall planting, most around the Aug 1 deadline for getting a crop in Mn. Go to the U of MN university extension web site for lots of good information.

Get it ready now and you can enjoy the rewards yet this year. Many soil types in MN, and there are some that are better than others for producing. One of the better soils for holding moisture would be a well composted or peat blended heavy topsoil, but a watered sandy soil will produce well. I'm not a great help, but read up on the information of many sources and you'll be off to a great start. Brent

[eurolarva]

I did a garden this year about 10 x 25 ft. Here is the before

Here is the after

Cutting the sod out was the worst part. Took forever to get that done. I went to Home Depot and bought the poles and the fence material. I have a small dog so I had to keep her out. I priced 2 yards of dirt and the cheapest I could find it was 120 delivered. Anoka has a compost site and I was able to get it for 6 bucks a yard. The fence and the dirt along with concrete footers was under 100 dollars. I have not taken pics lately but it is a jungle. Everything is doing well. 16 tomato plants, 12 pepper plants, squash, watermelon, beens, cukes and all kinds of herbs. Next year I am going to try organic instead of chemical fertilizer. Weeds have been there but not to bad that I cant handle. Preen and green has a vegetable fertilizer that controls new weeds pretty good. The black tarp would be good before gardening however I dont know how well you can water through it.

[Bobby Bass]

I do several gardens as part of my business, as a matter of fact I tilled 30 this past spring. You are better having a small garden that you can take care of rather then a large one that will take care of you. The perfect garden takes years to get. Just a few pointers from past experience.

If you add dirt you will add weeds, no such thing as weed free dirt.

Raise beds work great, better to have 4xwhatever beds with enough room to walk between them.

Plant your vine crops on the end so they can flow into your yard, pumpkin, squash..

Plant corn in blocks, even 20 plants will get you a taste.

Spuds are great in home gardens and so much better then store bought.

You don't need to plant the whole pack of seeds!

Weed a little each day to stay ahead.

Don't water everyday, better to make the plants grow roots by watering every 3rd day.

Harvest when they are ripe, don't let your work rot on the vine.

Make grand kids gardens, let them have a few of there own plants.

There is much much more but the first step is start one. And don't forget a compost pile as part of your garden..

[waskawood]

I don't know how old you are but we did a raised bed that we can reach the middle from either side. It is nice for us antiques to kneel on the sides and do our picking or weeding without crawling to reach the middle. They also take more water as they seem to dry out faster. We used patio blocks and made it about knee height. When you build a small garden you tend to crowd your plants to maximize yield.

[Powerstroke]

We did a garden this year similar to eurolarvae's. Cutting the sod isn't that bad. Rent a sod cutter and set it to its deepest setting. Rolling it up and moving it is heavy and tough. I brought in a few yards of compost from city of Hopkins public pile and tilled it into my garden . Found some tree roots I didn't know about so got those cut out. Rented a post pounder and planted the stakes in (no need for concrete footers) and stretch some 1" mesh fencing around it. I buried the fence 3-6" deep and we still had bunnies digging under the fence so make sure you bury the fencing a foot deep like I've always been told. I don't listen well. I took care of the bunny problem and our plants are doing great now. I water every 3rd day and whatever nature brings it. The beans are doing great and the tomato plants are getting big. Hopefully the peppers and cukes take off too. I weeded it today and it took about an hour. Mostly crabgrass.

[harvey lee]

Andy

Something I do to elimanate weeding is to place mowed grass clipping on the dirt around the plants. I never have to weed and it also helps to keep the dirt from drying out so fast. The other thought is that the grass clipping do have nitrogen in them and that could release some free fertilizer for the garden.