Starting new garden

[hoggs222]

I'm going to do a new raised garden. There might be multiple sections for peppers, tomatoes & herbs.

So far I have seedlings growing for: Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Habenero, Bell Peppers, Anaheims, Serranos, Cayenne, Jalapenos, dill & chives.

I pretty much have a large area to set up multiple boxes for a sectioned raised garden.

Any ideas for sizes, etc for each box? How many peppers can you usually do in a 4x8 (or bigger) box?

Also, I can't quite remember which spot is the most sunny in my back yard (West side of house). Would it be a good assumption to make that it's the spot that is usually the less green & dryer grass?

Does anyone have any raised garden layouts they would like to share?

[hoggs222]

Also, any ideas to keep the dogs, rodents out?

[Jameson]

My old landscaping boss did something kind of tricky for his raised veggy garden. Look to landscape supply companies for "Stair Stackers." They are concrete "frames" used to make steps. Normally inside the frames are filled with crushed rock, sand, and then pavers to make the step. The stair stackers measure 36" x 18" x 6 5/8".

Round-up the area you wish to have the raised garden. Level the area. Place stair stackers to form your garden. Two high if you want the height. Fill stackers with the finest dirt possible. Plant away!

One of the benefits of the stackers is the little "mini" areas it creates inside your garden. Helps keep things separate. Also the stackers could be pulled up and reused again later.

As each stacker is about $20. This isn't the cheapest route, but it does look really good, and seemed to hold up well.

Good Luck!

[glenn57]

i got so feed up with rodents/rabbits i finally put a fence around it. my dogs stayed out of it for the most part. fence took care of it all. only downfall to the fence was going in and out and getting the lawnmower close enough to mow.

[sparcebag]

 Originally Posted By: glenn57

i got so feed up with rodents/rabbits i finally put a fence around it. my dogs stayed out of it for the most part. fence took care of it all. only downfall to the fence was going in and out and getting the lawnmower close enough to mow.

Ha Ha I also put a fence around the garden,I also am having bunny for supper tomorrow night its thawing now..

[glenn57]

no wonder the easter bunny never showed up at my house!!! hehehe.

[Steve Foss]

hoggs, back when I did a lot more vegetable gardening I used raised 4x8 beds, and used a system that was called "square-foot gardening," which basically uses the idea that many vegetable plants require a square foot of bed space.

Of course, there are quite a few exceptions to that, radishes for example taking up less room and tomatoes and potatoes more.

But for peppers, bush beans and quite a few other veggies such as kohlrabi and cabbage, it worked quite well.

Figure one pepper plant takes up one square foot of soil space and you can do the square-footage math on whatever sized beds you have.

I sure did love those raised beds. Warm up sooner in spring, easy to water, easy to reach all portions of the bed without stretching far by just sitting on the edges of the beds and moving around as needed. And by planting the veggies to occupy all the space in the bed instead of using rows, once the foliage was up and mature, keeping weeds down was easy because little sun got in and hit the soil.

I just mulched most of my beds with grass clippings from the lawn, which kept weeds down, moisture even and gave me some nice roughage to turn under come fall.

[hoggs222]

The seed packages say 18" for the peppers, but would 1' work? Also, would you run the 8' part of the 4x8 going N/S or E/W?

[Boogaard]

I have been told that if you plant MARIGOLDS around your garden that the smell of the flowers deters any sort of animals from wanting to eat the plants! A few family memebers do this with great results. The deer last year at my beans TWICE and then the deer cleaned up the 3rd planting attempt. A fence is a must! Try looking on the home and garden HSOforum. there are some helpful tips there. If i knew more about it I would say to grow a Hyrdoponic garen. Procudes the most fruits compared to any other sytle of gardening!

[glenn57]

i must have bionic rabbits, marigolds didnt faze them. fence or gun. if you live in town i guess fence.

[Steve Foss]

Marigolds repel some insects. I've never heard that they work on mammals. I've seen deer and rabbits eating marigold buds.

hogs, I had the long sides of my beds facing N/S. I doubt it matters very much as long as they're in a sunny location. You can do the peppers 18 inches and that'll work. I grew three types and planted them all a foot apart and had tons of peppers, but it's possible the ones you are growing are a bushier variety than the ones I had.

[glenn57]

stcatfish, you wouldnt happen to know what type of bugs marigold repel do you. it would be interesting to know, id plant more marigolds then.

[Steve Foss]

glenn, here's a list of insect pests, followed by the flowers/plants that repel them. Organic gardeners have long known this list. By studying which insects tend to attack which garden vegetables (I've long since forgotten that type of specific info for most of my garden plants), gardeners can avoid toxic insecticides by planting companion flowers/plants that repel the bugs that infest the other plants.

For example, the Colorado potato beetle is a killer on potatoes, but by planting green beans and horseradish in or bordering the potatoes, you'll get fewer (maybe no) beetles eating your potato leaves.

Ants: pennyroyal, spearmint, southernwood, tansy

Aphids: garlic, chives and other alliums, coriander, anise, nasturtium and petunia around fruit trees

Borer: garlic, onion, tansy

Cabbage moth: mint, hyssop, rosemary, southernwood, thyme, sage, wormwood, celery, catnip, nasturtium

Colorado potato beetle: green beans, horseradish, dead nettle, flax, catnip, coriander, tansy, nasturtium

Cucumber beetle: tansy, radish

Cutworm: tansy

Flea beetle: wormwood, mint, catnip, interplant cole crops with tomato

Japanese beetle: garlic, larkspur, tansy, rue, white geranium

Leafhopper: petunia, geranium

Mexican bean beetle: marigold, potato, rosemary, savory, petunia

Mites: onion, garlic, chives

Nematodes: marigold, salvia, dahlia, calendula, asparagus

Rose chafer: geranium, petunia, onion

Slug: prostrate rosemary, wormwood

Squash bug: tansy, nasturtium, catnip

Tomato hornworm: borage, marigold, opal basal

Whitefly: nasturtium, marigold

[glenn57]

thanks, when i get home tonite i will print this off. i quit potatoes because of the bugs. i grow horseradish but a seperate patch away form garden.

[sparcebag]

Glenn by the time your done with all the deterant plants you'll have room for 1 tomato,1 potato,&3 radishes.

[Steve Foss]

Well, I didn't like horseradish but had a neighbor who liked it a lot. And I liked green beens and potatoes a lot, so by planting the three together I was able to get three desirable veggies I would have planted anyway but was able to keep the potato beetles off my taters.

I also liked radishes and cukes a lot, so would plant them together to keep the cuke beetles away.

I'd never suggest planting all the plants on the list. As sparcebag joked, there'd be a lot less room for the veggies themselves. But by figuring things out a bit, a person can get some natural controls over certain bugs without planting anything but veggies and herbs or flowers they already were going to plant.

[glenn57]

i wont plant it all. just nice to have something to reference.

[hoggs222]

What kind of yields do you guys usually get off of pepper & tomato plants?

Also, do tomatoes do best in full sun or would partial sun work?

[glenn57]

hoggs222, last year i had a good tomato harvest and my peepers were pretty good also. i have had better years for peppers but had enough to do all my salsa and to freeze some. my problem is i get yellow and red pepper plants (more color for my salsa) but they dont turn there color when i am ready to do my salsa.

[hoggs222]

How many did you get off of each plant?

I'm doing:

Habanero, Serrano, Cayenne, Jalapeno, Anaheim, Mixed Bell.

Tomatoes I'm doing:

Cherry & Better Boy Hybrid

[Boogaard]

I had a lot of peppers myself, Located in full sun but I had my underground irrigation water them every day. I did not however end up with large sized peppers that you see in the store. I have roughly 12 pepper plants and about the same tomato plants growing under a grow light for the last month. Good investment I hope since mature seedling plants can get to be expensive if you have a big enough garden!

Does anyone keep thier plants in pots instead of planting them int the ground? good idea or bad to keeping them in pots?

[eurolarva]

 Originally Posted By: hoggs222

How many did you get off of each plant?

I'm doing:

Habanero, Serrano, Cayenne, Jalapeno, Anaheim, Mixed Bell.

Tomatoes I'm doing:

Cherry & Better Boy Hybrid

Tomatoes should be in full sun. Peppers will probably yield at least a dozen bells each with the Japalernos could be around 20 a plant depending on the growing season and how much sun they get. I think tomatoes will produce more uncaged however the ones in contact with the ground usually become un usable. the plants when on the ground will root in many places on the vine allowing more growing of fruit.

[sparcebag]

Boog your watering your peppers too much! My Jalapinos,50-60 per plant,serrano 60-80 per,Tomatos 1" per week peppers 1" per 3 weeks,or when they wilt.cayane 60-80,sweet banana 30-40 per,anahime 20-30,I have garden on lower ground 150 ft from lake I dont water at all,unless I see them wilting.

[Steve Foss]

I water like sparcebag does on those plants, though I also mulch them with grass clippings to keep the moisture fairly even.

[sparcebag]

stf;;I mulch also with grass cuttings,only time I use a bagger is spring for mulch,mine is in place cuz I'm lazy and dont like to weed.