Austin Babies
MrsAJL
member
I want to be a home gardener, but I don't know where to start!
MrsAJL
member
Okay home gardeners (I'm looking at you, mc, joyco, gofurr, FCB!) tell me where to start.
Here are my stats:
- Terrible at keeping things alive, mostly because I don't really know what I'm doing.
- Tend to start out too big, too fast.
- A bit forgetful when it comes to watering, weeding, feeding, etc.
So where should I start and with what? A container of something easy to grow? Radishes, herbs, peppers? I don't know! Help me, please 
Is it too late to start something???
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Re: I want to be a home gardener, but I don't know where to start!
For watering you can always set up a soaker hose or drip irrigation and then have it run on a timer.
Right now you can do some spring planting like peas and carrots and salad greens.
You can also start seedling inside now for tomatoes and peppers, or wait 4ish weeks to buy these plants to plant outside.
Container gardening works best here because you don't have to dig down into the rocky soil.
If you really want good info or someone to ask tons of questions, go to the Natural Gardener. They have a sheet with info for everything you might want to grow. They have charts for what to plant when. The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable.
As for weeding/feeding... We try to plant stuff in the entirety of the beds so weeds can't grow. When that doesn't pan out we weed about once a week or so. As for feed, we use an organic feed from Natural Gardener and coffee grounds for the berries.
*101 Blog*foodie blog*scrapbooking blog*
Wait. Did I write this post? Because you just described me.
I didn't pull one single weed all summer. It was too damn hot. And I only watered when I remembered and then I drowned the hell out of the stupid plants. And then, they grew stuff for me!
We started waaaayyy too big and went crazy with the whole production. It was ridiculous.
What worked for me: peppers (I bought 5 potted peppers of different varieties and transplanted them in the ground), basil (put seeds into the garden) and okra (seeds into the garden). I had sooo much basil, it was awesome. And I got well over 40 peppers from the 3 plants that survived the summer. Only got about 6 okra, but I only had one plant.
What didn't work: cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, green beans, dill, cilantro, onion.
I hear container gardens are easy. Or you could get a gigantic planter pot and put a bunch of herbs into that. I've heard herbs are easy--not for me, but for others.
Oh, and we only just started getting the garden beds ready this past Sunday. Then it's been raining so we haven't done anything else. I did put some seeds into some containers (those paper ones) and am keeping them in a warm place so they'll sprout. Which reminds me, I should probably water those things. Sigh. When they've sprouted and are about 3" tall, I'll transplant them into the garden.
ETA: all the info we have gotten for gardening has been from the Texas A&M web site. Very helpful (and free).
I hope you don't mind if I add questions too!
- How deep should the container / garden box be?
- How much sunlight and what type is preferrable? (afternoon sun vs morning sun...)
Depends on what you're growing on the sunlight part of it all. It usually tells you on the seed packet or the sign in the plant. Decide where you want your garden to be probably after you've picked what you want to grow. We went with a shaded in the afternoon, sunny in the morning spot and the peppers, etc did well there. The melons obviously wanted more sun and died off.
Do any of you get any substantial amounts of produce (besides herbs)? My mom made a small garden last year, watered, weeded, and in good, but not too good, sun. Out of everything that she planted she got 2 carrots the size of my pinkie finger and about 3 very small tomatoes. Too small to even eat really. And they tasted horrible.
Sounds like a whole lotta work for, nothing really.
How much do all of you normally get? Is it enough for one meal to serve to the fam?
Carrots like cooler weather. We recently harvested 18 full sized carrots and there are more ready waiting to be pulled. We planted arugula in the fall and it basically grew into a bush. We had more salad than two people could possibly eat, even with a large salad every day. Our broccoli has also done really well. As for tomatoes and peppers. You have to start them at the right time and they love lots of sun. Inconsistent watering will make them small and hard or split.
As for sun, our boxes get full sun to partial sun depending on the time of year. Most everything will want at least 6 hours of sun.
My garden boxes are 4 feet X 8 feet X 1 foot. I have two of them and we are contemplating making a third.
Depending on what you buy a lot in produce and wish to grow, you can get a good crop with little effort and space.
*101 Blog*foodie blog*scrapbooking blog*
I have one box, 4x8x1 and am thinking about putting in another 4x4.
AJL- it's not a big time investment. There is the upfront cost of materials (we purchased a kit as well as initial soil which we now supplement w/ compost each season).
Bride- each plant type is going to vary w/ output. my brocc/cauliflower has put out between 1-3 heads per plant (one large and 1-2 smaller ones). I was giving away tomatoes and eggplant last year. We had 4 tomato plants and 2 eggplant plants.
It is DEFINITELY not to late to get started! You can pretty much grow year 'round here. Check out a zone 8 vegetable planting schedule to get an idea of what you can grow when. I started our summer garden w/ transplants last year in mid-March which meant the bulk of our produce came in June/July.
Last year was brutal for the veggies. I usually get a good handful of tomatoes per weekend from 3-5 plants, but hardly got anything for the heat. When it cooled off a bit, we clipped them back and got some tomatoes and peppers- which we usually get probably a hundred of from 2-3 plants. We had a few zucchini and some fennel. I'm finally getting some winter lettuce, radishes and stuff(?!).
Joyco- as far as I can tell from my garden, cilantro and onion prefer the cooler weather and become prolific going into the fall.
Basil is awesome and grows huge here, plus there are lots of fun varieties. They're also very pretty when they flower, even though it's causing it to go bitter- I like the flowers better. I have a handful of lavenders, lemon balm and other stuff that the labels have worn off. My mints (chocolate mint and peppermint) as well as oregano are potted bc they're so invasive. Bay leaf is a nice, small plant that hasn't seemed to go anywhere but up a few inches in the shade.
Our sprinklers hit the garden beds so I don't hand water.
My beds are 12"-24" high, only bc of design. My understanding is that, for things other than potatoes, watermelon, canteloupe, etc, you only need 12".
This is my strawberry tree and garden beds:
this is so helpful!!!
I have another one and it may be a stupid question... do your containers have bottoms? I was thinking it doesn't need a bottom so it could just keep going into the ground, but I wasn't sure.
No. We actually dug down a few inches and put the legs in a few inches lower than that.
ETA: I used this guide for making ours https://pinterest.com/pin/202310208230324224/
*101 Blog*foodie blog*scrapbooking blog*
If I could do it again, I would put down a fine mesh along the bottom. Our creeping grass is getting creepy.
Our berries aren't in a box. They are a long a side of our house with trellises. Berries have different soil requirements than veggies, so you need to keep them separate.
*101 Blog*foodie blog*scrapbooking blog*
We did black mesh. Definitely worth the effort.