New Veggie Gardner Questions

Hi all :) I am new to gardening (and the forum!) and would like some advice before I try again this year.

I live in Iowa where it has been unseasonably warm this spring (80s some days) but still gets into the 30's at night sometimes. The general rule of thumb for planting here is to do it on Mother's Day or later.

My DH has given me a patch in the backyard to try a vegetable garden. It's about 20 feet long by 10 feet wide. Attached is a picture (it's a mishmash of 2 pics but you get the idea):

This patch is against the eastern wall of our house.

I checked it several times yesterday. starting at about 12:45 pm (the pic above) when it had full sun. At 2:30 it was starting to become shadowed close to the house; by 4 it was almost in shadow. So it gets at least 3 hours of full sun a day, perhaps more.

A friend is going to bring me a tiller so I can get the patch ready. What else should I do? Should I put fertilizer down before I plant? This is all completely new to me :)

Also what vegetables would be good to plant here? I have a baby and would like to grow my own veggies to make food for him.

Any advice is most appreciated! TIA!

You may be getting more sun that that. What is it like in the mornings. Most vegetables need 6-8 hours of sunlight. If you get 4 hours of sun in the morning, you are ready to rock and roll. Get a soil test done with your local ag people. They will be able then to tell you what you need in the way of fertilizers or amendments. You can never go wrong with compost!

I'd add some / a lot of organic compost to your tilling. Every year I've been amending my gardens with various composts in addition to some 'green sand, dry molasses, and lava sand'. This year in some of my beds I'm trying mushroom compost.

Thank you!

I don't think it gets too much more sun that what I saw. Well, by 12:45 it was in full sun so the edge of it would get more than the part close to the house. It might get 4-5 hours of sun.

Maitri, is there any where else for your veggie bed? 4-5 hours of sun isn't really enough for tomatoes, peppers, and some of the others to produce well. They'll grow some, but not what you're probably imagining. It would be better to have a smaller bed someplace with 6-8 hours of sun ("full sun") than a bigger one with "part sun" like you have.

I live in the woods, with trees snuggled up close to the house. Unless I let a logger loose on the woods that are my back "yard," there are limited options for full sun at my house, too. My veggie beds are in the front yard, which works because although it's a suburban-like area, folks don't have magazine-worthy landscaping as a rule. Actually, over the years as I've gotten better, my neighbors are increasingly jealous of my veggies...

If you can, you might think about a smaller bed somewhere else for things that really need to soak up the sun. Some veggies actually don't like the blazing sun and would do fine in your proposed bed. Lettuce has done well for me with less sun. I'm trying an experiment with squash, some cukes (also have in full sun), leeks, and swiss chard in a less sun place this year - read that they are supposed to do OK. Not sure if I believe it, but why not try?

- Tricia

You may want to add sea compost too as it has trace minerals in it too. You could also plant tomatoes and peppers in 5 gal buckets if you had a place in full sun to place them. If you do decide to plant them in your new bed I would place them at the southern most tip so they'd get as much sun as possible.

Look into double digger instead of tilling. This is much easier on the soil and will maintain structure. Compost is a must. Aim for 25-50% of your soil being compost and other amendments (i.e. manure). A general organic fertilizer is also helpful. Don't go wild on fertilizers, especially chemical ones like MG, until you learn what your are doing. When imporperly applied they can cause problems like lower fruiting, fertilizer burn, stunted growth, weedy growth and increased pests and diseases. This seems to be one of the biggests problems for new gradeners, IME. Herbicides can be a problem too if they leach into your garden.

30s are still quite low at night for plants to be in the open air. Invest in some row covers and hoops to cover your beds. An inexpensive meat thermometer will help you determine when to plant and when to add extra protection. Warm season plants need soil that is at least 50 degree soil temps at night with average temps being 65-85. Cool season veggies can take lower. Onions and garlic survive in soil just above freezing. Greens and lettuce will bolt when averages above 85.

Remember to keep it simple this year. It is hard enough to get down the basics, let alone learning all the different gardening techniques and methods. Start with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, green onions, leafy greens, most herbs and other easy to grow veggies. Lettuce, radishes and leafy greens are pretty much fool proof if grown in the right season. Planting late will cause them to bolt. When you have more experience, try cauliflower, cabbage, celery and other more difficult vegetables.

It's still early in the year. Keep in mind that the sun will move farther south (and the day will get longer) with the season and that may alter how much sun this plot will get.

I suggest you remove all the grass and weeds by hand, and then add as much compost as you can get your hands on.

dlbailey has given you many good tips, so I won't reapeat them.

You said your DH had given you a place to work with. Perhaps there is a better place that would get the necessary 6 to 8 hours of sun vegetables require?

As to which vegetables to grow - choose the ones you want to feed to your baby :) :)

http://www.kidsgardening.org/

When a plot gets less than 6 hours of sun a day, then leaf veggies (lettuce etc.) do better than root veggies (radish, carrot etc.) and MUCH better than fruits (tomato, pepper). Coincidentally, many leafy veggies and herbs do best in cool early spring weather.

You could start ASAP with Romaine, Dill, Celery, Radishes and Carrots. They all need an early start and dislike summer heat. I planted mine in mid March and despite frost and even a snowstorm, they are doing well. First harvest is about a week away. Mmmmmm...

Ed