Wilmington, NC wegetable garden questions.

Hello everyone, I am totally new at gardening and am wanting to start a vegetable garden for my family to eat from. I was wondering about the heat this summer. Do I need to shade any of my garden because of intense heat over the summer? I want to grow cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, and green beans. Are there any good tips?

I don't think you should need to shade any of the vegetables you mentioned. I live well south of you (and it gets very hot here), and we never shade any of those items. Most of them LOVE sun. The weather in my area is comparable to that in the top 1/2 of Florida, btw. Most people in my area don't shade any vegetables. About the only thing people in my area might shade would be lettuce, spinach, and other cool weather greens.

Tomatoes don't set fruit when the temp exceeds a certain limit, so they will probably stop baring in the hottest part of summer, but will start back again a few weeks later as temps drop once more. Cucumbers grow like weeds around here. All of the items on your list are ultra easy to grow here except watermelon. Watermelon can be tricky.

I would suggest that you find out what varieties of these vegetables are known to grow well in your area. A couple of ways to gather this information include:

(1) Go to area nurseries and home and garden centers (Lowe's, Home Depot) to look at starter plants to see what varieties they are selling. They will normally carry varieties that do well in the area.

(2) Consult your local extension center. Ours is Clemson, for instance. They will probably have a web site with LOTS of info for download. Look for something in vegetable gardening that lists varieties that perform well in your area. They will probably also have information on best planting dates for your area and a wealth of other information specific to the region. Clemson Extension Center is a fabulous resource for information specific to my area, and I'm thinking you will have a similar resource.

(3) If your membership permits it (some Forums are only available for paying members. not sure which category you are), you might also ask for this information in the Carolina Forum.

One other thing that is important here is to plant early to beat the heat. You want your plants to reach their peak production before it gets too hot, but, of course, you don't want to plant so early that you loose them due to late frosts. This is another topic for which your Extension Center can provide some of the best information you will get anywhere as they will have conducted experiments to determine the best planting dates in your area for each type of vegetable. If you can't find the information online, you can call them, and/or visit them at the local extension center office to obtain the information.

thank so much for the info. i have started lettuce and two types of flowers (daisy's & "snow in summer") under a grow light inside a jiffy starter kit. i hope i can produce some plants so i dont have to buy any. would you test the soil or just get a bunch of organic topsoil?
thanks again

I would have the soil tested. Different varieties of plants have specific soil needs so it's good to know what each needs (i.e., some like alkaline soil while others prefer acidic and many are in the mid range). But I'd recommend you still add all the organic matter you can because it does so much to improve your soil and your plants will love it. I rake up loads of leaves about this time every year and get hubby to disk them into my garden. We have clay soil here and these annual additions have done wonders for the garden.

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/asparagus.cfm

Since you're new to gardening, I've attached a site that you might find useful. Good luck with your gardening--I hope you find it as enjoyable and rewarding as I have.

This message was edited Jan 24, 2011 6:18 AM

I agree with NatureLover. It is never a bad idea to get your soil tested. Did you find your extension center yet? Trust me they will be a wealth of support for you. In my area the Clemson Ext Svc offers soil testing free of charge for homeowners. You can either call them or go on their website for instructions on how to take the soil samples and where to take/send them. Clemson gives us a very detailed report on our soil along with very specific recommendations of what to add and in what quantities. They will even tailor their recommendations to the things you plan to plant if you include that info. If you have not found your ext svc yet, please do.

You asked about adding top soil. I would encourage you to add compost instead - and I think that goes with NatureLovers recommendation to add organic matter. While you can buy top soil, there is no legal definition for top soil. Thus you don't really know what you are getting. I could have packaged up my soil before it was amended (mostly clay before I brought in the tons of compost) and sold it to you as top soil. Trust me, it would not have helped improve your soil.

There is a legal definition of compost. Compost is organic matter from decomposed plant and/or animal material. Compost is alive. It's what your plants want. Compost will improve virtually any kind of soil, and it's pretty much impossible to have to much of it. It will encourage roots to grow strong and healthy. I is magical stuff that improves drainage in clay soils and improves water retention in sandy soils. How wonderful is that? It will also encourage earth worms to take up residence in the area to do their magic by aerating the soil and adding their own rich fertilizer.

Of course, good compost is expensive. In my area the city takes all of the tree limbs, grass clippings, leaves, and such that it picks up curb side each week and makes this wonderful, rich, black compost which it then sells back to residence for a song. In my area it's $10 per truck load. You drive your truck or trailer up and they use heavy equipment to fill it with compost. All of the area landscapers get their compost there - and then sell it to homeowners at very high prices. It's a wonderful deal. Check to see if your area has a service like this. At one time mine also sold it by the bag. It was $1 per [overstuffed] 40lb bag with reusable/returnable fabric bags. I brought in some 3 or 4 tons of that compost to amend my small city lot. My soil is now awesome!

By all means, find your agricultural extension service, have your soil tested, check with your city/county to see if they make/sell compost, and amend your soil with as much good quality compost as you can obtain (w/in reason, of course). Also, note cheap bags of 'compost' sold at home centers usually contain compost mixed with sand, clay, and so forth. That's better than nothing, but what you really want is pure compost, which is what my city sells for the same price or less as the 'cut' stuff at the home centers - hoping yours does this, too.

Well said, DreamofSpring. Dirtdad, in case, like here, your city or county doesn't have inexpensive compost for you to buy, you can get a good quality composted cow manure that doesn't have sand in it. It's called Black Kow (that is the correct spelling) that comes in a yellow and black plastic bag. You could also buy mushroom compost which is excellent too. I get both at Lowe's. Those cukes and watermelons will especially appreciate it if you dig in lots of either the Black Kow or mushroom compost when you plant the seeds.
Wow DreamofSpring, I sure wish I could get a deal like that on compost! My garden spot is behind our house and got graded down by 20 feet to build the house six years ago so it's been a long, slow process getting that "soil" built up. My first garden in the 40 by 50 spot didn't even look as good as my very first garden I ever planted about 40 years ago. Things are looking MUCH better now though, thanks to the addition of lots of compost.

Thanks, NatureLover,

Sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound as if all of the home center compost was bad. I just wanted to warn that the really cheap stuff although marketed as compost is actually cut with substantial sand and clay. They have good stuff at the home centers. It just costs more per bag.

I LOVE compost. I'm glad I realized the value of what my city was offering. I don't have a truck, but at the time they were selling it in bags. They were overstuffing the bags. I can carry a regular 40# bag with one hand, but I had trouble carrying these with 2 hands. Clearly, more than 40#. Anyhow, I got up every Sat morning and made 1 or 2 trips each time bringing back 10 to 20 bags in the hatch of my [then] Civic. 20 bags made the Civic almost give up, sit down on the side of the road, and quit, btw.

I did that every Sat morning for months. I tallied up my receipts once and was surprised to see how many tons I had brought in (on my back). Then one day I arrived there to learn that they were no longer selling it by the bag, trucks and trailers only. If I hadn't hustled when I 1st found out about it, I would have missed out. A friend used to tease me that I had raised my yard above the neighbors with all that compost. One day I looked at my back fence and was shocked to see that the dirt really was some 6in higher on my side of the fence.

There have been a few downsides though. My front yard is on an incline, and I can see black streaks where the water drains across the sidewalk out front, but I just look at that and realize it as an indication of how rich and black my soil is now. Yes, some of it is leaching away in front, but as it remains quite black, it seems I have plenty more. Also, I find that my dogs and I track a lot of black dirt in from outside, not all at once, but even a few grains here and there will build up over time. When I 1st moved here we were tracking in sand and clay, Not anymore. Now what's coming in is jet black, but again, I see that as a sign that my soil is rich - even if it is rough on the white carpets.

I read somewhere that you can gauge the value of soil by the number of earth worms per sq in/ft. When I dig in my yard, I dig up almost as many worms as dirt. They love that organic matter, and I love the natural fertilizer they give back. Thanks to compost and earth worms, parts of my yard that were once so hard we could not pound a shovel into the ground by jumping on it, are now so soft and rich I can easily dig there with a hand trowel - and no one plowed or hoed or otherwise turned the earth to make it that way. I just put a shallow layer of compost over the lawn, and the worms did the rest. It's amazing stuff.

I didn't take your comment about compost at home centers to mean it was bad. How well I know that most so-called composted cow manure is about 50 percent sand--I got ripped off a few times before I discovered Black Kow. That's why I try to share that little tidbit with others who might have to buy some from the big box stores.
I sure wish I could do the same for our yard as you've done for yours but we have 5 1/2 acres in yard so it just wouldn't be feasible. I bet your grass, shrubs, and trees are gorgeous. I dug in lot's of compost with every tree I planted but, once they were in the ground, I had to settle for fertilizer. I do put compost around them when I can but down here the fireants LOVE any soft, moist ground they can find and they can kill trees, shrubs, and flowers pretty quickly.

I was just clarifying. Your words made me question whether I might have mislead others.

I live in the city, so my yard is under 1/2 acre. I would love to have more land but really don't have time to work it anyhow.

We have a gracious plenty of fire ants here, too. A few years ago I left a bale of pine straw sitting at the end of a bed until I had time to spread it properly. When I started taking it apart with my bare hands, I didn't realize that fire ants had built a nest in it until they were all over my hands and arms. I have been stung many times throughout my life w/o problems, but I've read that anything of that sort can be problematic if you get too many stings at once or too many in a small area.

My hands, which took dozen of stings each, were so swollen I could not close them even a little. They 1st burned and later itched terribly UNDER the skin as the poison broke down the tissue. It was pretty bad for a few weeks. Now I am much more careful about ants when gardening and I wear gloves when feasible.

Thank you both so much, you both seem very knowledgable. I appreciate the advice and am trying to get as much done as possible ( i work 2 jobs and have a 4 yr old so time is limited).
I made my garden with posts that i removed from the ground, will my garden not be considered totally oraganic due to the fact that the posts were painted?
I want to feed my son out of this garden and i want to cover everything. the paint on the post should not affect the veggies right?
I have started a compost pile in a garbage can w/ holes cut into it. it is working but i am not making enough to use in the garden. I may use this to pot flowers for the front of the house.
i have included a picture of my garden. tell me what u think.

dirtdad,

Your garden is lovely, but I must admit that I'm concerned about the paint. The wood (and paint) will be in contact with wet soil for long periods of time, and paint can leach chemicals into the soil. Even the arsenic and other chemicals used to make weather treated wood can leach into the soil. It really depends on the type of paint you used. If you still have the paint container, I would suggest you read it to see if it mentions hazardous chemicals. As a [sometimes] artist I can tell you that paint often contains metals. White paint frequently contains lead, although one would hope they have done away with lead based paint by now. You definitely don't want to expose your son to lead, so I think you should check the paint label for information on contents and toxicity.

You might want to check with stores that sell posts specifically for use in gardens. Maybe they can help you find something safe. Some options include: Lowe's, Home Depot, Gardener's Supply (http://www.gardeners.com/Garden-Yard/Landscaping,default,sc.html), Tractor Supply, local nurseries. You can also find other online garden suppliers in the DG Watchdog section along with user ratings.

Here is a Watchdog search for suppliers of fences, structures, and gazebos: http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/advanced.php?category=90&submit=Go&cat[158]=90
(Not sure if this is the category you need. Be sure to check ratings before shopping)

I do understand the difficulty of doing these things while working long hours. You've done a great job laying out your lovely garden space despite time limitations.

dirtdad,
How wonderful to hear from a dad who is working two jobs to support his son and is still willing to devote time to growing a garden for him too! Are you planning to grow your cucumbers on a trellis? I have a large garden but still do that to conserve space but, more importantly, to keep the cucumbers up off the ground so they aren't bothered by slugs and are not in contact with the soil which can cause the bottom sides to get nasty. Another space saver for you would be to train your watermelons to grow outside your garden area. You can put a layer of wheat straw under them so they won't be sitting in the soil. If you have even a tiny space left after planting everything else you want, perhaps you could let your son plant some radishes for his own little garden. I always used to let my two kids have a little corner of the garden where they each grew a few each of radishes, green beans, and later when they were older, a tomato plant of their own. They learned so much from it and both still love to garden today at ages 36 and 38. I hope your garden is a huge success.