Long time eater, first time gardener.

I'm starting my first garden this year and while I'm getting a later start than I planned I think I'll still have time before the Fall frosts to harvest some of most everything. I'm going to be gardening between a yard and an agricultural field that is ALWAYS planted with corn, using liquid manure for fertilizer and no other sprays or cover crop that I know of. The garden will be in full sun at the South end of the yard and I plan to have 8-10 rows running North/South with each row being 8ft long. I'm planning to dig a V channel down each row, adding composted manure, mushroom compost and a little sand to form slightly hilled rows.

The soil in the garden area has 15+ years of leaf and yard rakings composted (accidentally) into it and mulching it. The yard has not had any chemical fertilizer or other treatments in at least that long.

I'd like some advice on the size of my garden and the vegetables I plan to grow. For example if it sounds like I'm planning on too much garden space for my choices I'd be glad to do less manual soil prep! I'm also curious to know if some of my plants can be beneficially interplanted, should be separated or can have another crop sewn with them to repel pests, keeps weeds down or release nutrients.

Here are the seeds I plan to sew and what I know about them. All but two are from Ferry-Morse

Burpee Fordhook Zucchini
Burpee Early Prolific Straighthook yellow squash

At this time I plan to grow about half a row or four running feet of each of those or maybe half half interplanted row if that works.

Brussels Sprouts - Catskill
Peas - Cascadia Sugar Snap
Peas - Alaska (May swap one of these peas for Snow Peas)

Lettuce - Grand Rapids Tipburn Resistant
Spinach - Teton Hybrid
Cucumber - Marketmore 76
Pepper - California Wonder 300 TMR

Tomatoes:
-Rutgers and I believe these are Indeterminate which I think grow tall and fruit over a longer time?
- Red Cherry, Large fruited

The Rutgers tomatoes are going behind the garage and the cherry may go between Rutgers plants or in the garden. ? I am planting them near the garage because according to the Cornell Cooperative Extension site tomatoes concentrate any lead they pick up in the leaves and stems, not the fruit. I don't know of any lead paint contamination but the garage was built in the 1950's. It is sided now.


Phew! How's that for a first post?
-lawndartCNY

Sounds workable, if you consider how large the zucchini and yellow squash plants will get. Mine average more than 3 feet across.

hi neighbor! and welcome to DG! this is my first year having a real garden as well. as a kid we always had a garden, but i finally got out in the country, and get to have one of my own. all my potential vegetables are listed in my journal. i'm envious of your soil! up here in perryville i'm living on hard clay soil, and solid rock. lol
sounds like we have almost the same size garden to work with as well. one thing i've learned in all my years is that you can't plant pumpkins and gourds too close together, or they'll cross pollinate and you'll have no pumpkin pie. :( i hope the same isn't true of melon and squash because i'm planning on some bush baby melons, crookneck squash, and golden acorn squash. i also will be growing beans and peas which create their own nitrogen, and can be mulched back into the garden, or composted at the end of the season.

Thanks for the tips and encouragement! Maybe I'll plant the Zuks and yellow squash at the south end of the rows and between them and make the rows more like 6ft long. The last 2ft of each row is probably going to be as much work as the first 6ft due to the lay of the land. There is a 'step' there and the soil is 10 to 12" higher and it would be a lot easier to prep 4 or 5 2x2 patches than it would be to dig that out and down to the same level.

I have some store bought garlic and onion bulbs starting to sprout in the cupboard, can I plant those in with the squash to help deter pests?

-LawndartCNY

Sure.

I thought of doing smaller plots too, but my fiance borrowed a tractor and disced a nice little patch for me. i still may dig up a small spot for those sunflowers and my pumpkins. on the garlic, absolutely! That's what i'm doing as well. I'll also be planting marigolds around the edges, and planting a separate patch of sunflowers that i'm hoping will act as a diversion. :)

Lawndart:

Have you already started the seeds for the tomatoes indoors? It is generally difficult to grow tomatoes from seeds sown directly into the garden (unless they are "volunteers" from last year's harvest which dropped to the ground). It takes several weeks for tomatoes to germinate and grow to a good transplanting size even when started inside. You might want to wait until next year and start your seeds indoors. Then just buy a couple of plants for this year. Or try a few of your seeds and see how it goes but have purchased plants as a safe back-up. Brussel Sprouts and Broccoli are also easier started inside first and transplanted as seedlings but see what happens! You can plant the lettuce, peas, and spinach now as they are cool weather crops. The cucumber and squash will do better germinating and growing when it warms up a bit. I don't know when the last frost date is in 5a area but I don't put mine in until the last week of May and first week of June here in 6a. Your soil sounds fabulous!! Best of luck and have fun!!

Outlaw - your melons, pumpkins, etc. should not have any problems this year with the cross pollination. They should produce true. But if you save the seeds from them, then you might have some interesting crosses next year!

hmm... i've actually just been reading up on that. since i hoped to grow a lot of heirloom varieties and hoped to save the seeds. but now, i'm second guessing. i mean, as long as they turn out edible i guess that's ok. anyway i think there are quite a few i'll have to put off till next year anyway, since i didn't quite get a great start on my seedlings this year. i decided to go with those stupid bio degradable seed starters, and had a ton of trouble keeping them moist, not soggy, not too dry, not damp on the outside, dry inside, moldy... :( so i'm starting what seeds i can direct sow, and buying plants like tomatoes, anyway, at least some of my pumpkins, one bean, and one teddy bear sunflower, survived the seed starter experiment, and now i'll never stray from re-purposed yogurt and pudding cups again! lol

By bio-degradable seed starters - do you mean the jiffy pots? Others have complained about mold problems on DG. Something new for me - many said to spray them with a mixture of peroxide in water - I think 1 tbs per gallon. Don't know if it works as I haven't needed it yet. I use a combination of coir, Fafard compost and perlite which I make myself and so far no mold. I put that mix in old pots or toilet paper tubes cut in half. Damping off does not seem to be a problem with that mix. I now use 100% coir in my Earthboxes and any potting I do. I like it better than peat moss to work with and find it really holds the moisture nicely.
Do you have a farm market or garden center near you that sells heirloom tomatoes? Good luck with your garden and inform us how it works out. You can try sowing the broccoli and Brussel sprout seeds for a later summer planting so they mature in the fall. In this area one can buy the seedlings again in late August or beginning of September. So you can still have them!

We're zone 5 also so our planting schedules should be similar.

Here is a planting schedule. Be sure to check the range of dates for items that you are planting. Peas typically go in around St Patrick's Day in Zone 5. Se sure to soak the seegds first and the roll them in an innoculate. They tend to grow better that way. http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/resources/planting-schedules/zones-5-6-planting-schedule

You can plant tomato seeds in the garden directly but generally that should happen with the maple trees start to bloom in the spring. We are pass that stage so you would be better off buying some plants locally. Mother's day is the date we generally put the warm weather crops (pepper, tomatoes, melons,etc) in the ground.

Thanks to everyone for your input! I haven't had a chance to get back on here in about a week and I've planted my tomato seeds directly outside. I'm also going to try and germinate about a dozen of each type indoors in damp paper towels and if any of those start to sprout I've got cups and potting soil waiting for them.