Zone 5 - Started My Garden Today!

Ok, information overload on trying to find out as much as possible about gardening. Would like to receive any feedback, advise anyone has to make this first go around a success!

I planted by seed green beans, carrots and spinach. I started my broccoli seeds for transplant, still not sure though when to plant them outside. I used organic starter soil and gave the entire garden a nice watering. Should I be doing anything else?

I would also like to plant potatoes from seed but I am confused when I can do this.

I think that's it for the first go around until Spring when I will start the summer vegetables. Thanks to all for participating in this forum you guys are a great resource.

Hi, Maddy: In your zone, you'll want to wait until spring to plant potatoes....they can be started fairly early, before your last frost date. When you say you want to grow them from seed, do you mean seed potatoes, or grow true potato seeds? Most people start with seed potatoes (small potatoes that are planted whole or cut into pieces, each with several "eyes").

Spinach generally prefers cooler weather, so you might want to shade it a bit as the temps are still pretty high right now.

The best advice is to have fun, don't start too big, and don't worry about failures--everyone has them! Just grow what you like to eat, and enjoy the experience of growing your own food.

No such thing as failures regarding gardening,only experiments. Lol

Thanks everyone! I was looking on YouTube and found some great videos about growing potatoes in big buckets and some people even grow them indoors throughout the winter! I am going to try that this year as well and see how it goes. Will post back to let you know how it turns out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ2YNsa51D8&feature=related

Also, I started my broccoli seeds in house yesterday. What date should I transplant them outside? Thanks in advance.

This message was edited Aug 7, 2011 6:25 PM

So ok the only thing that seems to be growing were my green beans and carrots. Something had been eating my broccoli and spinach transplants because they were disappearing. I put tin cans around them to protect them and just went out to check on them. One of the cans were knocked over and I see all these holes in the ground of my garden. I don't know if we have moles in this area or not. I have this deer urine spray that I sprayed around the garden but is there anything else I can do that's non-toxic? Help!

Maddy you may be getting rabbits if your garden isn't fenced in. They will eat lettuce and certainly beans. I don't think that my spinach
ever got eaten, even before we fenced. As someone said they are all experiments! Now should be a good time for spinach, also you could start some loose leaf lettuce and still get a crop. I have found lettuce is very easy to grow. Besides fencing, one way to protect it is grow it in a tall container or put a container up on a crate or something. I have done that the past 2 years with success. I use the self watering containers. Leaf lettuce you just pick the big outer leaves off as you need, and leave the rest - it will keep growing. I have some that I started about the time of your first post, and it is now big enough to thin out by picking some of the small plants - which gives you something for a salad, and makes room for the rest to get bigger.

Maddy, you also might consider that you have chipmunks--they drive us crazy out here, and yes, they can climb up almost anything into a container!!!! I've not really found a deterrent for them....I just plant extra so we can both eat :)

Chipmunks yes!!! That's it! Ok now gotta figure out how to get rid of them thanks!

Maddy, if I can , You need a little compost in your Garden, also an inexpensive fencing, is bird guard, it's a plastic netting you can buy very cheap, then pick up some 1x1 Stakes drive them into the ground, and staple the netting around it. it doesn't have to be High, just comfortable to step over when you want to work in your garden, what I know you need is compost ( Vegetable Peel's from your Kitchen), Good Dirt ( rich in Humus, and Mineral's), and manure ( Dried Cow, Horse, Poultry, or Pidgeon, there are other's and they all represent different N-P-K ratio's but this is a start) , to grow a beautiful garden, Easiest way to Grow Potato's I know, go buy Organic Potato's, store in a dark Dry Room until you see EYE's growing out of them, quarter them, dig a hole in your garden 12x12, 12 inches deep, bury 1/4 of a budding potato, fill with 6 inches of dirt, when the potato's sprout wait for them to get 6 inches high add 2 inches of dirt, when they get 12 inches high add another 4 inches of Dirt on top. ( not on top of the Plant beside, fill in the hole) when the Flower's come wait till two week's after they Die, then dig out your Potato's.

Thanks MrPappyG for the info. I am actually growing the potatoes in big planters. I found out what has been digging up my garden are voles. So I basically just went to IKEA and bought some very big plastic planters so they cannot crawl into it and now have my whole garden growing in those. That was about a week ago and they seem to be doing much better now.

I live in Zone 5. Only one of my spinach transplants survived the vole incident and its quite small, wondering if its tramatized. Is it too late to sow spinach seeds?

No I think you'll be OK depending on the Variety of Spinach, try a bloomsdale, don't plant a Tyee Spinach now, at least I've never had success with them this late, I recently planted, (within the last week), Nantes Carrot's, Garlic, Bibb Lettuce, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Spinach,
and Detroit Red Beet's(first time with this seed), so far everything is coming Up, Oh The Potato's are growing like mad, What I do is if I know a cold spell is coming, I mulch the Heck out of the Sprout's, to try to keep the heat in the soil. I hope this help's, 3 inches of Mulch turn's into 1/4 inch of Compost.

I am using Bloomsdale Long Standing Organic Spinach. Did you just plant your carrots from seed? The Voles I think ate from the roots of my carrot plants and all that was left was the green tuffs that you see above ground. They still had some roots on them so I re-planted them and they look good. Do you think I will still get some carrots out of them?

Carrot's take between 14-21 day's to even Germinate, the secret to carrot's is Patience, keep them Watered, they Love Lime, in small doses, and they Love Cool Weather, not cold. even if you see the Green top's coming out , don't mess with them ignore them...LOL if you know your going to get Cold Weather, mulch, mulch , mulch...Carrot's are a Brassica, they Love 10-10-10 N-P-K, What that mean's is the soil composition, Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorous, don't get discouraged, Potassium/Potash is hardwood ash from a fireplace,
I usually put around a Half cup per plant about 3 inches, from the stem of my Tomato, Carrot's are grown closely, so I just sprinkle some over the Top, then rinse with a garden hose, Broccoli I put some on the side of the Hill's, and rake it in a little, Spinach still confound's me, although it's tasty, I feel it should be more abundant, also Organic seed's are the Hardest one's to Grow,,,Just being Honest, all four of my Garden's are 100% Organic...I make the Compost ,the dirt ,the Mulch, but I'm anal like that,LOL I have Found that Sandy Loam Soil is the absolute best, for growing a Garden, I love everything that comes from it...If I can Help anyway at all I will...

For me the secret to carrots is to completely give up on them, decide they are never going to sprout, then they show up. : )

Thank You 1lisac, I'm open to any suggestion's here, I love the fact I even found this Place...

Thanks for the great info Mr. PappyG. I think I will try the carrots again in the Spring and see what happens. 1lisac I will plant and forget them so I am sure to have a good crop! Thanks for the advice!

carrots. The 100+ days test...

Maddy-the trick with carrots is to keep them moist (dont let the ground dry out) until they have sprouted. Some people even put boards over them to make sure the seeds stay damp. Also, you need the soil to be very soft so the roots grow straight.

Its hard to say what to add to your soil because I dont know what your soil is like PH and such. Since carrots are a root crop I would be most concerned about adding Phosphorous (the middle #) because it helps with roots and fruits. Too much Nitrogen will give you beautiful tops (foliage), but only you know what your soil is like.

Maddy the best advice I can give you and to help you understand what all the different veg needs are is: go to your local library / book store etc (I love second hand book stores or sales) there is nothing better than an informative book held in your own hands to flick over, read and probably re-read again especially in the darker winter months, this will allow you to correct, set out the proper soil condition's and educate you on the different plants requirements, things like carrots, I never grow them in soil where there has recently added manure as it causes the carrot to split, cabbages and that family don't require the soil to be as fine a texture as say salads do, the garbage family prefer heavier soil where you can really lean heavy around the plants when setting them out to prevent them rocking around in the wind etc, so a good book, one that suit's your needs and NOT one that is way to technical will be invaluable to you for ever, Books are expensive so I say library till you know what you want. good luck. enjoy and remember, we all make mistakes and boobs. WeeNel.