New Gardners in N.Dakota-intro & plans

Hello all! This is my first post here so for a quick intro from the cold northeastern tundra of North Dakota. I'm Mckenzie, my fiance' and I are slightly experienced gardners from what we've seen growing up and then patio planting due to living in the city. Over my 30 and his 40 years of life, this is the first time either of us have gone completely into a garden from scratch. I grew up in the north and am familiar with the area for temps, sunlight and day length but having lived in the south for the last 10 years, I'm finding myself a bit astray. I developed our schedule last night for seedlings and transplant days, and when it stops snowing here we will go mark out what area of grass we're going to tear up and start with our grass removal. He has drawn us up a wonderful 20x20 design which is going on an elevated area in our yard which I believe is over our septic tank and we will raise row plant for our row items and then of course we have our hill items like squash and trellis tomatos which will go in the corners. I plan on a planter in the middle for flowers to bring the bees, and the entire thing will have a 2 foot picket fence around it with a gated entrance for us (we have two dogs to keep out plus the roaming neighbor dogs) and one side the picket fence will butt up to our chicken coop to let the hens roam the garden during the day. This next week the chicks will become available here so we will be raising our eggers along with our gardening adventure.We already have our compost going, just awaiting on some good worms to arrive (yes, he found those on amazon to get us an early start). I work with the US Army Corps of Engineers as a heavy construction project manager, and being up here for a year and half on my latest project, we have quickly found that it is just so expensive here for everything which has encouraged us to go back to the traditions we were raised with and bring back our country roots (which this Texan cowboy I love is just loving the heck out of). I see it more as a contemporary lifestyle as we are your typical green-zen loving-tea drinking-yoga gym addict-health nuts enjoying the finer, more organic life and have been given the superb opportunity here in this farm area where we live in a much different way than the metropolitan lives we've been submersed into offers. There isn't much to do around here and aside from time at the gym(whether at home or in town), knitting (me), and reading (him) we feel this will be a good enjoyable time to share together and also enjoy the fruits of our labor. So on to what I'm looking to learn here, first, are there any other gardners in the North Dakota area with any hints of things to watch out for -threats by bug or virus, necessary adjustments in planting days or nutrients, etc? We are planning on a full crop in the spring and then some items will be planted again in late summer for a fall crop. Secondly, just all around seedling tricks if y'all have any. We are starting up over the next 3 months different seedlings, based on planting dates and that will include items all from seed-broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, okra, onion, peppers, squash, tomato plants, and zuchini squash. We also have leaf lettuce, peas (sugar snap & snow), spinich, and sweet corn which we will direct sow. I'd greatly appreciate anything y'all may have to add...suggestions whether in general or specific, thank you so much!

~Mack

Hiya Mack, and welcome to the fold!! =) I must say that I'm not from anywhere near you (Maryland isn't really *that* close, heehee), however I will try to help in one area, and that's to give you yet one more thing to keep you busy during the cold/snowy months. WINTER SOWING!! < =) Check out this forum area here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/coldsow/all/
And also Wintersown.org. Seeds are MUCH cheaper than whole plants, for one thing, starting as many of your babies as you can from seed is a wonderful thing, for another thing, and being able to play in the dirt during the icky Winter snowy months is a God-send, for yet another thing. There are more things to love about Winter Sowing, (what's NOT to love??), but I can't think of 'em all right now. ;) I'm pretty sure you probably still have time to get 'er done in your neck of the woods, too. Shoot, I plan to put out a few more this morning myself, and we've had temps in the 50's and 60's around here. (I figure, with morning frost on the vehicles' windshields tells me it's still ok to winter sow. ;)

Anyway, I hope this helps in some way. And again, WELCOME!! < =D

Susan

Welcome. Just one thought about your garden location over the septic tank. What happens if about the time things start to get ripe you have to dig the septic tank up because you have a problem?

Mack wellcome to daves garden. You may want to rethink the plan to let the girls in your garden. They will scratch up and eat your young plants.My neighbour has a great arrangement he lets his girls graze all winter long and they do a wonderful fertalizer spreading program but when he tills in the spring they are locked out untill fall.We have 15 working girls but my garden is to big to let them graze.I have 3 golden retrivers so no free range hens.The 2 older dogs are no proplem but the 3 year old is a pistol . I just need to take him to chicken school then I could let them loose.

Hi,
Welcome to the Garden!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1243567/

Mckinzie,

It sounds like you have a good plan underway! The only advice I would offer is, if you can, start with more space. In my experience there is always one more thing that you want to grow. Some things just take up some space, too, and it's my opinion that you don't have to manage as intensively (feeding, extra water, etc.) if the plants aren't as crowded. Good Luck!

David

welcome to Dave's. I do have a couple of suggestions. One is to make some friends with local gardners and two - use raised beds. I agree with Doug about the garden over the septic tank and I agree with eweed about the chickens. Local gardeners will let you know when the best times are to plant the different crops especially the warm weather crops.