Intensive planting,companions,weeding,insects

[GrannieB]

This year I really wanted a nice veggie garden but with my schedule and limited space I experimented with planting crops real close and different types of weed barriers. Against the wood fence seperating the ornamental part of the yard from the working part of the yard where new veggie garden is,I worked and ammended a 30 ft. by apx.2-2 1/2ft row then covered it in black plastic. Then I planted apx.20-25 tomato plants. When I put the cages over the newly planted toms.it was a pretty tight fit.Over the course of the tomato season,I found the black plastic worked wonderfully at the first of the season when it was still coolish but when summer started heating up the plastic caused the soil to heat up too much and my tom. played out to soon,I think possibly I par-boiled the roots.I'm zone 8 so it get's pretty darn hot so next season,maters will be planted tight but with a healthy layer of pineneedles for weed barrier ,I'm hoarding now .

I kept my pathways about 12 " wide so next to the maters were Blue Lake green beans but due to space and my knees not being what they use to be...I'm going UP with climbing type of beans next year. I have an endless supply of cane from my neighbor down the road for teepees and trellis as long as I can keep her supplied w/ cukes.On the same row w/ the beans,I had peppers but had lots of problems w/ sunburn so next year I'll have to shade them sme how. Of course any kind of squash grows like crazy for me and only problem w/ those was finding ways to cook it or more neighbors to fost them off on.Farmers market next year if time premits.

Instead of black plastic for my cool weather crops,I begged pineneedles every where I could and put down a goodly layer between the cabbages and collards and in the pathways,I dragged out some old left over shingles(pre-steel roof) from hub's shop and layed them out in the pathways,gritty side up for skid free walking. I used no pesticides in the garden but planted out short rows of flowers for cutting in several places and had very few bug problems.

Next year I plan on starting out the new season,doing some colored taters the Paul James way.I've already started a huge pile of compost on the un-used portion of the veggie garden and I plan on hauling in a couple truck loads of compost from re-cycling center. More raised beds will be put together with found materials for small crops such as salad greens and mixin's ,more cutting flowers to draw in bennies and large containers (old 15-25 gal. nursery tree buckets)of herbs so they can be moved about the garden as one crop of veg.goes out to make room for the next rotation. Hope to find a small ice box melon that's doesn't vine too much or do 3 Sisters planting.I'd like to do gourds on the fence behind the #1 greenhouse but I don't know that it gets enough sun back there.

What's on your veggie schedule for next year?What are you trying new in produce or way of growing methods?


I got up way to early and had waaaayyy too much caffine :eek:

[scakya]

Wow grannie, you got my vote for being ambitious!
My own garden project is a long term one and broken out in several ways to make it easy for evrybody else in my family to help with. I have the raised bed portion which am going to add another 10-12 4'-8'+ beds to giving me a total of 30, the edible forest garden(marking that out today), edible around the house beds and the 1/2 acre of squash(six varieties), blue lake beans, pumpkins, sweet and flour corns and sunflowers. Lots of flower boxes stuck into the garden and the raised beds areas. I'll also be planting 60 dwarf fruit trees, 100 goji berries, and several hundred raspberries, dewberries, blackberries and boysenberries. Everything is either on drip or micro-misting systems.
With my raised beds, have the ones without garlic in them covered with heavy white plastic for now and will add black or red mulch plastic to that. Unlike you, we are in a 5b growing zone and summer nights are generally cool at our 6200'. The covering on the beds now is to keep the numerous tumbleweeds and other wind bown weed seeds from infesting my beds.
One project getting ready to be done is the planting of a siberian pea shrub hedge on the west and north borders of the yard. They will also be planted in the edible forest garden. Good nitogen fixers and can tolerate our rather consistent gale force winds. Also hope to cut down the wind on the raised beds with their planting, otherwiser am going to need another barrier to slow the wind down.
On all crops I am using sonic bloom. Tomatoes, peppers and other"warm" types of plants are either in raised beds, house beds or in the greenhouses we will soon be installing. Warm plants like tomatoes are being treated a bit different outside as many don't like to fruit with our cool nighttime temps. Single rows will have a wind break installed and a clear plastic shield in a half moon configuration around each plant. Larger plantings will be covered with a season extenders, ends open.
I do have my seed list figured out and it is rather large but includes many types of heirloom tomatoes for all purposes, sweet and hot peppers, greens,radishes, summer and winter squashes,cucumbers, melons of all types, beans(dry, fresh and stir fry types), cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and a fair amount of other plants. Yes, this is a market garden and I do get help after school and in the summer from my sons and their friends.

scakya

[GrannieB]

scakya,
Whew! That project makes me sound like a piker.
I have a acre and half yard with 35 + flowerbeds that I could put veggies and herbs in if I didn't have 4 boston terriers that didn't like to "water" everything.I keep my veggies confined to the back area so I can keep them out of the edibles. Right now I'm using my homemade tom . cages laid on their sides around the veggies still out there as fencing. Until hub's can finish fencing it in,I'll get more cane from neighbor in the spring to build waddles and terllis to keep them out and grow on.

Since my schedule is hectic during gardening season w/a small wholesale and retail nursery,I have to make the veggie garden as maintance-free as possible. Hub's still works full time and tends livestock,rental properties and home maintance on weekends so he's not much help in the garden or yard.

It's just hub's and me at home now so we'll eat/freeze all we can and sell the rest at farmers market.Neighbor has offered her services next year to watch nursery so I can do my wholesale deliveries and FM then I don't have to shut down while I'm gone,in exchange for ornamental plants and fresh veggies from the garden.

[scakya]

Hi Grannie,
Actually I have it broken out in manageable sections, so although it may sound like a lot, its not! Lots of cover cropping to cut down weeding, drip and misting systems, black plastic over much of the garden area, raised beds and the rest of the farm. Like you my hubby works away from home, county maintenance guy, so most of the stuff that gets done here, I do. It doesn't matter if its a bed needing double digging, barn needing new doors, drip line that has decided to explode because one of the kids wanted to use the frost free and "accidently" messes up the pressure reducer, or a goat needing help kidding...they are all my job to deal with and take care of.
Also like you, I work very hard to supply my family with all we need as far as food goes. Have two growing sons and a hubby that thinks he is too! Teenagers seem to have empty stomachs most of the time and I would rather have them eating the fresh things I grow and am always picking or making(goat milk yogurt dressing, etc.). I also raise and butcher the poultry we need, but put my foot down on butchering the bigger stuff, my hands get a bit stiff cutting up bigger carcasses and jusy have too much to do to mess around with hands that don't want to work for a few days.
All this stems from a time when I couldn't find a decent paying job and made my own. So, like you I have learned my market, work on creating successful value added products, feed my family and make enough income to step up the ante the next growing season.

scakya

[Pharmerphil]

I came to Minnesota in 96, figured I would start raising a 'smaller garden, well, year after year, adding a little more, we are at 6,250 sq. ft., and this is Just the veggie garden, does not count the herb (culinary/medicinal) area, or the flower beds.
Been gardening, most my life Getting older, it keeps me and the wife busy, along with us both working full time jobs.
Next year, and I may be lieing :rolleyes: , we are going to use one area that is 250 sq. ft. and go more intensive.
I have helped and seen many wonderful intensive gardens, working with the master gardening program.
I want to take the remainder of our space next year and grow green manure crops for the season.
I did side beside tests with different mulches for mators, I used:
Black plastic
clear plastic
red plastic S.R.M (selective, reflective, mulch)
Oak leaf Mold
pine needles


Results:
Plastic...black & clear Both did heat the soil up considerably, with some crops, a Good thing, here in Mn.
However, combined with one of the above organic mulches, it seemed it heated the soil, to a point that may have helped with soil borne disease, but not enough to superheat the soil.

S.R.M. I really seen no difference in the color, same resultsa as black and clear.

Oak leaf Mold, I liked this the best, and the plants did well

Pine needles These worked very well also; however, these will affect your soils ph, and in a very short time.

[GrannieB]

Well.pharmer phil,
on that note...I'm gonna go take a nap ;) ...LOL! 6250 sq.ft. in just veggies :eek: ..Whew!

I thought about the pineneedles and ph. They'll be raked up at the beginning of the new season and I'll switch to weed barrier.....guess I'll have to test my soil and add lime too.I really don't care for the plastics because they have to be repalced too much. Beds that are sewn by boardcasting...greens and such will be raised so they're easier to care for. I don't figure to get off scott-free from weeding but I hope to keep it down a lot.

scakya,
I can't kill any animal I raise. I turn them all into pets. Heck,I can't even eat wild hog when hub's bags one cause they are "neighbors" :o ...LOL. Still a sqwimish(sp?) city girl at heart. :D

[scakya]

Hi GrannieB,
Actually, I'm not a big meat eater, just happen to be handy with a knife.
My diet tends towards vegeterian, guess I'm getting soft after years of providing for my family. That's the hefty reason why my garden is so diverse.
Like Pharmerphil, as it is usually me doing the majority of the grunt work, plastic mulch makes my life easy. In the desert, any place there is water in any amount above a few drops, you've got weeds. In time that goes away with good land stewardship, but it can take years, especially in a windy environment like mine. That's the reason for the fences and windbreaks in layers.
And unlike others who just let things grow,I'm not fond of introduced species such as russian knapweed(tumbleweed), jumbo goatheads, or the short grass with the wicked seed heads(can't think of the name). The real wildflowers,mesquite, yucca, prickly pear are worked around or moved to a place assigned for them.

scakya

[zebraman]

Hey GrannieB;I also use French Intensive/Bio Dinamic raised beds and the few weeds that I get are super easy to pull out with roots intact.It is late Jan.here and I still have Tomato,Bell pepper and Eggplants still growing and producing although not huge amounts.

[redbrick]

Show-offs! (LOL!)
Boy, I'm tired just reading this thread. I think I'll stick to my 600 square of veggies, and attendant mini "orchard". That's six semi-dwarf apples, two espalliered dwarf pears, grape arbor and various berry canes. Although, I do miss growing fresh sweet corn and winter squash.