It looks very nice and well organized. The water you need depends on the weather. As long as the plants don't look droopy, you're doing fine. When in doubt about watering - don't. Mulch will keep the weeds from taking over and will help keep the soil moisture in. I'd skip the Sevin. One of the benefits of backyard gardening is that you can skip the chemicals that are used on large commercial farms.

Here is a link that might be useful: My raised bed veggie garden

Thanks for the feedback lgteacher.

We started to use Sevin because we were noticing alot of bugs and holes in the leaves. Since using Sevin, they do look better.

So just use regular shredded hardwood mulch? I collect the grass clippings from my yard, with that work too? How thick should the layer of mulch/compost be?

Don't use grass clippings unless you let them thoroughly dry first.

Your tomatoes look like you bought them already fruiting. This is why they are slow, they've spent too much time in the pots. Next year, either start your own or buy younger transplants. They'll catch up and surpass those over-mature plants.

I had your post open early this morning but had to leave. I was going to say that my only concern was your impressive detailed following of directions. Since I couldn't see any problems, I wanted to suggest that you might be overly concerned. Or to put it in the words of that famous psychitrist Lucy Van Pelt 'learn to relax, 5 cents please'.

I had missed the text about the Sevin. A few holes in some leaves isn't a big deal. I am certainly not an obsessed organic gardener. I use sevin on occasion. In the veggie garden I used it recently directly on my squash stems (as precisely as I could) trying to fight the squash vine borers that are a real pest; and I used it last year when I got a massive attack of asparagus beetles. In neither case did sevin get on flowers that might have hurt the bees.

Anyway, very imprerssive garden. Squash and cucumbers start extremely easily directly from seeds. I garden for the feeling of success but also for the feeling of saving, and when I buy veggie plants, I buy the smallest least expensive ones I can get. I am happiest when I can find little six pacs of tomatoes early and I transplant them into bigger pots where they can safely grow until the soil is warm enough. In that month, they may well have grown into the larger expensive plants.

Why do you have a clump of pepper plants at the front in your first picture? Aren't you concerned about them not doing well because of root competition? That could be one reason they aren't growing as fast as you'd like.

You might want to give the plants a shot of fertilizer a few times during the growing season. Make sure you water the tomatoes at the soil level and keep it off the leaves; this helps with disease prevention. With the exception of the clump of peppers, everything looks nicely spaced out.

your sun exposure might be a reason for the slower growth too. youre getting about 5 and a half hours, where 6 is the reccomended minimum. youll get more production with more sun.

Chas - I feel relaxed, but I can always relax more. I just wanted to make sure my effort digging and planting the garden doesn't go to waste. I'll only use Sevin in the future if I see a problem, otherwise I'll keep all chemicals off. I like your idea about starting small and early...we got a late start this year.

Donna - That is a jalapeno plant, only one :) It is diffently the fastest growing and already has 1 3 inch jalapeno with many more sprouting. What type of fertilizer to you use?

Howelbama - I was afraid that would be part of the problem. Next year's spot will have more sun exposure.

you can still use that spot next year though, lettuces and such would probably do well there. and the stuff thats there now will still produce, just not as much as it would with more sun :)

looks really good. wish mine looked that good with the heat problem we have here. dont forget that pepper and tomato plants need calcuim. it will creep up on you if your not vigilante.

Nice cages. Did you make them, if so, could you share how you did it?

I like your garden. Best wishes for a bountiful harvest.

Looks like a good start. I don't think your mulch question got answered, so I'll address that. I am used to gardening in desert/Mediterranean climate where water conservation is utmost, and we don't have issues with mold or humidity, so YMMV. However, I wouldn't recommend using bark mulch. Wood is very carbon-heavy, so any of the mulch that begins to decay into the soil has the potential to tie up your soil nitrogen. It's also just a pain to have wood chunks in your soil. I have been using straw for several years, but plan to switch to hay next year, because it has more nitrogen content, and I'll be able to till it into the soil at the end of the year or add it to the compost pile to enrich the soil. I do this with the straw as well, but it's very low nutrient, so it needs more nitrogen source (manure) to balance it out. Other options for mulch are cardboard, several layers of newsprint, weed barrier, or plastic.

Looks live you've got a good start there!

The only other recommendation I'd make, is to get your hands on as much compostable material as you can this fall and layer or work it into your garden spaces so that it can decompose over winter (leaves, coffee grounds, livestock manure, veggie scraps from the kitchen). You'll have a rich soil that is easy to work in the spring, and you should have very little need for fertilization. Feed the soil, not the plants, and you'll end up with a healthy, robust garden.

Hi bentleyvt,
Everything looks great, as others have said, Sevin can really hurt the pollinator population...
You may want to just use Sevin Spray instead of Sevin Dust, the spray you put on the leaves when the flowers close up for the night, any pest that tries to hurt your leaves gets killed, while protecting the pollinators.The dust literally goes everywhere the wind goes, so you are actually causing unknown damage.

Great looking garden -- very cool that you guys are starting up and planning to expand!

On the mulch question -- I use hay mulch and love it. People say it brings weeds, but I don't find that to be the case at all. And it rots in to the soil and improves it year by year.

My neighbors use Sevin Dust and I use nothing to kill bugs, and they have many more bug problems than I do. I think that the poison must get into the soil and kill the health-producing microbes, and that therefore over time my soil has become more healthy than the soil that gets the Sevin dust powdering over it (Healthy soil = healthy plants = fewer bugs, since the job of bugs is to eat unhealthy plants.). Also, maybe they are killing their beneficials as well, and I am not, so I have a better balance than they do of good bugs and bad bugs.

A few holes in leaves is not a problem. In most cases of bug infestation, the plant will survive and produce anyway.

Wishing you a great harvest!

Welcome to the wonderful world of gardening. My only suggestion looking at your photos is to echo what others have said about mulch. There are a lot of different types of mulch you can use. I prefer tree trimming from the city because I have a lot to mulch and they are free. Some folks say they are a no-no in the garden but I have never had a problem. I have read a few studies (sorry can't remember the citations) that say bacteria tie up some nitrogen at the surface level where soil and mulch meet but the amount of N tied up is negligible and of now real consequence since roots are growing deeply enough that this is not an issue. It is a problem if you till them into your soil. You can use a lot of other things if you are nervous about wood chips. If you plan ahead you can collect leaves in the fall and use those.

Also, you are going to see bugs in the garden. Some are good and some are bad. In fact, I would think it was a pretty bad sign if you don't see any bugs (good or bad) in the garden. Don't freak out every time you see one. Slowly but surely over time you learn about them and decide which ones you can live with and which ones you can't. I share with flea beetles and earwigs but can't stand Southern armyworms.

Finally, love that you made your own cages. The only issue that I foresee with them is that if you get big tomatoes, you won't be able to pull them out of the holes. You will have to get them to the top to get them out. If you make more cages in the future try to find concrete reinforcing wire. It has bigger holes.

Overall, you are doing great. Some much better than me the first year I gave gardening a shot. Good luck and enjoy.

Great Garden, you sure this is your first time gardening?
Looks good, with room to grow the size of your garden.
Nice home stead,too.
Jon right about the dust & always spray late in the evening, it is cooler for you & a lot of pollinator are gone to bed by then.
You could use more mulch,IMO.
{{gwi:66248}}
{{gwi:66210}}

Congratulations on your first garden! You're going to be thrilled to eat things you grew yourself.

As some people mentioned, the key is to build up the soil. You want it to be healthy, full of good bacteria and fungi and worms. This will give the plants what they need to be healthy and resistant to most problems. Dig leaves into it in the fall, or compost leaves separately to make beautiful leaf mold, or make and add compost... And definitely mulch, especially in your warm climate, it'll conserve water and encourage worms to work the soil. If you start adding organic matter this year, the soil will be better already next year.

Enjoy!

Thanks for all the responses! I've been busy the past couple weeks so I haven't had time to respond. The garden has really started to take off and we have even already ate 3 squash, 2 cucumbers, 3 tomatoes, and 3 jalapenos!

Yes, we did build the cages. I used 4 feet tall fence wire and just wrapped them up in a circle. We cut bigger wholes throughout it so we could reach the plant if we needed to.

My GF has been putting down organic fertilizer around the plants every so often. I do have a compost pile in the back, and this fall I can make sure to use that in the areas of next year's gardens.

We have stopped using the Sevin Dust and will only use it if we see a major problem. So far I think we are fairly good, but the poor pepper plants are having trouble. They aren't producing at all. I've seen the flowering process on all of them, and then it looks as if a peppers going to appear and it doesn't. Just recently I noticed 2 tiny flowers with the startings of a pepper on the ground. I wonder if something is eating them?

And our third tomato plant which was struggling to stay alive was literally spiked with a branch from this past weekend's East Coast storms. I guess he wasn't meant to be.

Here's some new pictures!

{{gwi:66249}}

{{gwi:66250}}

{{gwi:66252}}

{{gwi:66253}}

{{gwi:66254}}

{{gwi:66255}}

Looks like generally your crops are doing good. One comment is that location might be close enough to the root systems of those small trees to be adversely effected. Maybe not this year but in following years for sure, because the fertilizer applied near those roots causes them to greatly expand. And if those trees are at all on the west or east shading effects are significant.

Looks great, I agree with pnbrown.
You could cut around the edge of the garden with a shovel before you plant to cut off the new root of the trees.
You could dig a trench around the garden & put the concrete blocks, flat side against the wall of the trench & cover the block with back fill.

You've got a great garden growing there. It's more fun to do together than alone. Awesome cooperative effort! Your dog can keep watch to ensure no critters come to harvest.

I have one suggestion:

Could you move the garden further away from the trees and into more hours of sunshine?

I agree that tree roots invade gardens when nearby. Our best shot at full sun is along the driveway and since we're in a clearing in the woods we have trees bordering the garden on the east northeast side. The garden faces southwest and is partly sloped.

Every time I turn soil over deeper than a shovel or so I encounter tree roots. This year I dug down deep in the tomato bed thinking it would be good to remove more rocks. I mean mine for rocks like we need more river rock. He, he. I found lots of little roots in there from the fir tree 15' away plus one large one. So now that bed not only grows rocks it grows tree roots!

If I was starting over in another location I would be sure to be far away from trees! Besides roots they also suck the moisture and nutrients away from your garden beds. Overhead limbs just get bigger creating more shade. Trunks get taller & more difficult to cut back limbs. Eventually it might be a losing battle with the sunshine there.

bentleyvt. I think that the first picture shows something best. The shrubs/tree are really too close to the garden along with shading fences for Vermont. These factors will keep your tomatoes anemic and most other plants thin rather than thick stemmed.

Congratulations for starting gardening and opening up to suggestions.

Your pepper plants are probably not producing because of lack of sun. I've found they need the most sun of common garden vegetables.
I tried to grow peppers (and other sun-loving vegetables) in my new home garden (now 6 years old) even though I only get about 5-6 hours of sun there. I'd been gardening for 25 years in several different location so I though I could make a go of it in a less than ideal location. The pepper plants never flowered. Eggplant, squash and tomatoes had only modest production. So I moved my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and squash (which need AT LEAST 6 hours of mid day sun) to a nearby community garden where they get all day sun. An amazing difference!
I still use my home garden for spring crops (broccoli, lettuce, peas, etc.) and leafy veggies and herbs, which generally need less sun.
After you move the sun-lovers to a more open location, you will be amazed at the increased production.
I also agree with the recommendation to use mulch (I prefer hay, dry grass clippings, and shredded leaves) and to avoid using the Sevin.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm hearing from everyone that this isn't the ideal garden situation because of sunlight and the close proximity to the trees. Next year, we may relocate the garden to an area away from the trees. I'm not sure if that area gets more sunlight, I will need to evaluate that a little closer. The current spot does get quite a bit of sunlight though - the sun rises to the back right of the garden, and as it gets to the top of the sky its towards the right of the garden. I'd say it gets sun from 12-1 until about 7PM at least. At 6:30 today it was still getting direct sunlight.

I have an updated picture. One tomato plant (the one behind the first row one) is slowly dying...although the first one is still growing strong. Jalapeno, squash, and cucumbers are still producing quite well. I'm keeping the jalapeno's on the plant until I notice cracking/coloring to test out the different stages and flavors. About how long until you start to notice the change in color? And we have some bell peppers starting to grow too...probably about 4 that are ping pong ball size.

{{gwi:66256}}

Here's a picture of our cucumber plant that is starting to get some yellow leaves...any idea what may be causing this? Its only started in the past week or so, but I think we need to get it figured out soon!

{{gwi:66257}}

So far, we had about 10 cucumbers, 10 squash, 5-6 tomatoes, and 3 jalapenos (although about 20 are currently growing). Happy gardening!

The jalepenos take a long time to turn red, probably a month or more. As far as the other peppers not producing, if they are flowering, they will produce for you. It is most likely blossom drop due to the extreme heat lately. Once things cool off a bit, the flowers will produce peppers for you.

The cukes look like they have anthracnose, a fungal disease. Cut and carefully remove the badly affected leaves. Dispose of the removed leaves away from the garden to avoid spreading the spores(dont compost them)You can control it but starting a regimen with a fungicide. It is a very common problem with cukes and can affect other cucurbits as well. Neem oil is a broad spectrum fungicide that may work, but I have not tried it myself. A more traditional copper based fungicide may work better though.

So you are saying the garden is shaded until noon, or later? If that is the case then you definitely should move the location for next year.

Thanks Howelbama and pnbrown.

I've removed the badly infected leaves - what is a good a good copper based fungicide? Or should I go to my local nursery and ask for exactly that?

So does it matter when the garden actually gets the sun or is it more important how long it gets sun? Current set-up gets about 7 hours of direct sunlight...

Off the top of my head I'm not really sure of the names, but a nursery should be able to make a good reccomendation. I believe Bonide makes one....

7 hours is pretty good, but you will get better production with more, and full sun, not dappled is best. Ideally, good morning sun exposure, then shade in the early afternoon, then sun again till dusk is the best, but setting it up that way can be a real challenge. My garden definetly does not have that. I get sun from around 10:30 till about 7, and I get pretty good production from it.