Wow, amazing job as a first time gardener...looks as good as if you had been growing for years.

Tomatoes look great.

Judging from the flowers I see on your cukes, you should have some in a couple of weeks as long as the bees are doing their thing.

Thank you.
Im realizing that garden is a everyday job.
ESP myself being a perfectionist
I wont let these things die.
you seem to be the one answering most of my questions.
I really appreciate the help.
I think I've become addicted.
All these posts,pictures,and info is all being
Done through my phone so its making it so much
Harder.
Hope all my questions aren't to much.
Thanks again

Thanks for sharing. Its nice to see pics of how other people put together their gardens. You are definitely ahead of me. My biggest tomato isnt much bigger than a golf ball.

I second that AMAZING work for 1st garden. Well thought out paths, fencing, soaker hoses, trellis, spacing, and beauty with flowers, too.

Thanks for taking the time to show & tell!

You mentioned needing organic fertilizer so I can share how we found it.

When I first started using fertilizer I had no idea other than I wanted organic granular type after reading a Steve Solomon book.

I went to Home Dep*t and they had none, but at my local true value hardware store they directed me promptly to my choice of 4# box or 14# bag Dr. Earth brand. Another brand I've used is Whitney Farms. Follow directions on the bag for quantity of spread. Each is different. If you keep it dry & away from critters you can use it next year, too. Mice love it, so be careful about storage. I have often purchased it at discount prices when they clear out in fall or in spring when they have new stock. It's always good yet and goes further than you think. I also purchase bonemeal in addition for my tomatoes mostly, but sometimes using it for other things that need a boost early on. A large bag lasts a long time because just a handful per plant.

After you've used it several years in a row along with addition of compost or manures your soil is going to be amazingly loose and rich. I still use the fertilizer before planting because my rainy climate washes it away a lot of nutrients. I used to think it wasn't necessary because I used good chicken & rabbit manure, but now that I've added fertilizer to the mix I notice a difference in speed of growth, fruiting, and health of plants providing many meals for my family.

Sure easier to go the garden to pick dinner than drive to town, park, walk in, push a cart, select produce grown in another country, wait in line, check out, carry bags, get in car, drive home, carry in house, unpack, etc.

Plus the garden picker gets 1st dibs on the goods. My kids were eager pickers after they heard me say that and I didn't have the biggest berries or first peas anymore.

I've got to say that I'm also jealous because of how easy it would be to convert your structure in to a greenhouse for an extended season, or even add heat and grow all year round!

Very very nice!
I'm getting very few of anything due to several days of 100+ days which killed the flowers!
We're in the 80s this week which should get us back on track!
My first and second year with raised bed gardens were the best! I had studied like crazy and bought truck loads of "vege mix" soil to fill my beds.
I can't afford that now, but I do make my own compost and top dress the beds as they come available (when is that????)
My garden is actually pretty nice, just a little slow to start! Nancy

@corrine1 my soil is my next step on making
This a better garden. Thanks again.

@howelbama The green house idea definitely crossed my mind
Before the chicken wire. ( which I will never work with again)
The problem was the cost of the glass was much higher than the chicken wire.
BTW does anyone know the propper glass to use, Plexiglas?
I plan to eventually convert it to that.
The garden is behind my restaurant and would be great to grow all
Year around.
did minimum research this year.
Been to busy figuring out the basics.

I would keep the greenhouse idea as a long term goal and just start setting aside ideas for it down the road. There is a great forum on here dedicated to just greenhouses with tons of info, but there is a lot involved. The materials for the glass portion vary, there are several options.

But you could start experimenting in season extension by simply getting a roll of 6 mil clear plastic from home depot, and some half inch PVC pipe to create a hoop house over one of the beds in your caged in area. Then try to grow lettuces or something under it. If you google PVC hoop houses, you should be able to find some simple plans...they are cheap and easy to set up and disassemble. They won't allow you to grow year round, but will allow you to extended your season by a month or so on both ends..

You definetly have the basic framework for a greenhouse down the road though, bu you would probably have to creat a pitched roof if and when you decide to go for it. But definetly do lots of research, heating ventilation, etc... Lots involved...

I'm sure your restaurant customers will appreciate and notice the fresh ingredients... Nothing compares to the flavor of a fresh picked tomato...the store ones taste like water in comparison, bland and forgettable.

If you are planning to utilize your garden for produce in the restaurant, you should also research which crops will be most worth it for your grow, and which ones would be best to just purchase. Like tomatoes and lettuce, from a production standpoint they are high value crops well worth growing. There is lots of good info on the web about those topics as well.

And don't worry about asking questions, it does not bother me at all. Though there is certainly a ton that I don't know, but hopefully I or someone else will at least be able to point you in the right direction.

That's amazing! So well ordered! I am jealous, and ashamed too - of my chaos garden out back, lol!

well - someday! I'll get it together!

Very Nice!

Wow! You did a great job! My friends get what they call zoo poop that is well decomposed. Check with your local zoo. Can you start a compost pile? I keep reading in the Organic Gardening forum that you don't need any fertilizer if you use compost in your garden soil.

@howelbama I plan to research right at the end of this season. I will definitely keep posting updates on it. For now my goal is getting my veggies to flourish and get my soil much better. But the Greenhouse is a 100% eventually going to happen.

Compost pile right now seems to complicated. I'd like to start with the organic ferts the remainder of this season. Then before next season add some compost bags. But if I were to build a compost pile this year. What should I put in?

Probably read it somewhere earlier
But have so much info being giving so fast.

You really do have a city garden!

People use plastic sheets for greenhouses these days, not glass.

Chicago,

I still use organic ferts along with the addition of compot. My compost pile consits of lawn clippings, leaves, old straw, plants from the garden, kitchen scraps (no meats or dairy products, and nothing with butter or salt or oil etc...). There are some really good how tos for composting over int the compost forum. You may have difficulty finding much to compost in e city, but you could probably start something up.... A worm bin may be a better bet in your situation... But I wouldn't worry about all that right now, just take it one thing at a time...focus on what you've got going now so you don't get overwhelmed. Also I noticed you mentioned you have a bad back... A nice garden seat with wheels may be a good investment for you if that's the case....

Focus on what I have going on now seems
Like a great idea.
Im only 25 so my back shouldn't hurt,
But 3 months of digging and building the structure ...
Not to mention the 1,000s of pounds of
Rock for the pond..
Really kicked my ass.
Back And groin problem with no health insurance.
Today we had a hail storm with heavy
rain and wind.
Few small tomato plants fell over.
And everything looked a little beat up..
Hope they are alright.
I found a place that sells the garden tone and
Tomato tone. Plan to buy it this week and give it
a try.
Hopefully that does the job for the rest of the
season.

Hail sucks! Wiped out a bunch of my stuff last year. Your chicken wire enclosure probably helped to deflect some of it though, and plants are pretty resilient, they may look beat up now, but they will bounce back.

Just remember bend at the knees not the waist lol... I think the tone products will be more than sufficient to get you through the season.

@howelbama instead of posting a new post...it would be easier to just keep this post going...here's a picture of my soil.. could u tell if it looks good just by a picture?
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Strawberry question..I picked this today. Small but red And sweet. But really small. Should I of left it on?

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Don't have a picture but most of my sweet and hot pepper plants aren't really filling out with tons of leaves...all have peppers. Some are even only 6-8 inches tall..shorter and stockier with few golf balm sized sweet peppers. I tied most of them to stakes when they were small could this effect there Growth?

Here's the smaller peppers
And the pictures of how they
Are tied to stake.
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If you look ...this one is taller and tied.
All leaves under the tie have grown in then
either fell off..or were eaten.
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The soil looks good, but it would be impossible to say without having it tested. You can send a sample to the agricultural extension of a nearby university and have it tested for a small fee. They will be able to tell you the pH and N P K levels, well worth having it done. The peppers look like they could use some fertilizer, lack of foliage is usually due to low levels of N.

Your strawberry looks good, and tey won't get any bigger once they are red and ripe. They also won't ripen once they are picked, like tomatoes do. Depending on the variety, that may be the average size... They will bear more and usually bigger fruit in the seasons to come, as the plants get stronger. With good maintenance, your strawberry plants should last you several years. Do you know what type they are?

I think u mentioned before I could but a soil tester? I think it would be easier and I could always test it. I need to get this Fertilizer tomorrow and get these peppers going. I really want them the most out of anything. ESP the orange ones. The strawberries were giving to me from a neighbor. They started them last year and they cane back this year. ( which I didn't even know they did) . ..not sure what type the are but they are good. Wish I could get more than the occasional red one.

Here's a picture if 2 squash..are they to close to eachother? one seems to be growing into shorter eggplant and may start to shade it. I personally have never ate squash and accidentally baught it thinking it was zucchini.

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Here's a picture of onions I planted at the same time as the ones inside the box that aren't doing to good. These ones get less sun, possibly less water, but are in heavy soil that holds more moisture. Can't figure out what helping though.

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Here's the cucumbers sneaking their way out of the chicken wire. Should I just allow them to go where they want or pull them back in cage?

You need quite a few strawberry plants to get a meaningful harvest... Probably around 20 plants per person that wants to eat them. Good thing is though, they can tolerate quite a bit of crowding and if you have a few, they will produce "runners" that will turn into their own plants...so two or three plants can quickly turn into 20 or more... The runners look like vines growing on the ground away from the main plant. Left alone, the runners will root themselves, and once they do, you can cut the vine attaching them to their mother plant. Some varieties will produce all season long (ever bearers), while some will only bear fruit once a season (junebearers). Junebearers tend to produce larger fruit... There are different ones as well that will produce early,mid, or late season...anywhere from may through late June.

The onions may be getting too much shade to develop large bulbs, they are also nitrogen hogs.

For the cucumbers, I wouldnt pull them back into the cage, but just keep training them up the chicken wire...the tendrils should take hold of the wire, tough you could use twist ties to help guide them where you want them to go. Make sure that any of the plants you have tied, that you are not tying them tight, allow a gap( maybe the size of your pinky) so that the tie does not cut into the stems and choke the plant as the stems grow.

I don't grow much squash, but the spacing looks good to me, though squash and zukes can be pretty monterous plants.

Your peppers should be ok, they will continue to produce up until the frost kills them. Just give them a good feeding, and keep doing so about every two weeks.

Strawberries are in a bucket.
next season I will probably do 5 buckets instead of

I feel like I could post a million questions.
but to much to fast is making my head spin.
Tomorrow I will buy some ferts and get dime in the soil
Thanks again for the info its extremely helpful.

Lol, I hear you on the questions. I have been gardening in one capacity or another most of my life, and I always have more questions to ask. Plus, theories and practices change all the time, so it's really a never ending learning experience.

awesome use of space.

@howelt Bought today, but were out of garden tone. Here's what they had. She said take out a handful...mix it all around plant. Mix it in soil a little then water I. Well. I would like to do it today but it rained heavy last few days and don't want to water. Its supposed to rain again today. Not sure if I should hold off or fert anyway...what do u think?

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Meant @ howelbama

Looks good, fertilizing right before a rain is actually good, saves you the work of watering it in.

Could it sit though without being watered in
Just incase it don't rain
And I don't Get to water till tomorrow

Yeah, it just won't do much good until it gets watered in, either by you or the rain. It won't go bad or anything though, so I would just put it down, and wait to see if it rains, then if not go back and water it in. Dr Earth is good stuff too, I think you'll be happy with it.

OK ILL DO THAT NOW THEN.

Im having a discussion on here about pruning my tomatoes..do you? My problem this year I think is there's 7 different type in stead of the same. So they are all growing differently. I have the space but would like them to be neater. But rather not prune. I think next season I will plant all same type next to eachother in order of hieght. He mentioned using determinate instead ...what is the differennce?

I only prune because of how close I plant mine together, and I only prune up to a few feet, then let them go. I would recommend not pruning, and I'm not going to prune mine next year. Determinate varieties will grow more bush like, requiring little to no support...they are bred to stay shorter and grow wider. Indeterminate varieties grow like vines, and will grow really really tall and require a good support structure, otherwise they fall ove and sprawl all over the ground. You definelty don't ever want to prune a determinate variety because you will only reduce your total harvest. I prefer imdeterminates because the don't take up as much ground space as determinates, but you have to make sure to support them well to keep them growing up.

I am not pruning mine at all next season, I'm just going to plant them less densely. Pruning stresses the plants out and leaves them more vulnerable to disease. I wanted to see how many I could squeeze in this year and that's why I chose to prune them, probably won't try it again though.

Give some of that fert to the strawberries. They use a lot of it.

I'd suggest starting a new post, because long threads that are photo-heavy get to be hard to load.

Off the subject of pruning for a sec.
And back to Ferts.
I just did entire garden.
Small handful around each plant and kinda mixed it in soil.
Used entire bag. Seem like to much?

Also got some on arms and neck..iches like hell. Bad for me?

Probably not too much if you did the whole garden and since it is your first time fertilizing any of it. You could probably get away with less on future applications though. I think if you shop around, you could probably find a better price out there too, usually the bigger the bag, the better the deal. It's not bad for you if you got a little on your skin, just wash it off. You just don't want to ingest it, or breath in a ton of it. I wear gloves in the garden just about every time I work in it, just because you never know what type of insect you might come across...

Ok thanks..yeah the price is def high..$12 for a one time deal...really didn't get everything 100% just got my mmain stuff really well..im gunna wait to water in...back to pruning.. that sounds like what id like to do..no pruning just smarter placement of each tomato pplant...the old Guy across the alley said he only plants heirlooms ...no hybrids...might try a few of them next season...I wish this season would end already ...I now how to fix what mistakes I've already made and how to place the plants better. Tomorrow I plan to build a fence between my eggplant and squash...ill post some PICs...

Cool, yeah I would call around and try to find a mom n pop typ nursery rather than a chain store. Or chek the yellow pages for agricultural supply stores... I usually get my stuff for Agway, but there aren't any of those near you...I'm sure there is a similar type of store in your area though.

I hear you on wishing for next season, I'm always thinking about what I can do better for next year...part of the fun for me... I recommend keeping a journal or something so you don't forget what you did year after year... There are some halfway decent apps for droid and iPhones for tracking gardens, though in my opinion most of them could use a lot of improvement...

Ok thanks..yeah the price is def high..$12 for a one time deal...really didn't get everything 100% just got my mmain stuff really well..im gunna wait to water in...back to pruning.. that sounds like what id like to do..no pruning just smarter placement of each tomato pplant...the old Guy across the alley said he only plants heirlooms ...no hybrids...might try a few of them next season...I wish this season would end already ...I now how to fix what mistakes I've already made and how to place the plants better. Tomorrow I plan to build a fence between my eggplant and squash...ill post some PICs...

If you construct a greenhouse or hoophouse, just make sure the roof is sloped. A flat roof will not stand up to high winds, heavy rain, or snow.