Starting Vegetable Garden Help! 6B Zone
mystearica
8 years ago
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Comments (19)You've gotten a whole lot of good information and suggestions here. Some of it sounds conflicting, but mostly it's not. Read all you can on these forums and in gardening books, especially those written for your region. You will quickly get the whole picture. I like your plan of action! I garden in raised beds too. I agree with seysonn that you should combine some of those small beds into one long bed. You'll get a lot more planting space that way, and will save work and money on edging them out. If I were you, I would divide your six foot wide corn/bean beds into two three foot wide beds side by side, but with a 3' path between. When you get raised bed soil in great shape you will sink to your ankles in it if you walk in the beds. You can still get pollination in your corn if you plant the two beds side by side. And, you'll have much easier access to beans in a 3' wide bed. I also agree that four feet wide will be too wide for raised beds. Three feet to three and a half feet will be far better. By reducing your beds to three foot widths, you can pick up another foot in your 2' paths. I have three foot wide paths between my beds and that is perfect. I have no trouble getting my wheelbarrow in for any job I want to do. Four foot wide paths is a waste of planting space, in my opinion. I also agree with the comment on pine straw. It is truly wonderful mulch. Since you have lots of leaves, use those as soil amendments and save the straw for mulch on your paths. ALSO, use it as mulch inside your beds. When you set your transplants in the beds in the spring, like tomatoes, peppers, etc., immediately put a thick layer of pine straw mulch over the entire surface of the bed and around your plants. This one thing alone will reduce your weed problems dramatically. When you plant vining crops, mulch the entire bed except the hill where you plant the seeds. Then as the vines spread, they will grow over the mulch. Your fruit will be clean and your bed will be weed free. See? The only time I ever plant a bed without mulch is when I am sowing the entire bed as a block like carrots or crowder peas, with no rows or paths in it. When I do this, I am always reminded why mulch is so great. I have to pull a lot of weeds until the crop plants get large enough to shade them out. I think your plan looks really great. With a little tweaking, it will be a garden to be proud of. Best of luck to you!...See MoreHelp finding maples for St. Louis zone 6b/7a
Comments (10)Most jm's do better with morning sun and afternoon, at least, partial shade and if you want at least some color you will need at least 5-6 hours of sun...so it depends on how your tree is situated. Pin oaks are fast growing but IMHO crappy trees ( although ANY 150 year old tree is a treasure!!) I have "inherited" three of them all about 50-75 ft tall. You should be careful planting them too close cause the nasty acorn fall in aug - oct may damage your leaves and small branches of your jm's...fortunatly the acorns are small..( although i've had my head cracked by them more than once and it's NO treat.)Also note the above fast growing statement ...what may be in partial sun this year may become full shade next and trimming ( or in your case falling old dying branches) near your maples may be problematic since pin oak brances are especially twiggy and heavy leading to possible damage of your JM's.( and I don't know how much more growing a 150 year old ree will do).If you have lived with this tree for a while you may be aware of everything I have posted but others here reading this may not!!! All the varieties you mentioned should do well in St. Louis... but the placement may be problematic ...David...See MoreCherry tomatoes in a "CityGarden" container from Home Depot zone 6b
Comments (5)""planting shorter grown varieties..." Yeah, but what's the point? ;)" EBs are a novelty item. They were designed commercially for two determinate tomato plants and work well for that. That was the original purpose/point, to get more tomatoes and not fall down, and then to mass market this through a sales network. The point was not to grow indeterminates, but that won't stop us lol. Not sure I know the EB stakes (or CityGarden, which sounds like another EB "clone"). Is that the trellis EB stake to the sides with netting you want to stick on the CityGarden? Didn't think it was 5 feet tall. If you have that trellis design already and aren't buying new stuff, and it secures well, just use a combination by strapping a couple of bamboo poles to the horizontal support tube. Still 2D unless you bury them in opposite bottom edges making an X from a side view, but you'd have height and more stability. But JMO and I'm not really sure about the attachment of the EB stuff you mentioned to the CityGarden thing. Best PC...See MoreHelp with Pool Garden Plantings Zone 6b (Toronto)
Comments (1)Some ideas; ....See Moremystearica
8 years agomystearica
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agomystearica
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agomystearica
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agomystearica
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agobardamu_gw
8 years ago
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