If you don't mind, I'm just going to comment on the larger plot that you are hoping to bring into production...

Start now. I think your idea of just amending 'a few mounds' there is fine. It will be a work, and resource efficient effort. However, start scavenging all the organic matter you can now. Cover the entire area in a mix of leaves, wood chips, grass clippings, compost, kitchen scraps, straw... any and every bit of organic matter you can find. Layer it on thickly... like 6" - 8" thickly. The worms and soil organisms will find it and will begin amending that soil now. Next year, turn the soil (you can turn what ever is left on top in) and add more as mulch on top of the bed.

Whenever you have a plot that you plan to convert to gardens, preparing it as far ahead as you can (doesn't mean you need to hold off...) will be of great benefit to the future productivity of the space..

I agree with ekgrows for the most part, but I do try to do at least one plant of something I don't know much about each year.

If there's something I'm mildly interested in, I'll go to the local organic market and buy something to try.

I've discovered that I love small asian eggplant grilled along with squash on the grill! I no longer grow the big ole eggplant cause I don't have much to do with it (there are only 2 of us and I haven't figured out a way to freeze it to my liking)

Also roasted root veges are the bomb and will last quite awhile.

Lastly, have you looked into a foodsaver system? It is a vaccume system that I've been using for YEARS! You can bag soups, sauces, veges, meats etc etc, and it really does save food for months/years! Rather than store cans on shelves, you do some creative flat freezing!

I have given plenty of people a couple "slab-o-soups" over the years! Nancy

2 rows of tomato plants and 3 rows of beans will use up a good amount of a 7x15" plot so not much left over for any crop of any size. You could change the green beans to pole beans and free up some space that way for other crops but many of the things you list have very different planting times to consider.

And it is difficult to make recommendations if we don't know why crops failed in the past. For example, beets and carrots with lots of tops but no root mass could easily be too much nitrogen fertilizer or too late planting as they are cool weather crops like lettuce and spinach, peas, & onions. I notice you don't mention any onions, peppers, squash, cucumbers or melons. Have you considered any of those those?

Dave

Well, I decided that I really should just plant now, and worry about how to fit it all in over the next few weeks.

I bought a 72-cell seed tray and started:

• 6 Cucumbers (3x Biet Alpha F1, 3X Marketmore)
• 6 Broccoli (Munchkin)
• 6 Kale (Dwarf Green Curled)
• 6 Zucchini (Dark Green)
• 6 Green Pepper (Big Dipper)
• 6 Asst Sweet Peppers (Carnival Mix)
• 6 Cherry Tomatoes (Tiny Tim)
• 6 Watermelon (Garden Leader Monster)
• 4 Amish Paste Tomatoes
• 2 Great White Tomatoes
• 2 Druzba Tomatoes
• 24 Marigolds (Too many cells, had to use them!)

Additionally, I have seed tapes for Beets (Detroit Dark Red), Swiss Chard (Fordhook Giant) and Carrots (Scarlet Nantes),

I also have some Spinach and Lettuce varieties that I am going to grow in planters on our new patio:

• Lettuce (Grand Rapids)
• Lettuce (Early Curled Simpson)
• Spinach (Long Standing Bloomsdale)
• Spinach (Regal)

Additionally,
I plan to plant Spaghetti, Butternut and Table Queen (heirloom) squash
directly, as well as a few rows of bush beans.

Obviously,
this isn't going to all fit in my 15'x7' garden, so I'll be doing some
expansion. I figure I will do all the vines (Cucumber, Zucchini,
Watermelon & Squash) in a new section of garden behind my 'regular'
garden. If I plant in mounds, I only need to worry about amending the
mounds this year. I may also be putting a few other plants out in the new area. Early next week I'll start gathering amendments for that area, although it's too wet to get into now...

For the rest, I'll be experimenting
in how densely they can be planted before negative effects happen.
Carrots can be planted in blocks on 3" centers and beets on 6" centers.
Swiss chard can go on 9" centers. However, for this to work, I have to
be on top of watering and fertilizer (compost...).

> And it is difficult to make recommendations if we don't know why crops failed in the past.

Since that time, I've put some large amounts of organic matter into that soil, so I'm going to see how this year goes, and likely line up a soil test in the fall for proper intervention for next year. I left it too late this year already.

All those crops in that 72 cell tray have very different germination times and the peppers need much warmer soil temps. So be prepared to separate all the cell packs and even cut the cell packs apart as needed so you can get the sprouted ones out from under the dome and under the lights. Next time consider starting each crop in its own container so you can adjust as needed. The 72s work well if it is all the same crop. This is a good time to be learning about the different germination needs for each crop.

Dave

Dave,

Yes, I realized that as I was planting them. If I have to cut my $3 cell tray into strips, well, I can float the cost!

The primary limiting factors for my garden are (1) water and (2) labor. We generally have a water shortage every year, and I am, frankly, lazy. I cannot be relied on to regularly weed bare soil or to harvest a lot of plants that must be promptly harvested.

I mention that because I'm curious as to what your primary limiting factors are. I'd say that one is space--15X7 is a decent garden plot, but it's not huge.

I realize that you already made your decisions. But I started thinking, so, some random thoughts:

- I agree that your existing tomato and bean plans will take up most of the plot. For me, it would take up more than all of the plot, because I dryfarm my tomatoes and plant them six feet apart. But that's me.

- I don't bother with soil testing. I keep meaning to, but I never do. So I don't see it as all that essential.

- Since you have two years of experience growing potatoes, and since potatoes are extremely productive per square foot, I'd suggest growing some again. That could fill up the plot right there, or you could leave a little bit of space for experiments.

- Do you want to try lettuce again, or are you just as happy to let that go? If you'd like to try it again, you could dedicate one very modest little block to it--maybe even just 2X2 feet--and try purchased seedlings bought when they're very small, generously watered, and protected with shade cloth. Note the varieties so that you know what bolts and what doesn't.

- I've been gardening for decades, and I still don't grow carrots. They seem to require a level of preparation and attentiveness that I'm not willing to give them.

- Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage do want space, as you say, plus they tend to be more thoroughly destroyed than many other things when pests get at them, plus they can bolt if they're unhappy--especially the cauliflower. So I agree on skipping them.

- Have you tried strawberries? They don't produce a lot of food, but homegrown strawberries are one of the things that are dramatically better than the storebought equivalent. You could give them a block of your existing garden, ignore the advice to strip the flowers the first year and instead eat what you get, and let that experience guide you in whether you might want to put a strawberry bed in that lawn that you're eyeing, next year. If you decide to go for it you could prep the space in the fall and have it ready to plug the strawberries in first thing next year.

- How about onions? One of my solutions to wanting to grow more food than I have room to store is to grow Copra onions, make them into caramelized onions (which drastically reduces their volume) and freeze the caramelized onions in little chunks. Or you could grow one of the several types of perennial bunching onions. I've never done that; I keep meaning to, and then another year goes by. My vague impression is that you plant 'em, they grow in a little clump, you dig up the clump, eat some and replant some, repeat. I'm not sure if I'm right or not.

- Herbs? Oh! Hey! Many of the perennial herbs LIKE poor soil. You could plant an herb garden in a chunk of that lawn space. Though I don't know how they feel about acidity. Speaking of acidity, you should be able to buy a kit to do a pH test, without needing a lab.

I think you need a good resource book. For your zone, I think a used copy of Crockett's Victory Garden would be helpful. This used to be a garden show on Boston MA tv so his month-by-month guide should be right for your climate.

Here in NH, I need to plant spinach ASAP. We're having a cold spell with light snow so I aim for later this coming week. Somewhere, sometime, I read that spinach is day length sensitive. Ever since I started planting spinach in early April, I've had a good crop.

Some lettuces are more heat hardy than others. A good seed supplier tells you which and which is better for cool season. I have trouble growing lettuce in early spring. It seems as soon as hot weather hit, it bolts. I do better planting it later in the season aiming for a fall crop.

I totally agree with adding as much organic matter as possible. Planting in mounds has worked for me with squash and cucumbers. We store our winter squash in the cellar on open wooden shelves in the coldest spot. I still have winter squash that's keeping well: kabocha, Delicata and Long Island Cheese Pumpkin although lost a cheese pumpkin this week and I'm not happy with the flavor so a pumpkin a week is going to our daughter-in-law's chickens.

I suggest reading up on lasagna gardening. It's a no-till method I have been very happy with.

I add lime to the area where I plant beets.

Unless you're pretty sure watermelon has time to grow in your area, I wouldn't bother with it.

Figure out succession planting. Last year I followed hard neck garlic (plant in late October, harvest in late July plus enjoy garlic scapes in late June) with broccoli seedlings and bush beans. Thanks to a friend, I grew 3 kinds of pole beans on a trellis that were varieties good fresh or dried. Blue Coco was one variety. She gave me six seeds of each kind and that was a good start (only two of us to feed). Last year I planted garlic after pulling out the tomato plants in the fall.

You didn't mention sugar snap peas or pas. Sugar snaps are easier to harvest/cook and are good either fresh and lightly cooked or even pickled (refrigerator recipe, just one jar).

I don't do a good job of starting things like broccoli for later in the summer but last year I found nice young seedlings in Maine over the 4th of July weekend. That gave us the broccoli that went in after the garlic was harvested and was good until cold killed the plants.

I have a trellis of concrete reinforcing mesh held up with steel posts that I use for sugar snap peas. I can get a good crop while tomato plants are growing. By the time the tomato plants are big I don't need to walk thru the patch to harvest the sugar snaps. The garlic/followed by broccoli were on the other side of the trellis.

6 cherry tomato plants are a lot unless you have a family of tomato lovers.

We've ended up with a second refrigerator in the garage because I also like to ferment vegetables and several times a year we need extra space for parties.

With all those things you want to plant Brian you are going to need to triple the size of your garden. :-)

Dave

SIX zucchini????? You do know that August 8th is leave a zucchini (or bushel in this case) on your neighbors porch day? Nancy

Haha, nancyjane, I was thinking exactly the same thing. I usually do two zucchini plants and still end up doorbell ditching, pawning them off on coworkers, and donating to the food bank often. Can't imagine the mound of zukes I'd be buried under with 6 plants.

Growing all your vining plants such as cucumbers, beans and a lot of small melon varieties could be done veftically in crw cages. I grow everything vertically that can possibly be grown that way because it frees up a lot of space for me to plant other things and my garden is roughly 5000 sq. ft. I also grow sweet potato vines vertically on a trellises fence. Watermelons can be grown vertical with the help of some sort of sling to support the melon as it gets larger.

I have the same soil as you, (I think) also in Canada. Are you in cottage country or near an area with beaches/lakes? It's taken me 5 years to get all types of crops growing. Some crops wont grow in the sandy soil that I'm thinking you might have. Is your soil, a layer of topsoil, and then all sand under it? If so, how many inches of topsoil is ontop of that sand? Need to know more about your soil.

Here's some crops that should grow quite well without amending the soil.

Bush Beans

Cucumbers

Green onion

Your marigolds will do good as well.

This whole area used to be a cedar swamp, but was raised with topsoil brought in from somewhere. some parts are real sandy, other parts are pretty clay-like/ The side where my garden in probably has ~1ft of this imported topsoil, the other side of my property has closer to 3-4 feet of fill.

I think you can grow just about anything then, it's just a matter of a few things. Water retention, (or if you can water often enough) full sun, and nitrogen.

For the nitrogen, apply and spread out a high Nitrogen based slow released granular fertilizer before you plant, and you should be good for the year. Or whatever high N based fertilizer you can get your hands on, nothing water soluble though, it's too much work trying to feed.

The only crop I can think of that wont do the greatest in a foot of sandy soil is potatoes. Other then that, pretty much everything can be managed, a lot of it comes down to Nitrogen and keeping things watered, with sandy soil you tend to get a lot of drainage, which is good, but also a pain in the butt for moisture retention. You said it was a swamp area, so I'm assuming somehow it's retaining moisture?

You said lettuce and root veg didn't grow well, If you tell me a bit
more about the process, It would tell me alot about your soil and what's
going on. How tall of tops are we talking about for your beets and
carrots? and when did you plant the lettuce, and was it transplanted?
When you grew the root veg, did you supplement with fertilizer, if so
what was the NPK on it, and was it water soluble type? Did you feed
often? Also, did you apply this same fertilizing techniques to your
lettuce?

Just a tip for next time, when you add soil or amend it with something, don't till the sand and mix it with what your amending, unless of course you only have 6 inches of topsoil to begin with. It's better to have a foot of soil, then 2 feet of soil that's heavily mixed with sand. 1 foot of soil that doesn't contain sand can really make a difference.

Brian,

I have a very small house and am going to learn to put up food this summer from my small but intensively planted back yard vegetable garden.

I have purchased two wire shelves, a corner one and a regular straight one, manufactured by the Trinity Company. The two shelves side by side only take up 5 feet, but each shelf of the regular shelf can hold up to 600 lbs and the corner one almost as much, which means I can store all the canning jars, and the canner on the shelves.

Just an idea, in case you plant and everything flourishes, and you find yourself with a lot of surplus.

Are you using the "square foot" system? I scanned and did not seeit mentioned. I use the method but never used his planting mix.... just the spacing charts and basic method. Also I love the victory garden books.

Your longer days may cause some sensitive things to bolt. That was the case with my Alaska gardens where potatoes were my best crops. Spinach there was impossible and ihad expected it to do well.

Brian, definitely look at square foot gardening! There is quite a bit of information online for this gardening approach. Also, start by buying a soil PH tester at your local hardware store (or online). It is fairly simple to test the soil yourself. Once you know what your pH balance is, you can amend the soil depending on what it needs. Then, plan your square foot garden! You can use Xcel or draw a plan on a piece of paper, with your 15'x7' dimensions in 1 square foot grids. You will find lots of information online for how many of each plant to plant per square foot. Also, look up companion plants so you know what you can and cant plant together. For example, tomatoes can be planted with broccoli and peppers, but should be planted far from potatoes. Once you know what you can plant together, you can start laying it out on your plan. I usually start with the main plants (like tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini), and then fill in with the small plants, herbs, flowers, etc. Marigolds and Nasturtiums are great for vegetable gardens and they are companions for most veggies. I tried to attach a plan of my garden as an example but I can't get it to work :/

Brian, here is a good companion planting guide. I am also including my garden plan as an example :)

Gardens! · More Info

Gardens! · More Info