This year's garden

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Here is the plan for this year along with a few pictures of the boxes all set up and ready. I got everything that is cool weather oriented planted this weekend. I plan to build a trellis between the rows of boxes to allow the tall, climbing veggies a place to climb. I'm hoping for better results this year being right out in the middle of the yard where I get them more sun.

jgriffith · Posted: Feb 26, 2013 2:24 pm Post subject:

Looks too cluttered to me, you sure you have enough spacing?

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Yep, that is the typical layout when doing the square foot gardening technique.

ChrisG · Posted: Feb 26, 2013 2:44 pm Post subject:

Pretty sweet Okie. I notice you don't have any corn. I'm assuming that's something you plant later on in the Spring/Summer?

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

I'm not going to do corn. We aren't huge corn eaters and they tend to take up a little more space than I want to, even with the square foot gardening.

jryoung · Ladies Man Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 7664 City: Man Jose

No tomatillos?

Every man that smokes a pork shoulder and has a garden should have some tomatillos for some fire roasted tomatillo salsa.

Our garden has been slow to develop, the landscaper is moving at a glacial pace and was going to get the riot act read to him today. Our chicken coop is ready to be installed, but our landscaper needs to get his arse in gear and finish the fencing and wiring/plumbing from the house.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Hadn't really thought about tomatillos, but that could be an option. I'll have to look into it and see if I can incorporate in a plant or two. I like your area...looks like it can work out well. Post some more pictures as it develops. What's the plan as far as chickens?

jason_ssr · Posted: Feb 27, 2013 2:26 pm Post subject:

Might want to separate your peppers by variety as much as possible. You may end up with really hot bell peppers.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

jason_ssr, interesting thought. We had them right next to each other last year and that didn't seem to be a problem, but I could see how it could be.

wakeboarderdave1 · Posted: Feb 28, 2013 12:50 pm Post subject:

Those boxes are big enough to fit all of those plants? Got any links to help you decide how to set things up?

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

www.squarefootgardening.org

http://frugaldad.com/2008/03/03/how-to-build-a-square-foot-garden/

You can google square foot gardening and there is a lot to look at. Also, search for vegetable companion planting guides. That helps to understand what you can plant near each other and what to seperate from each other.

jason_ssr · Posted: Mar 01, 2013 5:14 am Post subject:

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

No, I haven't started saving seeds yet.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

The dogs decided they wanted to walk all inside the boxes, among other things. So, we fenced it in to keep them out, at least until things are well established.

brew · Posted: Mar 04, 2013 5:55 pm Post subject:

Okie, here's a link to a discussion on shaggybevo on gardens. Thought you may appreciate it as there is some very useful info there.

http://www.shaggybevo.com/board/showthread.php/125865-2013-Gardening-Thread

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Cool thread...I browsed it real quick and I an see going back there for a few pointers. There are some good looking gardens in that thread.

b_girl · Posted: Mar 06, 2013 6:19 am Post subject:

Nice garden setup! The square foot gardening thing is an interesting idea.

I've got a small garden, but didn't have much luck with it last year (first year with it), was overrun by cucumber beetles and other plants just didn't seem to grow well (pole beans that only produced 2 actual beans for example). Hoping this year will be a bit more successful.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

I didn't have a huge harvest last year and I think is was an issue with lack of sun. I had the boxes mostly on the west side of my house. Their placement now is basically right out in the open so they should get tons of sun.

Dragonlady8 · Black Widow Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 9198

Your plan looks very crowded.
Suggestions:
- check which plants do best with morning sun
- Make sure that your vine plants don't block sunlight to shorter/lower growing plants. Filter light is ok,( which would wonders for the plants that like morning sun) but as the vines get thicker, it can completely block sunlight to other plants. That being said - I would put all vining plants in the periphery.
- use a lean to type trellis for your cucumbers
- plant carrots and green onions crops 2-3wks apart, that way you will have a supply of veggies spread out thru the summer instead all at once.
- I see no herbs in your garden.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

You think so? I'm following the typical layout for square foot gardening. I placed all the vining plants in such a way that I'll prevent sunlight blockage as much as possible. With our sun position in spring and summer, the plants should all get sun. I'm planning to build a vertical trellis all along the fence and all along the sides where the the tall items will be in those edges of the boxes. I can probably incorporate a lean to for the cukes along with the trellis design I'm looking to do.

I'm thinking about adding some herbs in here and there interspersed with everything. If that seems like it will be too crowded, I might line the outer edges of the boxes with some herbs in pots.

BrentC5Z · Posted: Mar 11, 2013 11:22 am Post subject:

Could you share the plans for building that gate?

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Might be a little too complex for ya.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

http://www.gardentowerproject.com/

Thought this looked pretty interesting.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Everything is coming up and growing well so far. Most everything is still small and tender, with many items a week or so into their first "real" leaves. I'll have to take a few pictures of the progress so far. Looks like I'm probably going to have to cover everything for a few days.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Made it through the cold spell...covered everything each evening to protect it. Seems like it all fared well.

Here's the latest pictures from last night showing progress on growth.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Planted the warm weather stuff this weekend and interspersed some herbs and companion plants, including some marigold and nasturtium seed. Here's a few updated pics...

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Modified the layout a bit from the original and marked up where I added in some herbs. I surrounded all the cukes and squash with nasturtium and spread some mairgold in any areas I had a little space. I addition, added four half-circle pots to the outside of four of the boxes for more herb/companion plant space.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Wow, got some crazy weather this week. Thunderstorms followed by sub-freezing temperatures. We had to figure out a way to cover and protect everything, so we covered the entire area with some tarps. So far so good...we have another night of freezing then it warms up.

jgriffith · Posted: Apr 12, 2013 5:16 am Post subject:

Looks good. I think I'm going to start a garden next week (probably just tomatoes, lettuce and herbs this year, maybe some sorta squash.

I'll probably go to home depot tomorrow, I plan on just winging the boxes, any tips? I was just going to grab some 2 x 6s and nails. Any type of wood work better?

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

I just did standard lumber and used screws. I did my boxes with different sized lumber, but if I were starting from scratch right now, I think I'd either go 2x8 or 2x12's. If you look carefully, my boxes were built by staggering every piece rather than having two sides where the lumber was cut shorter. That works easily for the square boxes, like if you were going 3' x 3'. Just cut 4 pieces of lumber to 3', alternate and put together.

jgriffith · Posted: Apr 12, 2013 5:48 am Post subject:

what do you use to keep the bugs out?

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

I did some light companion planting last year, but stepped it up this year. I still had some bug issues last year and did use a couple sprays, trying to stay as organic as possible. One of the sprays I used was this...

get_sum · Soul Rider Joined: 04 Aug 2008 Posts: 395 City: Edmond

I'm so lucky I live near Okie! I can't wait to raid his garden in the middle of the night! Twisted Evil

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

You better be quick...I just got my new night vision goggles and taser gun yesterday.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

We had quite the hail storm Friday night...nickel and quarter sized hail. The garden took a huge hit. I'll have to post up some pics. Anyone had experience with hail damage and have thoughts on what to do to help the garden along from here?