Okay green-thumbed people, talk to me!

[PDX Mommy]

I'm thinking of starting a vegetable garden. :nails Yes, me. The plant killer. I want to garden. FTR, I do better with things planted directly into the ground than I do with potted plants. DH is at Home Depot, pricing out raised beds. I'm thinking of an 8 ft long, 3 ft deep, and about 2 or 3 ft high bed. I have a few possible locations: one gets only shade, one would get morning sun on about 2/3 of the bed, and one would get afternoon sun on 2/3 to all of the bed.

I know I'd like to plant zucchini, butternut squash, broccoli, maybe tomatoes, and herbs (probably in pots on my balcony). What else is relatively easy to grow? Strawberries in a pot? Blueberries? My boys LOVE fruit, so it'd be great to be able to just go to the garden for it instead of the store. ;)

[Macky]

You've listed some veggies there that take a lot of space.

Each mature broccoli plant will have a diameter of about 2 feet, so they're usually planted 18 to 24 inches apart in rows 2 feet apart. Eight plants would take up your entire raised bed.

Tomatoes are usually given similar space.

Zucchini and squashes are vines and need lots of space to roam, unless you build a trellis. Three winter squash vines (without trellis) would fill your whole raised bed.

Ime, the BEST veggie to grow for kids is peas. They LOVE to crack open the pods and munch the tender, sweet peas right out there in the garden.

Carrots take up very little room and would do awesome in the soft, loose soil of a new raised bed. There are various colours to grow, too – orange, white, yellow, purple and red.

Snap beans produce a lot in little space as well. Choose from bush or pole. You can grow the standard green or yellow beans as well as purple varieties (they turn green when cooked) and even striped ones (I'm trying Dragon Tongue for the first time this year). Beans from the garden are FAR superior than any you could buy in the store – fresh, frozen or canned. There's just no comparison.

Jmho, but you don't have enough space in that bed to grow much perennial fruit (if you're primarily using the raised bed for annual veggies). It's kind of disappointing to pick strawberries a handful at a time, never having enough for everyone in the family to have a nice bowl full. I would wait on the fruit until you prepare sufficient space that can be dedicated to it. Again, jmho, though.

All the best with your new project!

[PDX Mommy]

Thank you! I talked to DH and we're going to make the bed bigger: 10' x 5' x 18 inches high. I'm going to trellis butternut squash & snap peas. And I'd like to grow zucchini and tomatoes in containers. (I'm thinking 10 gallon plastic buckets w/ holes drilled underneath for drainage.)

[Macky]

Sounds like a plan! :tu

[PDX Mommy]

DH built my bed today. :heart I'll take some pics after I get things planted (which I want to do this week).

[PDX Mommy]

This is drawn to scale. Thoughts?

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q299/stamptwins/gardenplan.jpg

[Macky]

Is that a single row of carrots? You could actually fit a band there, if you like. Carrots don't mind being a little bit crowded. Neither do peas, which can be sown in a double row. Neither crop taxes the soil much as peas fix their own nitrogen and carrots are low demand root veggies. I can't comment on the butternut squash because I don't grow it (different squashes have different vining habits and sizes). I think your tomatoes are too crowded. It looks to me like there are three plants roughly a foot apart? If so, that's too close. I'd take the middle one out and just have two. The strawberries look fine, but what is your plan for the runners? They have nowhere to go in this setup.

Get planting there woman... you're running out of springtime! ;)

[PDX Mommy]

Luckily for me, we're having a VERY cool spring! ;) I'm going to plant tomorrow or Thursday. Probably Thurs since DH is picking up more dirt tomorrow (we were a little low). (Yay for free dirt from helpful friends!)

I'll add more carrots--what do you mean about a band? I'm so clueless, lol. Could I sow the peas on both sides of the trellis, is that what you're referring to? And I'll lose a tomato plant. I was wondering if they were too crowded. No idea about the strawberries. :blush I'm totally open to suggestions. Thanks SO MUCH for your help, Robin!

[Autumn]

Just subscribing - I want to do something but don't know where to start so I'm here for ideas :D

[Macky]

It's pretty cool here, too! We had a week or so where it was nice and toasty, then it all went downhill again. Blah. At least it's not raining! I've got everything in except the plants that need more heat – tomatoes, peppers and cauliflowers. The pole beans are in the cold frames, too, but the bush beans are planted. The peas are up... earliest ever for me (yay)! If it's still pretty cool there, you might consider some protection for the toms (hot caps or something homemade that serves the same purpose).

Planting carrots in a band just means that you crowd three or more rows close together or scatter seed randomly in a long, wide row. You'll get different spacing recommendations from different sources and for different varieties of carrot. An example of scattering seed in a "band" would be, in your case, an area 4' long (my estimation based on your drawing) and 1' wide. As they sprout and grow, you would thin them so that the final plant spacing is appropriate (check your seed packet and refer to "spacing in row" number). Hope that makes sense... it's late here. :giggle

A row of peas on each side of the trellis – correct. :) The rows would be roughly four to six inches apart and would grow up the same support. When you're planting the peas, you're likely going to do a double take at how close the packet says to plant them in the row. This is fine. Peas don't mind being crowded. Follow directions. :)

[PDX Mommy]

Thank you! :)