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Posted: Mar/13/2006 5:35 PM PST
I grew up spending summers at my grandma's house, where we enjoyed the incredible bounty of her vegetable garden. I can still taste the incredibly sweet peas and corn that she grew. We recently moved to a rural area in Connecticut and I'm determined to have a vegetable garden. I've picked out a sunny area and found a good deer fence company, but I have no idea what to do next! Any tips on starting a garden from scratch would be SO appreciated. * I know I need to remove the sod, add good soil/manure, and till. Should I rent a roto-tiller for this? What should I look for in the soil/manure? * To add to the above, our soil was tested and fond to be "weak and very acid" - pH was 4.4, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium were very low/low. How do I correct this for the vegetable garden? * When do I need to have the garden ready? The snow JUST melted here and no bulbs have appeared yet. * Any hints on how to design the garden? I wanted to put in stone walkways between the beds, but my husband pointed out that it would make it much harder to till in future years. * I want to grow some heirloom varieties of tomatoes and other veggies, which I'll start from seed. I also want to grow corn, carrots, salad mixes, squash, peas, onions/leeks, potatoes, peppers, watermelon, and some flowers for cutting. In general, which should I do from seed and which should I buy and transplant? If I do it from seed, when do I start? * One specific question on corn: I want to grow really yummy corn but not the modern varieties that are packed with sugar. Any recommendations? * Deer - is a 6 foot deer fence adequate? We also have moles or something that is tunelling all over our yard - are they a threat? * Any good sites/guides for the novice gardener? Thanks in advance - sorry to ask for so much information. I figure since I can start from scratch I might as well do this thing right! |
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Posted: Mar/13/2006 7:22 PM PST
Holy Toledo! that's alot of questions! LOL i'm not a veggie gardener but i know that you need to add [U]compost[/U], [U]compost[/U], [U]compost[/U]. make sure the manure you're using is [B]well-aged [/B]. if you're getting it from a local farmer grab the stuff waaay in the back of the pile that's been there for a while. i'd definitely rent a tiller if you're planning a large garden. don't want to spend the growing season recovering from the prep work. we have lots of great veggie gardeners on here that will be stopping by your thread and adding their two cents...don't worry. 
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Posted: Mar/13/2006 9:23 PM PST
Hay CT, If you are planning on watermelon, squash, and corn just to name a few, these three need lots of room. Lots of room means lots of weeds. If I were you I'd buy a rototiller. I use mine on a weekly basis come summer. I hoe between plants by hand and rototill between rows. Do yourself a favor and make your rows big and wide. I like 3 feet between rows on most things. Gives you lots of room to till. Till real shallow once plants come up. You don't want to be damaging any roots. I've seen deer jump a six foot fence. Eight would be better, but lots of money. I've got a couple of hot wire on my garden. one low at 8" and another at 3' . This keeps most of the rabbits and coons out too. Nothing keeps the bears out! When they want in they come in! Horse padock adjoins part of the garden. I have a cedar pole fence there to keep the horses out. 3' chicken wire attached to that to keep the bunnies out. Horses never have deer visiting them. Call your county extension office, they can help with the soil. |
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Posted: Mar/14/2006 4:07 AM PST
Welcome Ct its nice to see more New Englander here just a little hint your moles may not be moles but chipmunks I have to fight them off every year and don't think I'm winning there no real threat as far as I know its just a pain when you trip in one of there holes  good luck on your new garden~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Garden Bear [URL="http://littlebossbear.com"]http://littleboss bear.com[/URL] |
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Posted: Mar/14/2006 12:56 PM PST
Welcome to CT! Whereabouts in CT? Your plans sound good to start, but you need to amend that soil to get the pH up unless you intended to plant nothing but blueberries, lol. That is very acidic and most vegetable crops will not do well in that sour a soil. Start with bags of pelletized dolomitic limestone. They sell it at HD or Lowes for $3-4 for a 40lb bag. This will also increase the calcium and magnesium levels in the soil. The only problem is that it takes a while to change the soil's pH. Especially that much! Could take years to bring it up that high. You need to get it around 6.5 or so. Or another option is to bring in a truckload of topsoil or compost which will most likely not be so acidic. CT's soil is, in general, on the acidic side. Compost will do wonders to fix your soil. One of the first things to do in addition to your other plans is to start your own compost pile. Also, 6 feet is fine to control deer and moles are just more of a nuisance. They eat insects, not plants. Good luck. |
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Posted: Mar/14/2006 2:31 PM PST
Ctgardener, I'm soon going to be a first timer, too, and what you might want to do is get a good reference book. Maybe take some out of the library, and buy one if you think it's good for the long haul. The 'net is great, but sometimes you'll be stuck in an "oh #$@!!" emergency, and you might not have time to wait for an answer. I have zero experience, but like you, I want to plant lots of different crops from the get-go, so I'm going to be trying square foot gardening. It sounds like the easiest way for a newbie to jump right in with minimal aggravation. YMMV - that might not be your style. He's an engineer by trade and his ideas appeal to right-brained people like me. But it's still probably worth it to choose one person's method and follow it without trying to juggle the conflicting information from six different books. http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoticons4u/craz y/683.gif http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoticons4u/craz y/134.gif Good luck. 
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Posted: Mar/16/2006 12:28 PM PST
Hi fellow CT person! I just joined too. I'm no expert but I've been throwing together veggie gardens for a few years and had quite alot of success with not too much work. Sun and nutrients do the trick. I sowed my seeds indoors last week (many packages say sow indoors 4-6 weeks prior to planting outside) and have questions about that as well (located in the seed forum..hint hint..anyone?) LOL |
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Posted: Mar/16/2006 12:37 PM PST
Good morning, I myself will be stopping by to read the hints & ideas. I have been gardening for sometime. But just do it. Ask when I get stuck, or after I have planted. Always in a hurry. The time I decided I wanted a veggie garden. I dropped the weeding. drove to Agway & picked up some soil amendments & veggies and dug up the flowers. Turned everything in and then planted the veggies. That was my start. It was ok. Stuff did grow. I moved the veggie garden and did better by it. small plot, but grew alot. Have no spot right now, but would like to start one again. and It maybe best for me to do raised beds or I will go with pots.I'll stay on top of this one.. 
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