A rainy dark day. A hard frost was predicted, but temps only went to about 35*F. I have removed a lot of the plants by now and a couple beds have a cover of mixed green winter manure (cover crop mix of vetch, clover, peas and rye) growing. Yesterday I harvested the last of the shell beans and cucumbers, plus nice handfuls of fresh herbs.
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Hello, I am just curious, how many square feet is your garden? Looks like it is a nice size.
~felicia~
I've been growing a kitchen vegetable garden for many years now in a space next to my house. As the years have gone by and the have trees grown, its gotten shady. In spring 2008, I got a local community garden plot, about a mile from my house. In the fall, we expanded it. Plus, this spring (2009), my husband expanded my home vegetable garden by removing lead contaminated soil adjacent to the house and adding a tall raised bed in a prime sunny spot.
Altogether now, I have 1100 square feet of vegetable gardening space!
My yard has 5 beds that are about 9 x 3.5 each and one big bed about 10 x 10. (About 250 sq ft.)
My community plot is about 30 x 30.
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Hi there – quick question for you.
Can you buy bags of the mixed green winter manure or do you mix your own? I have my very first veggie garden (20'x4' community garden plot) and I'm not sure what to do for it for this winter. (I live in lower Fairfield Co., CT.) Thanks!
(And if this is the second message you've received from me and I really didn't erase the first one – which I think I did – just erase one of them. and accept my apology!)
I am always jealous of your garden photos. Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see more.
I get the mix from Johnny's. By now its too late to plant anything but winter rye. (I'll plant the mix since I have it, but probably only the rye will sprout.)
That is quite the space! Your pictures are just down right lovely. We have 1,000 sq. ft. and we are hoping that next year we might have great harvests as you had this year. We are properly prepping our garden this fall as we decided to do a garden over last winter so we didn't really have a chance to fertilize the ground. I guess we will find out next season if it was worth the time!!!
~Felicia~
Soil prep and sunlight – the main factors. I bet you will do great next year.
But don't amend your root beds. I had trouble after adding manure to my beets this year. Beets and carrots are light feeders and will get hairy, tough and funky shaped with rich soil.
I am making up a 3 yr rotation plan this year so that I add heavy compost and manure to only about 1/3 of my beds – ones that will have heavy feeders next year. These same beds will get the moderate feeders the following year and light feeders after that.
Very interesting, I did not know that not all veggies liked the manure. A little too late now though as we shoveled the manure onto the garden this morning and are rototilling it in first thing in the morning. No biggie though, we weren't planning on beets or carrots so we should be ok I guess. Quick question though, are garlic and potatoes considered "root" veggies?
~Felicia~
Felicia,
I'm just starting to figure this out. I've always added compost and manure to everything, which works fine, especially with no carrots, beets (and radish) which can have problems with too much.
But some crops really need the extra nitrogen and some don't need it at all.
Here's a quick list: but
Heavy feeders need lots of fresh manure. These include: Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Cantaloupe, Corn, Eggplant, Pumpkin, Tomato, Watermelon, Squash.
Medium feeders don't need as much: Asparagus, Beet, Cauliflower, Celery, Lettuce, Okra, Parsley, Pepper, Potato, Radish, Spinach, Strawberry, Sunflower
Light feeders don't need any feeding: Beans, Carrot, Garlic, Leek, Mustard Greens, Onion, Peas, Soybeans, Sweet Potato
Boy oh boy, We don't have our garden in separate boxes as you have. Ours is all open and the manure went over the entire garden. Oh well, we will just cross our fingers and hope for the best. Thank you for putting up with us newbies to the gardening world!
~Felicia~