Garden Design
Any helpful veggie garden tips?
I love learning new things about gardening, esp. the veggie garden. Would love to hear anything helpful like- how to keep the bugs off your veggies and from destroying your garden, what to plant early, etc. Would love to hear your knowlege about gardening! Live in maine, have a problem w/ Green horned catipillars on tomatoes, lots of potato bugs too. Frost usually lasts until end of may.
Public Comments
- I don't have a vegetable garden, but I trust Martha to know what to do with it: http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=ae2001b3f2a29110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&autonomy_kw=vegetable%20garden&rsc=header_3
- Well for one.. I do not know where you live. I used to have a veggie garden down in Louisiana. The growing season there is very long. I would plant my snap beans first and also my summer squash. Then as the weather warmed up I would put in my tomatoes and my eggplant, okra, etc. My herbs would do well depending on the temps. Basil, dill, etc. Now that I live in Canada I find it is totally different. As far as keeping the bugs off: I used to only use 5% Seven dust down in Louisiana. However, a good way to kill snails is to put a small container of beer just below the plant. The snails love it and they will not get to your plants. Also, a bit of hot pepper juice is good as well and will not kill the plant. Just depends on where you live and what insects you have. One thing I will not use is Diazinon as it kills bees. And we all know that bees are so important in the polination process.
- Volumes have been written on veggie gardening......and flower gardening. One thing I'd suggest is not to freak out when you find a bug. Not all are bad. Some are very good. You can do some webworke to learn the difference. Hand picking off the bad one and destroying them is better for you, the veggies and the environment. I'd also suggest mulching, covering the soil with something that will eventually decompose. Not only does it reduce water needs in the garden, keeping the soil covered/cooler reduced nitrogen loss to the environment. Remember the soil is the reason the plants grow. So your first step is to make good soil. I'm not talking about fertilizer, but rather the organic matter level, the soil pH, the soil structure/drainage, microorganisms in the soil, etc. So feed your soil with organic matter and ammendments necessary for your area and they in turn will help you grow better plants. Ignore the soil and you'll constantly struggle.
- Im new to gardening sort of because im 13 but i do my own little projects like planting little seeds and taking care of them all by myself and also in my room about 5 weeks ago i planted a Venus Flytrap and i thought it was dead and wasnt going to sprout because we live in England, but yesterday morning i found 3 tiny little sprouts on it!!! i was so happy!
- I live in connecticut so not to far off.. love to garden. for the pests you can plant marigolds around the outside for natural bug control any plants with excess pests you can use seven dust it is sold most anywhere . you can plant most root veggies early like carrots, onions, turnip, also some beans and peas.when you plant carrots you can add a little sand to the soil if the soil is too hard the carrots will come out short and fat.tomatos however are my specialty you can plant basil in between the plants aloso helps with the bugs . don't know if this is true but old time farmers tell me that if you plant your carrots next to the tomatos then it will help sweeten the tomatos .. good luck and happy gardening :)
