A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 1st attempt at veggie garden

Ok, so I was in Walmart, and sure enough, ended up by thier garden center. I know.. "what a shock!" NOT. I started looking thru thier seed packets. All these really pretty packets from Burpee. I would have loved to have gotten more, but 1)money was a factor, even tho they were cheap (hey, it is between paydays!) and 2)not sure of what all I wanted to try yet, so I looked them over for quite awhile before deciding on the few I did purchase.
I bought 2 different ears of corn 1 white, 1 yellow, both sugar enhanced, early maturity. I know these 2 said to not plant closely, so as to keep down cross pollenating the 2 different corn types. Ok, but what about the rest of my veggies.. I also bought green beans, carrots, broccoli, & green peppers. Can these all be put in the same area, a small square veggie garden if you will? I don't have much of a yard, living in town. These would likely end up in my backyard, and unless they need it differently, they would only be in partial afternoon sun. There's almost no morning sun in my backyard, except down on the farthest corner away from my house. But, the main question for now is, can these all be planted together? I also was going to start some of the seeds in my house, I'm just so anxious to see how they'll work! I have these little peat pots & other little discs that you put your seeds in after you soak them. They looked neat, so I bought them a couple weeks ago. I just don't know if I should start just yet.. It's probably going to be at least 2 months before I can plant anything outside. *brrrrr* it's cold out there!

Meg

Yep.
What kind of green beans did you get?
The kind you have to string :p or the stringless?

Ya know.. up until I bought them, I had no idea what was what..lol. I got STRINGLESS!! I think I need to take a photo of my seed packets..lol.

Meg

Way to go!
I used to plant Burpee Stringless Green Pod.
Makes all the difference in the world when you don't have to string them. Especially since I was canning over 100 quarts of green beans every summer.

These first 2 photos are of the veggie seeds I bought..
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And this one was of the 2 extras I bought, for looks/smell..
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And this I got free when I joined Literary Guild.. it was just released/published.
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Meg

I hope your vegetable gardening experience is a good one! That silver corn is sooo good to eat right in the garden, raw! You will have a LOT of peppers and broccoli. Hope you have a freezer!

Hoe, hoe, hoe!

Meg, the answer is yes, you can plant all your vegetables together. Give them as much sun as possible and don't plant your shorter veggies in the shade of the taller ones.
Also, you can plant the 2 corns in the same plot without worrying about cross pollination if you plant the 2 varieties at least 10 days apart if you make sure they also mature at least 10 days apart. plant the earliest maturing one first.

And for an experiment Meg, take two sets of your beans and seperate them....
plant one the regular way you would have planted them and take some and plant them at the base of your corn.....let them climb up the corn....
Not only will the corn support the bean plant, but the bean plant will reward your corn plant by putting more nutrients back into the soil...for the corn to use. **because corn is a heavy feeder*
And the carrots you can plant in between the rows of corn because by the time the corn and beans tower over the carrots to shade them out, they should have developed already and should be around pickin' time...**Same for raddishes if you like them and the kids love to warch them grow..*

****I did edible peas too at the base of the corn too!!!***

So, try that experiment and see which way you like to do it better or easier or simplier!!!!

Weezie

Cool! Yes, I have a freezer, 3 of them actually.. 2 that are in the 2 fridge's we have, and one square chest freezer.

Now, I just have to find out how to make them live & grow, and then, how to can & freeze..lol. Easy, right?

Thanks for tip on the corn obywan. They are both early maturing, but I can plant them at different times. And also, thanks for the reminder to not plant my other stuff in thier shade!! <img border="0" alt="[perplexed]" title="" src="graemlins/confused.gif" />

Weezie, always full of the helpful info! So, aside from planting the beans by the corn to let them feed.. do I fertilize everything the same, or will they require different needs? Wondering where I can find all this info so maybe I don't sound like a complete idiot..lol.

Meg

Meg,
This is the book I got all my info from,
2nd book down....
Rodale\'s Companion Planting
Tells all the plants that can be planted together and the one's that shouldn't..I got my straight from Rodales'.... I don't know this place that I linked to, but wanted to show you what the book looked like..
***It's wierd too, cause the 3rd book down is one of the books written by a lady that lives here in Western New York that's from the Erie County Co~Operative Extention, Sally Cunningham. Small world!

Weezie

I was just reading my book here, I think they should be "Pole Beans" to climb the corn..?
It does say; "Alternate rows of corn and bush beans, two rows of corn to one row of beans...
**probably means if another type of bean is used as in bush beans??? Is your stringless bean a bush bean???

If you grow the pole beans, you have to give the corn a few weeks head start on growth so the corn can get established... before the beans start to climb.

It says Squash and Pumpkins do well in the shade of the corn rows too.

It also says; "Side~dress with ORGANIC FERTILIZER when plants are 6" tall (15cm) and again when they are knee~high.....

How's that for fert info????

Weezie

I need plant guideance too weezie!& i usually grow veggies in containers& couldn't tell ya why....unless was habit from Indpls.lol
Broccoli-hybrid green comet
loose leaf lettuce
sweet corn Bodacious
sweet corn buttergold
Solanuim melongena( a eggplant)
cucumber stright eight(grew 2 yr ago on one of them old timey clothes hanger jobbys)
pumpkin small sugar
pumpkin.it gets big and makes good pies& carves good& is good with tequila

My beans are somewhere.are blue lake and some bush bean types& a footlong type.


I need info on cucumbers& squash& companions for squash.

I need info on cantelope& honeydew& water melon.I got some watermelon seed from one bought off farmer it goes about 70 days.is real sweet(tequila good in it also& stuff in freezer 2 days..its the bomb!)Can cantelope grow up poles?or on a chain link fence?

My peppers will be containered likely...out of habit.

whats it say about okra?

Squash round zuccini
Sugar baby water melon
Honey dew melon
Pablono pepper
Bell pepper green/yellow
Banana pepper
orange bell pepper
Beets(I should have THIS started already)
Summer squash-Zucchini(44 days
Summer squash cucurbita(early)
Okra green pods
okra purple pods

Njoynit,
Go and copy and paste your post on to
a new post , and I will give you some of
the companion plants for those that I could find!

Weezie

I like planting pole beans. (no bending over to harvest!)

They can be planted on the very corner of the garden plot (not taking up much room)

The variety I've grown is "Kentucky Blue" It's a cross between Blue Lake and Kentucky Wonder. High yield bean I've grown sucessfully for years

Jenn

Weezie, I love you! You just solved my biggest problem!!! I didn't know how I'd get 3 hills of corn and 3 hills of beans into my garden along side the squash and cucumbers!!!

Now I just have to figure out what I'm gonna building to let my cucumbers, squash, etc to climb... I ended up w/Sugar Baby watermelon seeds this year and I'm not going to pass those up!

Sachis,


Just gotta make sure that you give that corn plant a big head start....
And fertilize welllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!

Gotta reiterate something on beans....

#1. Use a Legume Inoculant on your beans when planting........This has to be used to develope root nodules on to the roots, which in turn carry the bacteria that gathers "Free~Nitrogen" from the air.
It's then converted into the nutrients used by the plant...(or put into the ground)

#2. Try not to pick the beans when the plant is wet, this can spread disease...

#3. Pick your beans and then water...
*the plant will then put on a new set of flowers.

#4. Some people can have problems eating raw green beans.....some people can be effected by an enzyme in the raw beas that can cause a digestive problem...

Weezie