Hi all. Last frost mid april, first in novemeber. First time doing this much vegetable garden and wondering where improvements can be made. All beds are 8x4 feet.
My initial thoughts: will i be able to plant again after potatoes or my honeynut /watermelon bed you think? Do need so.ething after bushbeans or can i just keep planting those till frost? I put my heavy pest pressure plants in one bed so i can maybe spray them if i want (brassica and summer squash)
We are limited on raised bed areas. We do our potatoes in very large pots and barrels. Sure makes harvesting easier.
We did raise a very good crop of indeterminate tomatoes on a pole/trellis planted in an old John Boat. However we attempted to make the boat for pumpkins after that and after getting a beautiful sprawling vine complex flowering well; rabbits destroyed them in mere days.
We grow pole/runner beans and gourds on sections of goat fence arched up. Works great. Probably would work well with squashes as well.
We due beets, carrots and Rhubard in long wooden planters. However our soil was too compacting and beet roots were awful like the carrots. More sand next season. Watermelons grew but no fruit out of them. Currently mustards and Rhubarbs are still growing well in those boxes.
My mom does rubarb right under her apple trees. Its been there for years. Seems to work. Might do the same
How fun! I love planning…You might want to look into companion planting and fill all the gaps with herbs, onions etc… you can get a lot more out of those beds. I like the living mulch approach to vegetable gardens: dense planting instead of bare soil. I also have limited space and big dreams.
Consider throwing marigold seeds down on a corner of each bed or other veg garden beneficial flowers that are easy to grow. I like marigold because they spill over the edge and ultimately take up almost no room in the actual raised bed. Grocery store leeks flower the year they’re planted, so I do that as well and it serves a few purposes. I tried Calendula, German chamomile, borage and sweet alyssum this year for the first time. Calendula was fine and easy, unobtrusive. German chamomile was too shaded by artichoke and stayed tiny so can’t comment. Borage I grossly underestimated the size of. Not planting that again. Sweet alyssum is pretty and a totally benign little carpet of purple flowers that have maybe only just this week been stopped. I’ll spread those under tomatoes again for sure.
If you’re not planning on letting the watermelon and bns sprawl on the ground, I would utilize the majority of that bed for other plantings. I added 4 cattle panels this year, but aside from one winter squash, I kept all the trellis plants on the trellises and packed my beds with other things.
I doubt you’ll have time to plant after harvesting winter squash and watermelon, but someone in your state can answer better. However, you can plant prior. I grew sweet peas on all my cattle panels first and then cut them down once the summer trellis plants got going. This worked great and will be repeated next year.
I do plan on putting herbs and lentils basically everywhere. Lentils specifically along the edge of every bed.
As for the watermelon/squash comment, good point! I should look for something to plant in the front sicne ill be trellising them. I have nasturium seeds but nasturium also can get huge. Theres also several native beds surrounding.
Hmmmmm much to consider. Yeah im not sure about planting after. In theory if its 100 days as it says ill be done with bns and watermelon in july.
Which direction does your sun come from?
What is your weather like?
This past year i grew raddishes in the summer squash areas. The raddishes were ready for harvest when the squash plants were starting to get big. I also left a few raddishes to go to flower. Supposedly the wasps that visit raddish blossoms dont get along with squash beetles.
I would be shocked if you finish off your winter squash and watermelon in July. Please post if that works out! The earliest I have harvested winter squash in 7b planted out as soon as temps allow (as quarts and 1 gallons I started) is early/mid August. With direct sow this year and colder spring, everything was later. If you’re calculating from last frost it might get you to July, but these summer plants need warmer temps…here, that’s generally around Mother’s Day for the measly 3 years I’ve been growing melon and winter squash…Check out the winter squash 2025 thread and melons watermelon 2025 threads and you can see when people are harvesting.
South. This is in my front yard which faces south so pretty full sun.
Weather is sort of wet and humid in spring and dry in late summer to fall
What temp do you think makes sense to put them out? I was going to start seeds inside and transplant in late april around which is usually most days in the 50s-60s. Ill check out the thread though
Looks like someone in pa had their first squashes in july for winter squashes. I think our season starts a bit sooner so its a maybe…
Ha! I am pretty sure my sun is in the south too.
Is the street at the bottom of the page of your drawing?
Haha good point lmao. Sorry messaging between emails. Yes bottom of page is south. I suppose I could have been from Australia though
I think most melons are growing best when soil temps are above 70? A more experienced grower can answer. This spring was cold for a long time. Previous years have been warming up fast and stuff gets out sooner. I think I’m 24 my tomatoes and cucumbers etc were planted mid April.
Anyone have any any suggestions for bush bean varieties, especially ones that are in flushes.
Also any celtuce/aa choy growers? i’m thinking about growing some.
I don’t do raised beds. I use leaf compost for soil conditioner/fertilizer. Three full size pick-up beds (8’) every two years. These loads are about a ton or more. Since the garden is fairly large, 37x60, it’s a lot of work. Wheel barreling 3 tons of compost is too much. I simply drive my truck in the garden and scoop/sling it. I use an old troy built horse for prep and a smaller tiller for weed management.
What used to be packed red clay under a coal shed and carriage house is now 7-10 inches of dark brown dirt.
Way to go, KSP!
I tried growing strawberries in a raised bed with sunchokes. The sunchokes shaded them out and the strawberries failed.
yeah i think long term the sunchokes will tkae over the whole bed but I think (perhaps wrongly) this first year maybe half can remain strawberry blite. (which is like a spinach like green)
