Gardening

Few other suggestions would be....

1. Corn - 2 rows - center of garden (I love sweet corn and recommend it highly)
2. Beans - 2 rows - next to tomatoes since both are climbing vines
3. Peas - 1 row - same as above (climber)
4. Watermelon / Cantelope / Pumpkin / Cukes / Squashes- Plant them on the outside edges/corners as they grow on ground vines and it's easier to let them overgrow the edge of the garden so they won't choke out the other plants.
5. Broccoli / Cauliflower - 2 or 3 plants each will give you a fair amount of produce
6. Carrots
7. Onions

I help my pop out with his garden at the house and other than the regular weeding and watering it's not very difficult to get a lot of produce out of a small garden. Be careful with how many tomato plants you plant. They tend to produce a LOT of fruit to the point of you can't give them away fast enough. When my parents lived up this way we planted a blueberry bush and a good size strawberry patch. Awesome fruit but it's extremely difficult to keep the wildlife out of!!! Birds, rabbits, birds, Birds and BIRDS!!! :upset:

Like Keith said.... http://www.squarefootgardening…-book-brand-new-for-2013/

**Edit: Check out some common herbs to fill in an empty spots in the garden. Parsley, mint, etc....

I usually do a 10x40 garden and speaking from experience you're gonna want to give your squash and cuc's more than what you've alotted....squash leaves get huge and will block adjacent plants and cucumber vines like to spread. I guess the following suggestions are good things I've picked up/learned from mistakes:

1. Better to harvest your broccoli too early instead of too late. Once it flowers you're f'd.
2. Corn is the bane of my existence. No matter what I did I couldn't keep animals from pulling the 6-8" plants out to get at the bit of remaining kernel in the ground...my concoction in #3 was awesome for keeping the wildlife off everything but the corn. I even went so far as bird netting 'enclosing' them until they were a foot or so. Once I pulled the net the bastards still dug 'em up. Rest assured, I do have a plan this year.
3. Best thing I found to keep animals from feasting on your beloved veggies is capsaicin extract (can buy it from Peppers at the beach or random places online) mixed with water in a sprayer. Apply liberally after rain...a couple applications initially and I didn't have to use it the rest of the season. It worked for everything but the corn, likely because the kernel was underground and not sprayed. Just make sure you're upwind when spraying it. Trust me. Think pepper spray...
4. Sometimes it's cool to grow stuff just to grow it, even if you're just giving it away.
5. Peppers cross pollinate and have a direct affect on each other's heat. If you grow jalapenos and ghosts next to each other you'll get smoking hot jalapenos and somewhat-less-than-full-heat ghost peppers (I still wouldn't advise chomping on them but...)
6. Drip irrigation or buried soaker hose is where it's at for watering.
7. Make sure you're mindful of how much each will produce....at some point it's easier to just buy some things from the farmers market instead of having a ton of that variety, you can make the call when that point is:

[li]You're only gonna get 1-2ears of corn per stalk.[/li]
[li]Asparagus is a single spear per plant.[/li]
[li]Squash will fill a truck bed. Never do more than 4 squash and/or zucchini or you'll run out of people to give them to even if you're eating them damn near every meal.[/li]
[li]So will tomatoes. For us 2 'fullsize' tomato plants last year and 3 (i think?) cherry tomato seemed to be a good number. They produced enough cherry tomatoes to keep me in them for daily salads the entire summer.[/li]
[li]Brussel sprouts tend to have a couple dozen per stalk.[/li]
[li]Yukon gold potatoes yield ~5-6 per plant[/li]

Of everything my favorite plant isn't technically in my garden. I have a few hops plants outside my porch which produced decent last season and based on their growth this year so far should be outstanding this year. Screw veggies, I can make beer with the hops!

--Ian

You'll want some real dirt in there too. Not just straight mushroom soil. They will dry out very quickly and scorch in the summer.

I have 6 or 7 - 4'x4' boxes.

1 sq.ft. for a healthy tomato plant isn't enough. I always forget how big they get. This year I've got 4 plants in a 4'x4'.

Consider getting cages for them also.

I'm just throwing this out there, but aren't there better online sources of gardening information than a local Jeep forum?

FWIW, we have the same-size raised garden and give our soak hose timer a 30-45 minute twist every evening. Everything is growing fine and we've been harvesting strawberries and spinach now for 2-3 weeks.

Quote from Kuntryboy816

Few other suggestions would be....

1. Corn - 2 rows - center of garden (I love sweet corn and recommend it highly)
2. Beans - 2 rows - next to tomatoes since both are climbing vines
3. Peas - 1 row - same as above (climber)
4. Watermelon / Cantelope / Pumpkin / Cukes / Squashes- Plant them on the outside edges/corners as they grow on ground vines and it's easier to let them overgrow the edge of the garden so they won't choke out the other plants.
5. Broccoli / Cauliflower - 2 or 3 plants each will give you a fair amount of produce
6. Carrots
7. Onions

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Notes:
1. Corn, I would not grow it.. Takes lots of space and you only get 2 ears per stalk. When its ready , you can buy it for a buck or two per doz.
4. Watermelon and Pumkins take over the garden, they need tones of space.. Cukes and cantelope are easier .
6. Carrots, never had much luck, plus they are so friggin cheap to buy. and same with oinions,

What i usually grow is Toms, japanese cukes, zuchini, broccoli, hot peppers, japanese eggplant, mint (for Mojitos) , cilantro and basil. Also like to grow oakra, and romaine. We also have a Strawberry patch and grow Japanese shiso.

Quote from JKgray10

There are way better online sources than a local Jeep forum but I don't get the awesome D-bag comments at those like I do here.... It's kind of like asking family first knowing you are going to get shit and improper info before going to find it.

Check and mate.

Hows the garden going so far?

Betcha haven't had to use the seeper hose lately.