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Post by ladymarmalade on Nov 4, 2017 7:25:05 GMT -5
How big is your garden? In your opinion is it too big for you, too small for you, or just right?
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aqua
Pro Member
Posts: 295
Zone:: 8b9a
Favorite Vegetable:: all of them
Joined: March 2012
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Post by aqua on Nov 4, 2017 8:08:15 GMT -5
Good morning from Florida, and this is a great post. Can't wait to learn more about everyone else's garden size.
I have six beds, that are 2x7. They get excellent sun during summer. Only two of them get sun during winter, and it really limits what I can grow.
I have three more beds that are about 3x7. They never get full sun in the summer, and less than 3 hours per day during the winter.
I really don't have a "garden" - just many flower beds in the back yard along the fence, that hubby lets me use for veggies. Bought a book called "How to grow more vegetables than you ever thought possible, on less land that you ever imagined" by John Jeavons, about ten years ago. It discusses the "biointensive technique" concerning planting, beds, root growth, watering, fertilizing, companion plants, plant distance- it is my outdoor bible, and it works. Anyone who has space issues should take a look. It also has the BEST discussion on moon planting that I've ever read.
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Post by spike on Nov 4, 2017 9:37:30 GMT -5
hmmmm . . . okay where to start? I have a 2' X 4' raised garden planter. A 4' X 4' raised bed. Many tubs. Flower boxes off of porch (grow my salads: lettuce, scallions and radishes). 2' X 8' 'flower bed' where I grow broccoli and brussel sprouts. Several flower urns that are perfect for a tomato plant. Then there is my actual in ground garden. I think it is probably about 30' X 40'ish? Grows yearly. I feed us out of that garden so no it is never big enough. I have told this boring story before but never here. So here goes: After my husband retired from the AF we moved back home to take care of elderly family members. We are all still here on family land and we live/own my grandparents home. Not long after moving back, my Old Uncle that lived next door asked me if I wanted a small garden. I was so excited! YES I wanted a small garden!! I would start out small, maybe a pepper plant? Maybe a tomato plant and just maybe a flower? Happily said OMG YES and left for the store. Now just a couple of things here. My Old Uncle and I had VASTLY different definitions of the word "small." It is my own fault as also didn't notice the tractor was out. I came home to half of my back yard plowed under. Large enough to feed a starving third world country >,< Word to the wise! Never trust and leave unattended an old farmer with a tractor. It was a sad day when we closed up that garden plot and moved it to a better location. LOL but the memories linger
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Post by ladymarmalade on Nov 4, 2017 9:56:26 GMT -5
hmmmm . . . okay where to start? I have a 2' X 4' raised garden planter. A 4' X 4' raised bed. Many tubs. Flower boxes off of porch (grow my salads: lettuce, scallions and radishes). 2' X 8' 'flower bed' where I grow broccoli and brussel sprouts. Several flower urns that are perfect for a tomato plant. Then there is my actual in ground garden. I think it is probably about 30' X 40'ish? Grows yearly. I feed us out of that garden so no it is never big enough. I have told this boring story before but never here. So here goes: After my husband retired from the AF we moved back home to take care of elderly family members. We are all still here on family land and we live/own my grandparents home. Not long after moving back, my Old Uncle that lived next door asked me if I wanted a small garden. I was so excited! YES I wanted a small garden!! I would start out small, maybe a pepper plant? Maybe a tomato plant and just maybe a flower? Happily said OMG YES and left for the store. Now just a couple of things here. My Old Uncle and I had VASTLY different definitions of the word "small." It is my own fault as also didn't notice the tractor was out. I came home to half of my back yard plowed under. Large enough to feed a starving third world country >,< Word to the wise! Never trust and leave unattended an old farmer with a tractor. It was a sad day when we closed up that garden plot and moved it to a better location. LOL but the memories linger That is NOT a boring story! So sweet and I love it. And yes, never enough room!
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Post by ladymarmalade on Nov 4, 2017 9:59:14 GMT -5
Good morning from Florida, and this is a great post. Can't wait to learn more about everyone else's garden size. I have six beds, that are 2x7. They get excellent sun during summer. Only two of them get sun during winter, and it really limits what I can grow. I have three more beds that are about 3x7. They never get full sun in the summer, and less than 3 hours per day during the winter. I really don't have a "garden" - just many flower beds in the back yard along the fence, that hubby lets me use for veggies. Bought a book called "How to grow more vegetables than you ever thought possible, on less land that you ever imagined" by John Jeavons, about ten years ago. It discusses the "biointensive technique" concerning planting, beds, root growth, watering, fertilizing, companion plants, plant distance- it is my outdoor bible, and it works. Anyone who has space issues should take a look. It also has the BEST discussion on moon planting that I've ever read. Ah, you Floridians and your winter gardens always make me jealous! I don't believe I've read that book before. I will have to keep an eye out for it. (And by keep an eye out for it, I mean dash over to amazon, find it, add it to wishlist, read reviews and think about purchasing it. Then think maybe someone will buy it for me for Christmas, and then after a day or two decide I can't wait that long and buy it.)
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Post by ladymarmalade on Nov 4, 2017 10:13:45 GMT -5
My garden is definitely not big enough.
My community plot is 20 x 25. Decent sized, especially since I only pay $25 a year for the space, and water is included.
At home, my main fence is 21 x 16, but inside I plant in raised beds. Three of them are 6 x 3, two of them are 8 x 3, and in-ground I also plant in what amounts to 5 x 19. Outside my protective fence I have a 3 x 8 bed that I plant garlic in, as well as 14 buckets that I plant peppers in each year. Finally, I have a 2 x 14 bed that I have turned into an herb garden. Plus a few assorted pots here and there.
All told just under 800 square feet of planting space. In the community garden I need to allocate for walking space, so I don't actually plant in all 500 square feet of it. I wish I could figure out a better way to plant over there to utilize the space in the best way possible.
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aqua
Pro Member
Posts: 295
Zone:: 8b9a
Favorite Vegetable:: all of them
Joined: March 2012
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Post by aqua on Nov 4, 2017 10:32:17 GMT -5
Spike- I love the story of the different definitions of the word "small". I think that's what my hubby had in mind when I asked if I could have a small garden. He expected two heads of lettuce- I now pick lettuce by the laundry-basket-full! Thank you from this semi-newbie, for telling the story again. Big smiles here.
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aqua
Pro Member
Posts: 295
Zone:: 8b9a
Favorite Vegetable:: all of them
Joined: March 2012
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Post by aqua on Nov 4, 2017 10:37:49 GMT -5
ladymarmlade- If you would like, I do not mind copying a few pages to send to you, if you'd like an idea of what the book is like. I got it from Gardeners dot com. There's even some great drawings of roots of different veggies- it shows how deep the average veggie (tomato, cabbage, corn, etc) roots go, to give you a better idea of what's going on underneath the soil. Feel free to message me. It's the best book I've ever read to teach me how to grow; I can honestly say that it is the most important book in my life.
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Post by paulf on Nov 4, 2017 11:07:11 GMT -5
Twelve years ago we moved from fertile central Iowa to the wilds of southeast Nebraska and began with a 10'X20' area of windblown virgin Loess soil covered with weeds and brush. Every year we cleared more area until now we have a 50'X50' area and an area about 20'X30' forming an 'L'. The 'L' was for melons and pumpkins but has been taken over by daylilies. The main section is my vegetable garden. The rest of our 2 acres is grass, flowers and fruit trees. In this area I do what my wife tells me to do; the vegetable garden is mine except for the flowers and herbs. After as much was cleared as could be I found some cheap picket fencing for sale and enclosed the garden in that along with a bottom row of rabbit fencing and topped off with deer fence. After years of improving the soil we now have a nice small space. These photos were taken this spring at tomato planting time. And this is how we garden in Florida in February.
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Post by paquebot on Nov 4, 2017 12:42:33 GMT -5
About 1,500 square feet at home and 7,200 in a field. Having a lot of ground to play with allows things which take up a lot of room such as corn, melons, and squash. That's not the most that I've done as there was a 10,000 plot in 2012. Will probably cut back by about a third for next year.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by daylilydude on Nov 4, 2017 18:57:25 GMT -5
Had a little 17' x 17' in ground, but next year we have any area we wish as we are going all global buckets... might even use the spot where the old in-ground garden was...lol!
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Post by Gianna on Dec 18, 2017 0:21:01 GMT -5
Bought a book called "How to grow more vegetables than you ever thought possible, on less land that you ever imagined" by John Jeavons, about ten years ago. It discusses the "biointensive technique" concerning planting, beds, root growth, watering, fertilizing, companion plants, plant distance- it is my outdoor bible, and it works. There were two books that gave me the most valuable information on gardening. The Jeavons book was one. The other was 'Getting the Most from Your Garden', a Rodale book. Loved them both, but I think I got more from the second. Both (IIRC) advocate a French intensive method, which I still mostly follow. My version of it, that is. We have a large organic farm in town. Mr Jeavons visited and gave a 'walk around' presentation there. It was interesting, but also a bit disappointing tbh. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As for my own garden... it's hard to describe. The property is an acre, but most is on a steep west-facing hill riddled with gopher holes and the occasional rattler. Not fit for veg gardening. Most of my beds are scattered around the flat part of the property, front and back. I have 6 beds in one area in front, of different lengths. And two more on the other side of the front property. In the back there used to be a large swimming pool that leaked. It, and much decking was removed many years ago, and I had at least 4 to 5 feet of topsoil put in over the concrete debris. They said I only needed a foot, silly men. That garden area is about 25 by 40 feet and there are zero rocks. I've spent much time improving that soil with various things - and now it's very good. Unfortunately the blueberry enclosure has encroached and I lost 3-4 of the best beds to that. I blame the birds. I now have 4 beds in that area, about 15ft long and 3' wide. I also have a few other 'lesser' beds further back. I only use those when I am growing too much. Which is most years. I also have lots of containers of various sizes, plus various salad tables for greens. And the large seed starting area inside the house. I do grow too much.
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poppopt
Junior Member
Posts: 89
Joined: May 2017
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Post by poppopt on Dec 18, 2017 11:41:06 GMT -5
Last real garden I had was about 20 X 200. It was definitely too small, I kept running out of room and wanting to plant way more.
We have enough family that there wasn't much waste. And the few times we had extra, it went to a local food bank.
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Post by brownrexx on Dec 18, 2017 19:09:00 GMT -5
I have 2 in-ground gardens. I started with one that was 24' x 28' but then we decided to install a 300 gallon rain barrel near the end of the house so we moved the garden so that it would be closer to the water source.
The idea was to turn the original garden back into lawn once the new one got going but that didn't happen.
The new garden is 17' x 51' and I decided to keep the original one for "overflow". It has wonderful soil and it seemed a shame to waste it for boring grass that we have plenty of anyway.
I use the old garden for my compost pile, corn and potatoes as well as a couple of extra tomato and pepper plants that always don't fit into the big garden.
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