Vegetable gardening
#22
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Coastal North Carolina
Posts: 626
We were renting the past couple of years and had a small garden. Our problem was we tried to crowd too much into a small space. The soil was very fertile and I had a hard time walking between the row. I did put vine plants such a cucumbers on a trellis system last year and it worked pretty good. We just purchased a home of our own and have been told the deer are terrible in the area. So I may not plant a garden next year. Good luck with yours!
#23
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Southeast Michigan
Posts: 339
Don't forget your county extension office -- the horticulturist there can help with soil testing, determining the content of the local soil and what grows best in it or how to enrich it. They helped me with my blueberry bushes -- our soil was too sandy.
Lots of good ideas here!!!
Lots of good ideas here!!!
#25
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: High Entropy Zone
Posts: 1,247
I have found that not all states have the same levels of "extension agency assistance" so I agree with you on your assessment that much of what you find is targeting ranchers.
There are soil testing kits that are available for people to test their own soil samples (check seed catalogs or online sources if you can't find one locally). These are pretty simple (they use color matching for most tests) and get the basic information. You definitely need to test the pH of your soil. Compost is always a good idea for Texas (or anywhere else) because nutrients are used up as gardens grow. We mulch the heck out of our gardens (hay straw used to be cheap but not this year). The great thing about mulch is you work it into the soil after the growing season and it breaks down (slow composting).
Cold crops are great. Don't forget herbs (mine grow year round usually). You might have good luck with square foot gardening or "hills" rather than rows. The plants shade each other's roots and along with the mulch reduce the need for extra watering. Good luck.
There are soil testing kits that are available for people to test their own soil samples (check seed catalogs or online sources if you can't find one locally). These are pretty simple (they use color matching for most tests) and get the basic information. You definitely need to test the pH of your soil. Compost is always a good idea for Texas (or anywhere else) because nutrients are used up as gardens grow. We mulch the heck out of our gardens (hay straw used to be cheap but not this year). The great thing about mulch is you work it into the soil after the growing season and it breaks down (slow composting).
Cold crops are great. Don't forget herbs (mine grow year round usually). You might have good luck with square foot gardening or "hills" rather than rows. The plants shade each other's roots and along with the mulch reduce the need for extra watering. Good luck.
#26
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Central New York State :o)
Posts: 277
Find a local farmer and ask him (or her ) to take a tractor and place a scoop of cow manure in an out of the way location to compost for a while. Then take the compost and rototill it into your garden. Excellent fertilizer and a good way to enrich your virgin soil. We have a prolific garden every year because DH does this with manure from our farm.
#28
Mulch lots. Put a soaker hose under the mulch.
#29
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Bacliff, TX on Galveston Bay
Posts: 1,174
We now live in Galveston, TX, but moved from Bell Co., Temple, TX, not too far from you. Both areas did not have enough water this year for a garden, and had way too much sunshine! I love sunshine, but it can really be rough on gardens if there is no shade.
Kathy
Kathy
#30
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Bosque County, Texas
Posts: 2,709
For those of you who said last summer that you lost your gardens due to the heat; that everything burned up, what are you planning on doing differently this year so that you don't lose it all to the heat in the middle of the summer?
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