My girlfriend and I thought it would be fun to create a garden in her backyard this summer and grow a few veggies. I haven't really done any outdoor gardening before other then some tomatoes in containers on my deck but hopefully we can get it to work out. Spring has been a long time coming this year on the east coast so I just started the seeds in peat pellets the past week, hopefully its early enough. We hope to grow some carrots, cukes, spinach, peas, tomatoes and the Atlantic Giant variety of pumpkin. Any tips for us?
Well . . . . pumpkin plants need a lot of space and in order to get the really big pumpkins you will need a very fertile soil. I believe that adding lots of compost to the soil where they are planted helps a lot. Peas should be fairly trouble free but there is a chance that they could get wormy. I'm not sure what conditions or environment encourages the pea moths but you will know with your first crop. Carrots will need to have soil that is quite light and loose, not hard and packed. Sand will help loosen up the soil if it is a bit clay-like. You may need to watch out for the carrot rust fly which will lay eggs in the soil and the grubs eat tunnels in the carrots. A row cover over the row of carrots will help a bit and again, your first crop will let you know if there is a likelyhood of this problem. Spinach, I believe is pretty easy to grow. Keep it watered well and you can start picking the leaves when they are young. I know that spinach will go to flower if it is stressed (like drying out too much between waterings) Cucumbers like to have their roots moist and their leaves in the sun. Some people like to grow them on a trellis or a support that is angled at 45 degrees to keep the cucumbers up off the dirt. If you have slugs or snails, get the beer saucers out to keep them away from your cucumbers! Anne
The pumpkin seeds didn't work out sadly enough. We've decided to plant in my backyard rather then in her's due lack of sunlight, but that means any big pumpkin growing on the side of my lawn would likely get smashed or stolen. So we have a smaller garden layout now, but it has a lot of sun. We're going to start digging in tomorrow and when we add the soil I'll keep your advice in mind. Thanks!!
The bed is 12'x4' now and quite well worked. I've added a fair amount of compost to the mix and I've got a bag of sand waiting for when I plan the carrots. I was just wondering about an addition I wanted to make to my garden. I work at a grocery store and I noticed that our Lo Bok come in with spriggs of new grow coming out the top and some new root activity at the base. Since its like $1.49/lb. and I get a discount, I bought one, came to like 60 cents heh. I'm wondering if I can grow it in Atlantic Canada's climate? Would it be better off growing in a container?
As far as I know most 'greens' type veggies will grow in cooler climates. I can't recall if you are still getting frost there at night but if so you will want to keep the plant inside for a bit. If you suspect that you might have problems with slugs and snails then growing in a container on the patio or deck will keep it out of harms way. They like greens as much as we do!
I don't think we've had any frost for a few weeks but it has been pretty cold for the last week and I think I'm going to hold out on moving any of my seedlings or the Lo Bok outside for now.
