Hi everyone! I am new to gardening - I have container tomatoes this year and have had herb gardens for a few years but never any kind of vegetable garden. I consider myself completely oblivious to gardening, but my husband and I are doing our yard and so I am going beyond a few containers of flowers this year. My husband just built me two raised beds for vegetables (6ft by 2 1/2 ft). My intention was to use them next year, but is there anything I can plant this year? I'd like to do something if I can so I can test it out before next year, but I know it is late. Any info you can give me would be great, including how much I can plant in my beds as I don't want to over crowd. Also the beds are pretty central to the deck area so tips on making it attractive for next year would be nice! And has anyone planted some flowers in with veggies? Thanks! (Also my tomato plants are getting yellow leaves near the base of the plant - what might be causing this?)
You can try plantings of spinach, beets, radishes, lettuce (if the weather is not too hot, which it does not seem to be this year.) If you can find starts of kale, other cabbage family, Asian veggies, like bok choi, those can be very rewarding well into fall. You could put in herb plants as well.
You could also try carrots. I planted some last year in July and got some decent sized carrots by the end of September. You could also try swiss chard. Good luck with your garden. :)
The yellow leaves at the base of the tomato plants is normal. The older leaves will yellow and shed. I toured a tomato greenhouse once and the vines were around 10 metres long. Only the top 3 metres or so had leaves, this was suspended for maximum light and the older section of vine was just coiled up at the base.
You might also consider some over-wintering vegetables, like onions and garlic, but keep in mind that they (especially the garlic) will be taking up space well into next year. I recently read Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, which has a lot of great information about our neck of the woods, and contains some example planting schedules to get the most out of your garden. I'm new to gardening this year as well, and found it to be full of very helpful information.
Eric: can I assume, then, that it would be wise to prune any yellow/yellowing leaves near the bottom of the plant to concentrate its energy on fruit production and cut down on pests?
I would think it would be a good idea. Keeping plants clean of dying leaves may help reduce pathogens.
