How many of you garden?

[puller]

Just finished breaking my garden up...I'm going a little bit bigger this year with it...my plot is about 50' X 30'...I couldn't make it any bigger due to a drainage issue I have to resolve first...of course I'll have okra, green beans, assorted peppers, squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes...If I can't figure out how to divert the water that will most certainly wash away the south side of my garden, I will have to find another spot to break up and turn it into my salsa garden  so who else in here has garden, what do you grow and how big do you go? 

[Bruv119]

I bought a house in august of last year, it has 2 sheds and a greenhouse so it made sense to start using some of my new found land!

So far I've made a strawberry patch, planted out some spuds and sown some veg.   Grown some lettuce, beetroot, spring onion and radish from seed and they are currently residing in a cold frame.   It has been unusually mild for this time of year in Southern England so they are doing well.  I have enough room to try some sort of beans still un-decided on what type though.

and my 4 baby tomato plants are doing me proud they had their first trip outside yesterday and enjoyed it.   

I'll have to take some pics at harvest time see how I do.     

[MrGeezer]

Being disabled, there are some obsticals.

I farm in buckets.  Peppers mainly.  I use those big drywall buckets.  They are called 5 gallon buckets but that is a misnomer as they hold more than that.  once planted there is lottle to NO weeding whatsoever if you keep them up on a deck elevated from ground.  Just water when they get wilty.

I have had peppers live 8 to 10 years by bringing them inside when it gets cold in the fall and then again back out in the spring when it warms up.  The pepper plants take on an appearance of small trees after the first few years.  

Just put a few holes around the bottom of the bucket with a large (ten penny) nail and use gravel in the bottom 3 inches for drainage.   That may be a remedy for your drainage problem.  Works very well with peppers of all kinds, onions, carrots, herbs, spices.

On the other hand, tomatoes, corn, watermellon, cantelope do NOT work at all in buckets.

[NatCigg]

I garden 120 acres 

Look up french drains.  Lots of ways to do it.  Dig a trench with a grade to a area the water will drain or dig a sump type hole to disperse the drainage. backfill one inch with pea stone and grade again.  Insert slotted draintile.  Fill trench with pea stone.  This drain with pea stone to the surface (important) will intercept surface water and ground water to the depth of the trench.  Space trenches 5-8 ft apart depending on soil type for draining a area.  If a single surface drain is all thats needed you can dig a trench, grade it, insert unslotted drain tile, from the surface, slightly bending into the trench and run the line to your ditch or sump, backfill with soil. If interested I can say more with specifics but the idea is to drain away excess water so the land is usable.  Mounding or barriers can be used if the water problem is surface washouts.  get some sod or ground cover can help keep the soil stable.  yadda yadda 

Interesting thing about putting course material under fine material is that it wont drain until saturated. aka a perched water table.

[NatCigg]

Being disabled, there are some obsticals.

I farm in buckets.  Peppers mainly.  I use those big drywall buckets.  They are called 5 gallon buckets but that is a misnomer as they hold more than that.  once planted there is lottle to NO weeding whatsoever if you keep them up on a deck elevated from ground.  Just water when they get wilty.

I have had peppers live 8 to 10 years by bringing them inside when it gets cold in the fall and then again back out in the spring when it warms up.  The pepper plants take on an appearance of small trees after the first few years.  

Just put a few holes around the bottom of the bucket with a large (ten penny) nail and use gravel in the bottom 3 inches for drainage.   That may be a remedy for your drainage problem.  Works very well with peppers of all kinds, onions, carrots, herbs, spices.

On the other hand, tomatoes, corn, watermellon, cantelope do NOT work at all in buckets.

corn grows roots to ten feet

[-ammo-]

Wished I had the space to do it.  When we were stationed at Seymour Johnson, we were allotted a 50x50' garden area and we had a blast growing copious amounts of tomatoes, squash, turnips. onions, and the big mistake... watermelons.  Yea,  watermelons take over.

Here in Germany I grow mostly herbs; sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, mint.  We normally have a cherry tomato plant out and both sweet and hot peppers.

[puller]

I garden 120 acres 

Look up french drains.  Lots of ways to do it.  Dig a trench with a grade to a area the water will drain or dig a sump type hole to disperse the drainage. backfill one inch with pea stone and grade again.  Insert slotted draintile.  Fill trench with pea stone.  This drain with pea stone to the surface (important) will intercept surface water and ground water to the depth of the trench.  Space trenches 5-8 ft apart depending on soil type for draining a area.  If a single surface drain is all thats needed you can dig a trench, grade it, insert unslotted drain tile, from the surface, slightly bending into the trench and run the line to your ditch or sump, backfill with soil. If interested I can say more with specifics but the idea is to drain away excess water so the land is usable.  Mounding or barriers can be used if the water problem is surface washouts.  get some sod or ground cover can help keep the soil stable.  yadda yadda 

Interesting thing about putting course material under fine material is that it wont drain until saturated. aka a perched water table.

I haven't decided if a French drain will work or not...that was my first thought, but my problem is I have about 80 acres that drains down through where my garden is  the land above me is about 15 to 20 foot higher than my backyard so all the runoff from that hill comes right to my backyard hits a belly on the south side of my garden then runs down the belly to another small rise (which is my horseshoe area) then turns into a delta that is my chicken yard (btw my backyard is a full acre) I fought water all last season digging various ditches trying to divert water away from my yard...at the fence line separating my property from the hill above me I am planting cane grass so I'm hoping that it will divert the water for me...if not that is where I'm gonna put the French drain 

[BluBerry]

I get my plants as big as I can indoors in smart pots. Then set out early April /May. Let them veg a little longer outdoors. Then depo (cover and under cover) tricks the plant into thinking that it is autumn by blacking-out the light for a period of the day, which forces them to flower early.
It's a real commitment to do twice a day, but you end up with some really nice stuff done in early August and avoid mold and rain and frost. In normal planting my plants finish off in October.

[Banshee7]

We used to grow a pretty good size garden (can't remember the exact measurements, but I know it was about 50 yards long and about 20 yards wide).  Of course, we grew the usual stuff:  tomatoes, squash, okra, purple hull peas (the largest portion of our garden), green beans, butter beans, cucumbers, peppers, and green onions.  I always enjoyed tilling the garden as a kid.  Now, I enjoy it even more because I bring out the big boy toys.  I went from tilling all that with an 18" walk behind tiller to a 6' tiller and a tractor! 

[Randy1]

Okra, the food of the gods.  Nothing better than mix Okra and potatoes till the okra slimes then add flour then fry in about an 1/8" of peanut oil.  About two thirds of the time with the lid on.

I have a garden but quite a large home orchard, and smaller banana and citrus grove.  My summer apples are already in bloom.

Waiting on the Yukons to come up.  The okra will go in place of the potatoes.  I grew Vidalia onions but found buying them just as good.  Watermelons are my favorite.

Have you thought of raised beds in the runoff area?

[zack1234]

I plant in pots

I planted sweetcorn to see what colonials eat

I was amazed to see that they grew by not at the top but the sides of the plant, it amazing what colonals eat

Bruv show us a picture of your garden

[100Coogn]

Just finished breaking my garden up...I'm going a little bit bigger this year with it...my plot is about 50' X 30'...I couldn't make it any bigger due to a drainage issue I have to resolve first...of course I'll have okra, green beans, assorted peppers, squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes...If I can't figure out how to divert the water that will most certainly wash away the south side of my garden, I will have to find another spot to break up and turn it into my salsa garden  so who else in here has garden, what do you grow and how big do you go? 

Same size garden as mine. 
For my tomato plants, I grow early-girls, beef steaks and cherry tomatoes.
I also put in some bell peppers, squash and cucumbers (straight eights)

Coogan 

[homersipes]

any of you ever tried growing tomatoes upside down?  I have a friend whose family owns a farm and his dad grows what he calls a cornmatoe, has a corn plant on top and the tomatoe grows upside down.  it produces more and bigger tomatoes than his other mater plants do, not sure if its coincidence or not.

[-ammo-]

I tried it.  Bought a planter made to do it, followed the directions, and the plant didn't produce well.  I got a few tomatoes but nothing like advertised

[Banshee7]

any of you ever tried growing tomatoes upside down?  I have a friend whose family owns a farm and his dad grows what he calls a cornmatoe, has a corn plant on top and the tomatoe grows upside down.  it produces more and bigger tomatoes than his other mater plants do, not sure if its coincidence or not.

I know a few that hang tomatoes, but I don't know what their yield is compared to conventional planting--I'll have to ask them.