New Veggie Garden Advise

[urbanscout]

My wife has agreed to let me plant some Veggies this spring.
I have an area on the side of my house between the brick wall and my sidewalk. Its about 3ft by 30ft. I plan to put some 2x6 or 1x6 boards alond the length to give more depth and fill it with manure and soil. It is on the south side and gets plenty of sun all day.
I'm thinking some tomatos etc. Mabye even look at canning eventualy.....

I welcome all advise on suggested plants and care!

Thanks,

 

[BadgeBunny]

I'd add some peat moss and perlite to that soil and manure. I'd also mulch well with straw. Google "square foot gardening". Better yet go to amazon and by the book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholemew. You will not be sorry.

 

[2busy]

Lets see, south side, brick wall, and side walk, it's going to be awfully hot. Not sure what to tell ya except keep it watered.

 

[20fan83]

the heat will radiate off the wall and kill the plants i would believe.when its 90-100 outside it will just bake the moister out of the plants

 

[BadgeBunny]

You guys are right if he's not too close to neighbors. My south side yard gets basically all day sun, but not that really hot late afternoon/evening sun, so it stays pretty cool, because of the neighbor's gigantic oak tree and their house.

It's kinda hard to factor in all the variables ... Maybe he could post more info and we could give him more specific advice. All I know for sure is that he needs to use a lighter soil mix in his raised beds than regular dirt is gonna provide him. I tried a raised bed with dirt outta the yard, mixed with some "garden soil" they sell at the hardware store -- MiracleGro I think it was. Nothing grew because the soil was way too dense.

 

[urbanscout]

You guys are right if he's not too close to neighbors. My south side yard gets basically all day sun, but not that really hot late afternoon/evening sun, so it stays pretty cool, because of the neighbor's gigantic oak tree and their house.

It's kinda hard to factor in all the variables ... Maybe he could post more info and we could give him more specific advice. All I know for sure is that he needs to use a lighter soil mix in his raised beds than regular dirt is gonna provide him. I tried a raised bed with dirt outta the yard, mixed with some "garden soil" they sell at the hardware store -- MiracleGro I think it was. Nothing grew because the soil was way too dense.

Okay..... shoot!
Well, hate to hear about the heat off the wall. Im in a neighborhood and the kids-dog-etc get most of our yard in the summer. I tried using pots for tomatoes last year on that sidewalk and they were moderate producers. I thought the pots might have been the reason they were weak...
What else would you like to know?

 

[BadgeBunny]

I'm just taking a shot in the dark here but your tomato plants probably needed to be fed. You can get them to grow quite nicely in pots, especially if you hook up a soaker hose to them or put them in self-watering containers to keep the soil moisture fairly constant and feed them regularly. It could be the roots got too hot, but it's hard to tell without knowing how hot it got on your sidewalk. Also you need to pinch off the suckers that will grow to keep them producing. Finally, once the temps get too hot no matter how many blooms they put on they won't set fruit. You can try to lower the ambient air temp by putting up a shade cover and/or misting around them in the afternoons, but remember that tomato plants don't like wet leaves.

In case nobody's mentioned it before gardening is kinda an art form. You gotta just experiment and keep good notes because what works for you on the south side of your house might be totally wrong for somebody else on the south side of their house. However, there are certain constants, like soil density and the fact that tomatos are heavy feeders and so need some kind of supplementation to get the highest yield from your plants.

You'll have some successes and some failures but if you stick with it pretty soon you'll be a master gardener! Have fun with it!

 

[swampratt]

You can make shade with 4x8 sheets of cheap waffer board.. you can even prop this against the brick house to keep the heat down on the plants...Stake it secure though..
I have a big tarp i put over my plants about 5.5 feet off the ground..Like a 10x20 foot tarp///
sure helps when the temps get near 100
I also do not pull the grass in the heat of the summer..I leave it around my plants for shade

 

[candrpotts]

Be VERY careful about the lumber you use. Do not use treated lumber for the frame work. The CCA (perservative) will leach into the soil and add copper and arsenic to the minerals and water taken up the the roots.