'community garden'

[canesisters]

Hello all. Brand new here and excited to learn.

I'm spending the winter prepping a large area to become a 'community garden'. The idea is to give away most of the produce and, of course, use some myself.
Having never had a veggie garden before I've got a very large learning curve going here. I'm in 'the easy garden' getting advice on the 'how to's'.
While I'm working on getting my soil ready (the hard part) I'd like to start figuring out WHAT to plant (the fun part).
I've heard that there are combinations of plants that do well together - or benefit each other. Like corn and beans. Saw on PBS this lady who planted lettuce and when it started to get warm she let it go to seed, then pulled it up and planted beans, she said that when the beans are gone, the lettuce will come up again. (?)

Looking for things that I can plant in 'masses' instead of rows. That's supposed to cut down on the weeding time (?) Someone on the garden site said 'rows are for mechanized agriculture' I like that. (o:

I know some of you have probably seen my posts in backyard chickens and easy garden - please forgive the repetitiveness. I'm hoping that if I cast out enough lines, I'll get a bumper crop of opinions. LOL

 

[so lucky]

Hey canesister, welcome to this forum. There are several of us that are on all three forums, but frequent one or another for their own reasons. There are some good books out there on companion planting. What little I have done seems to work. Mainly I would advise planting lots of smelly herbs and stinky flowers in the perimeter, and throughout the vegetables. French marigolds, to be specific. Helps deter bugs.

The vegetables that I think people would be most likely to want to take home would be tomatoes, beans, corn, peppers, cukes, maybe potatoes, spinach, squash. You have to consider who will be getting the veggies and what their level of expertise is, in food prep. Many needy people aren't familiar with much besides prepared and frozen dinners, boxed meals, canned veggies. (No access, no memories of Mom cooking real food) If you get to the point of having cooking classes, or even handing out recipes with the veggies, you might be able to introduce them to the more exotic veggies. BTW, I applaud your effort and intentions. Good luck on this endeavor.

 

[TanksHill]

I agree with the simple things. Mind if I ask how large the garden is and what zone you are in? How much time do you have for this garden? Will you be picking daily? How do yo plan to irrigate?

Pole beans, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, the basics come to mind first.

g

 

[canesisters]

I agree with the simple things. Mind if I ask how large the garden is and what zone you are in? How much time do you have for this garden? Will you be picking daily? How do yo plan to irrigate?

Pole beans, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, the basics come to mind first.

g

GOOD QUESTIONS! See - this is the stuff I need to prod me into thinking this ALL the way through.

The garden will end up being roughly 100' square. But the first year, it will probably be half that.

Humm.. not sure what my zone is. I'm in southern VA, nearly in NC. Guess I'll have to look that up right away.

Available time. I have roughly 4-5 hrs of daylight after work on week days and at least half a day on weekends. The yard work plus water trough cleaning, stall striping, etc currently takes roughly half a day (somewhere over the course of the weekend), so I assume that I will regularly be able to set a side a few more hours over the weekend.
How much time should I plan to set aside daily?

I assumed hoses/ sprinklers for water. That and mulch.

And yes - simple, simple, simple is best. I'm learning HOW to do this as well as hoping to provide some basic veggies.

 

[TanksHill]

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/ Your zone basically help determine planting times, thaw & freeze. Best types of plants to plant for your area etc.

I know there are some folks around her in your area. Maybe they will chime in on types of plants.

Maybe drip lines, soaker hose would work. You could turn them on low while tending the veggies, weeding and eventually picking. Not sure what your annual rainfall is so water might not be an issue for you.

So say for the first year your going to do a 50 x 100 ft space. That's still huge. I would designate areas for the vining crops, they will take up considerably more ground space. Stick your rows of corn on the east side so the don't shade everything else. Maybe make and area for rows. 1 to 2 feet apart. For your pole beans, bell peppers, tomatoes. etc..

I think you could do amazing things with an area of that size. I would start drawing it out on paper first.

gina

 

[Denim Deb]

Actually, for vine crops, you can grow them vertically. That way, they take up a lot less space.

A good book for companion planting is Carrots Love Tomatoes. It will tell you what crops you can grow together as well as what you can plant-but not harvest-to help keep bugs away.

Square Foot Gardening and the Postage Stamp Garden are both books that are good for planting in blocks instead of in rows.

Unless your soil really holds water, you can mulch around your plants w/pulled weeds, leaves, old hay, straw, etc to help keep in moisture and keep weeds down.

Oh, and B4 I forget,