Growers Fatigue and a new yard

danwigz · January 8, 2011

Well its been a few months since I last posted, I've moved to the opposite side of Wisconsin and am currently renting an apt until my house sells. Needless to say the end of 2010 was a bit stressful, especially Sept-Oct.

As I found out, I was unprepared for harvest, mostly due to the move (and lack of planning), and had a huge case of gardening fatigue. Fortunately a neighbor kindly offered to take a lot of the work of my hands and took away the bulk of my crop (with my blessing). Most of the tomatoes I kept went into freezer bags, and now I'm wishing I had a lot... lot more. Fresh (well from frozen maters) tomato sauce is just soooo much better than store bought.

This coming year I'm going to have a plan of attack for harvest time so that I can get the bulk of my crop stored for winter. I had absolutely no plan for harvest which was a lot of my problem.

So here's my new dilemma: my apt has a huge yard with no sun. ARG! I've already decided that I have to grow 5 varieties of maters no matter what. This doesn't include any other veggies, potatoes, or herbs I want to grow. I know the yard won't help my plants thrives so I've decided I should rent a community garden plot.

The community garden plot, according to my local city's site is 20'x 40' and is $30 (I'm not sure if that's for the season or per month, but it doesn't say its per month). 20x40!!! This past year I had 3 4x6 raised beds. I need any suggestions of how I can divide up this space. I probably won't use it all (haha famous last words) but I'd like to grow a lot of different stuff, and this also means I don't have to limit myself to just the essential tomato plants.

Granted I won't know the specifics of the plot until much closer to planting time, but I feel I should have a good idea of what I'm going to do with this. I guess this goes along the very "general category" of discussion, but any tips, advice, suggestions would be very helpful.

Thanks a bunch

Danwigz

OneoftheEarls · January 8, 2011

Why not drive around and find where an old couple HAD a garden and offer to grow them fresh veggies in exchange for using their plot?

WIN-WIN

PS in the community garden I run...it's all free and I even let them use the greenhouse or grow free seedlings and all seed is free!

Tom C zone 4/5 · January 8, 2011

The Laconia community garden had a charge like you mention. The fee wasn't the problem; access to water was.

So my nine second sermon is to get a definative answer about water access.

If water is a 'go', then its time to round lotsa stuph for manure-compost.

dice · January 10, 2011

You could use five 16-foot long, 4-foot wide rows the short way
seperated by 4-foot paths, with a 2-foot path outside of the end
rows and a 2-foot wide space at the ends of the rows. That gives
you lots of space between rows to walk, manouever wheelbarrows,
and so on, nothing is shading anything else, etc.

Then you only need soil improvements for 320 square feet
(4 * 16 * 5). If you dig or till in a foot of stuff (manure, leaf mold,
whatever), you would need about 12 cubic yards of material.
If you only go 6 inches thick, 6 cubic yards. If using leaf mold
or compost, maybe add an extra cubic yard to spread over
the top as a thin mulch after the soil heats up.

Or you could pile the soil improvements on top of the rows
instead of incorporating into the soil, cover with a thin layer
of soil from the paths, plant in it, and have de facto hipped
up rows. (Heavy rain will puddle in the paths instead of the
rows.)

Kind of depends on how much material you can find for soil
improvements, how much time you have to prepare it, how
good is the soil to begin with (organic matter content, air
space, drainage, etc).

dustdevil · January 10, 2011

It would be nice to know the condition of the ground in advance. Can you pick your spot after previewing the allotment area?

habitat_gardener · January 10, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by danwigz

...The community garden plot, according to my local city's site is 20'x 40' and is $30 (I'm not sure if that's for the season or per month, but it doesn't say its per month). ...

What a deal! In my town, a community garden plot that size (if you could get it) would cost $320! They've raised it to about 40 cents a square foot, and they include half the surrounding paths in the square footage. And this year, they also did away with all discounts. There used to be discounts if the plot was shaded, for low income, and for age.

danwigz · January 10, 2011

Thanks for all the ideas/suggestions/comments.

Dice: I like the plan, simple yet effective. Thanks for the soil improvement info as well, I haven't thought that far ahead yet.

Dustdevil: I've no idea how exactly the area is allotted to me. Hopefully I'll have some choice, or at least somewhere that has sun and no huge drainage problems. I'm calling them this week to see if I can get details.

Habitat: I thought that was really inexpensive as well. There's a lot of open land around my city (about 65k or so people), and we have a fairly large farmers market/growers community. So maybe that's why its so cheap... or maybe they left of a zero lol.

They claim that I have access to water, but I'm not sure if that means a well with a bucket, or a pipe with a faucet 100 yards away from where I will be, or a lake, or a hand pump.... lots to figure out yet. Thanks for making me think about some of these things now.

The most exciting thing about this means I get to plant pretty much everything I want without any problems due to lack of space, and my Tomato plants will be given more space this year.

Keep bringing the good ideas!

Danwigz

dice · January 11, 2011

Beware of aminopyralid contamination of manures and hay.
It is a broadleaf herbicide sprayed on hay fields to reduce
competition from broadleaf weeds. It gets in the manure
when animals eat the hay. It breaks down slowly in soil,
it is not digested by farm animals, and it damages tomato
plants, beans, potatoes, etc at very low concentrations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aminopyralid
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/aminopyralid/
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=14502

Buckwheat makes a fast growing test plant.

Information on use of and nutrient values of municipal
leaves:
http://www.spectrumanalytic.com/supp...pal_Leaves.htm
(The longer that they have composted, the less nitrogen
one will need to compensate for their carbon/nitrogen
ratio.)

Two long lists of N-P-K ratios in waste materials that one
may be able to obtain. Keep in mind that many of these
materials break down at least as slowly as leaves, so are
more an investment in the long-term nutritional values
of the soil than a one-season fertilizer application:
http://www.primalseeds.org/npk.htm
http://www.thegardenguy.org/html/npk.html

January 8, 2011	#1
danwigz Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 150	Growers Fatigue and a new yard Well its been a few months since I last posted, I've moved to the opposite side of Wisconsin and am currently renting an apt until my house sells. Needless to say the end of 2010 was a bit stressful, especially Sept-Oct. As I found out, I was unprepared for harvest, mostly due to the move (and lack of planning), and had a huge case of gardening fatigue. Fortunately a neighbor kindly offered to take a lot of the work of my hands and took away the bulk of my crop (with my blessing). Most of the tomatoes I kept went into freezer bags, and now I'm wishing I had a lot... lot more. Fresh (well from frozen maters) tomato sauce is just soooo much better than store bought. This coming year I'm going to have a plan of attack for harvest time so that I can get the bulk of my crop stored for winter. I had absolutely no plan for harvest which was a lot of my problem. So here's my new dilemma: my apt has a huge yard with no sun. ARG! I've already decided that I have to grow 5 varieties of maters no matter what. This doesn't include any other veggies, potatoes, or herbs I want to grow. I know the yard won't help my plants thrives so I've decided I should rent a community garden plot. The community garden plot, according to my local city's site is 20'x 40' and is $30 (I'm not sure if that's for the season or per month, but it doesn't say its per month). 20x40!!! This past year I had 3 4x6 raised beds. I need any suggestions of how I can divide up this space. I probably won't use it all (haha famous last words) but I'd like to grow a lot of different stuff, and this also means I don't have to limit myself to just the essential tomato plants. Granted I won't know the specifics of the plot until much closer to planting time, but I feel I should have a good idea of what I'm going to do with this. I guess this goes along the very "general category" of discussion, but any tips, advice, suggestions would be very helpful. Thanks a bunch Danwigz

January 8, 2011	#3
Tom C zone 4/5 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: SE Ohio Posts: 253	The Laconia community garden had a charge like you mention. The fee wasn't the problem; access to water was. So my nine second sermon is to get a definative answer about water access. If water is a 'go', then its time to round lotsa stuph for manure-compost. __________________ Beyond the mountains, there are more mountains.

January 10, 2011	#4
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	You could use five 16-foot long, 4-foot wide rows the short way seperated by 4-foot paths, with a 2-foot path outside of the end rows and a 2-foot wide space at the ends of the rows. That gives you lots of space between rows to walk, manouever wheelbarrows, and so on, nothing is shading anything else, etc. Then you only need soil improvements for 320 square feet (4 * 16 * 5). If you dig or till in a foot of stuff (manure, leaf mold, whatever), you would need about 12 cubic yards of material. If you only go 6 inches thick, 6 cubic yards. If using leaf mold or compost, maybe add an extra cubic yard to spread over the top as a thin mulch after the soil heats up. Or you could pile the soil improvements on top of the rows instead of incorporating into the soil, cover with a thin layer of soil from the paths, plant in it, and have de facto hipped up rows. (Heavy rain will puddle in the paths instead of the rows.) Kind of depends on how much material you can find for soil improvements, how much time you have to prepare it, how good is the soil to begin with (organic matter content, air space, drainage, etc). __________________ -- alias

January 11, 2011	#8
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	Beware of aminopyralid contamination of manures and hay. It is a broadleaf herbicide sprayed on hay fields to reduce competition from broadleaf weeds. It gets in the manure when animals eat the hay. It breaks down slowly in soil, it is not digested by farm animals, and it damages tomato plants, beans, potatoes, etc at very low concentrations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aminopyralid http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/aminopyralid/ http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=14502 Buckwheat makes a fast growing test plant. Information on use of and nutrient values of municipal leaves: http://www.spectrumanalytic.com/supp...pal_Leaves.htm (The longer that they have composted, the less nitrogen one will need to compensate for their carbon/nitrogen ratio.) Two long lists of N-P-K ratios in waste materials that one may be able to obtain. Keep in mind that many of these materials break down at least as slowly as leaves, so are more an investment in the long-term nutritional values of the soil than a one-season fertilizer application: http://www.primalseeds.org/npk.htm http://www.thegardenguy.org/html/npk.html __________________ -- alias

January 8, 2011	#2
OneoftheEarls Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Up North Posts: 660	Why not drive around and find where an old couple HAD a garden and offer to grow them fresh veggies in exchange for using their plot? WIN-WIN PS in the community garden I run...it's all free and I even let them use the greenhouse or grow free seedlings and all seed is free!

January 10, 2011	#5
dustdevil Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: WI, USA Zone4 Posts: 1,887	It would be nice to know the condition of the ground in advance. Can you pick your spot after previewing the allotment area?