bit off more than I can chew

[paradajky]

Hi:


Following last year's awful results, I had intended to focus on quality for this year, and to stick with only a few dwarf tomatoes, a couple cucumbers, try an eggplant or two, and try growing peppers because they seemed to actually do really well here. My upstairs balcony patio has room for 5-6 smaller plants, and downstairs patio at most a dozen, but it gets very very tight.



For some reason near the end of last year I ended up buying a total of 14 different tomatoes through artisan seeds, and also from another vendor 4 peppers, 4 cucumbers, and 4 eggplants. I also want to grow squash a member here was kind enough to send me, and a cantaloupe. I don't know what I was thinking, maybe it's because I learned that the common area outside my fence is actually mine, and I'm allowed to take out the hedge, with the caveat that if there's an emergency, anyone can trample through the area.



I observed it for some time, and during the summer, only about a 6x9-12ft area gets sun until 5pm in the summer, totaling 8-10 hours. This is the red rectangle in the attached picture. It is separate from the ~12 plants I can fit in the area on the inside of the fence.



Everything to the north gets shade around 2pm because of my house and the neighbor's house. Then, to access, I have to hop the fence. I'll have to take out the hedge. Raised bed seems very challenging. I like to try to reuse things I already have, in this case, a lot of 5 gallon buckets and 18 home-made grow bags. Both items were used at parents' house, they have room for everything but I don't have time to go to their house this year. The buckets were part of double-bucket swc experiment, and the bags were for potatoes.



This is a bit overwhelming. Some of you must've gone through this before, and I'd appreciate any tips on how to figure this out.


Thanks for reading

[Milan HP]

Hello, Paradajky,
I don't really know if I can imagine the situation quite clearly, but the first idea I got was to go 3D. A sort of "staircase". The plants you've listed have various growth patterns (not really the best expression, but I forgot what it is called properly). And you can use the bags and containers. "Creepers" at the bottom, perhaps directly in soil and on the lowest "shelf". And than peppers and tomatoes at the top. That's up to you. I grow strawberries like that and I can squeeze a few more in that way than I'd be able to if I grew them in a classic patch.
And in my experience, cucumbers are not exactly fun loving animals, oops, sun loving plants. They do best with 4 to 6 hours of direct sunshine a day.

Maybe it's just a crazy idea, I have many of them. Some do work, many more don't.

Milan HP

[MrsJustice]

Hello Paradajky

Well, you do have a Project on your hands.

1. If you take out your hedges you must dig deep to remove all roots systems growing there for years by the height id seen in the picture. So removing the hedges will provide a little more sunlight and the needed room.
2. I agree with Milan Hp using the staircase ideal by just using Bricks and wood for everything else, Amen!!

Thanks for the pictures.

Keep us posted.

Farmer, Joyce of Angel Field Heirloom Tomatoes


3. Your Squash, Cucumbers is going to need much room.

[D.J. Wolf]

I feel your pain! Last year I had so many issues with starting plants that I way over planted this year. I am cutting back on a lot of the stuff I try to grow, and concentrating on mostly tomatoes this year. I wanted to go from 15 plants up to 35-40 so I had plenty to make sauce, paste, and juice with, as well as my blt's and other uses. Well, this year I had almost 100% germination, they almost all look great at almost 2 weeks since planting, and I've got 68 plants...

Best of luck with your season!

[paradajky]

Milan, I get what you are writing. I'll play around with configurations.



DJ: so what exactly are you going to do? Your goal is what mine's been for last couple years, hopefully someday I'll figure this out and have success.



If I grow two of each, then I'll end up with almost 60 plants. I guess I should just grow one of each, but then that assumes I'll have 100% germination. I haven't sowed any seeds yet, procrastinating right now. Maybe I just need to chose a few and leave the rest for another year. Ugh, why did I get a place with no yard :p

[Milan HP]

That's the way the cookie crumbles.
You get a low rate of germination, you base your planning on that. Then Mother Nature smiles at you and you end up with 150% (at least) of what you need. Happens to me every year. I'm quite lucky: I can extend my "cultivated land". It's has been growing larger and larger since I started my full-time gardening.
Milan HP

[D.J. Wolf]

Paradajky,

It's looking like I'll have lots of extras to give away. I literally have room for 40 plants at the absolute most, if I'm going to put the other stuff I really want in the garden. 4 are so far marked for someone else, but those were planned for ahead of time. So, if everything survives to plant out point, right now I'd have 24 extra tomatoes, 8 extra broccoli, 5 extra cauliflower, and probably a few extra bell peppers. think I'd planned for 5 or 6 jalapenos, I've got 7, will probably go to the garden with all 7.

Luckily, I do have a few people who want plants, so hopefully I'll be able to get them in the ground somewhere at least.

[paradajky]

It was tough, but I narrowed down to a pair of 8 tomatoes for a total of 16, and just planted seeds today: start f1, cherrywine, maglia rosa, marzano fire, benevento, amalfi orange, taiga, and tasmanian chocolate. I really wanted to do all dwarfs, but all of these look really good and the tas chocolate is the only repeat since it was my best producer when I first grew on my own.



The rest are narrowed down as such: 16 Peppers, 8 cucs, 4 eggplants, 2 kveta squash, and 2 cantaloupe, I will start in succession over the coming weeks. The non peppers will try to start as late as possible to avoid the june gloom since we have warm weather into late October.. although right now it feels like we're not going to get any gray skies at all with yet another dry heat wave in so cal, wowsers.

[D.J. Wolf]

Man, I'd kill for some of that dry, warm weather right about now. We had 9.7" of rain last October, and the ground as stayed saturated since. Now, they're forecasting rain/snow showers (with up to .5" accumulation} between now and tomorrow night! Sigh, it need to warm up and dry up some

[bbjm]

Looks like a fun project, but I've removed a hedge before and it is a lot of work. If it were me, I'd find another sunny spot for the buckets and grow bags this year and work to get the new bed ready to go next year.

I wanted to get blackberries and raspberries in the ground for this growing season but just didn't have the time. I"m hoping to build them over the course of the summer so they are ready this fall or next spring. We'll see how that goes. LOL.

Good Luck

[paradajky]

Sadly there isn't much other sunny space where I live. There's time, maybe 5-6 weeks to get it done. Will post pictures if I get around to it, otherwise, I've no idea what I'll do with all the seedlings