gardening????????????

loumcneillis: gardening????????????
My girlfriend and I are wanting to plant a small garden (maybe 6×8). We would like to plant some corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, bannana peppers, strawberries and some cantalope. It’s more of just something to do, but we are gonna eat the vegetables. My question is this: Can all these plants grow in the same type of soil? Are there any precautions that need to be taken? Is it too late to plant any of this stuff? We live in lower Michigan. Any helpful hints are appreciated.

Answers and Views:

Answer by hesperias_witch
First corn needs to be grown in large crops for pollenation, other wise you get funky looking corn. But what I noticed more than anything is you are wanting to put way tooo much in one spot. Strawberries can be planted anywhere and they make a great ground cover. Tomatoes are great, but watch them for Tomato horn worms! YUCK) Cucumbers are viney so they will run and most likely escape your garden as are cantalopes.

Answer by monkfish
that’s way to many different veggies for 6×8 two would be better. try growing strawberries in pots

Answer by sporregar
6 x 8 wouldn’t be big enough for all that. You’d need at least 30 x 30.

Strawberries need hills and sand. We usually just go to a local strawberry field and pick there. That’s in May around here.

Corn needs lots of room and lots of water.

Tomatos need lots of room and lots of sun and you can get way more fruit than you bargain for. Better Boy is a good variety, at least I’ve found it so. You could also do cherry tomatoes too.

Cukes run rampant.

Cantatlope is another large spreading vine.

Don’t plant until chance of frost is gone – usually Memorial Day is a good idea.

Need good soil with amendments. Need to weed, weed, weed and water, water, water. Plant where gets lots of sun. Mulching is also a good idea.

I’d start small with your first attempt becuase you don’t want to overwhelm yourself and get discouraged.

I usually buy started plants from a reputable nursery. It’s late to start from seed and that’s a bother too.

If you’ve got the room, plant some dill weed because the black swallowtail butterflies love it and will lay their eggs on it. The caterpillars are fun to watch and to hatch.

Good luck.

Answer by Gary Smith, Realtor®
6 x 8 might be a large enough space if you utilize wide row gardening techniques. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and cantalope can be grown on a trellis or in cages. Cantalope will need to be cradled to do this. This eliminates sprawl and wasted space.

Strawberry plants do not need to be grown in the garden, they do make a pretty good landscape. You will need to remove older plants every other year.

Corn usually does require a larger area for pollination but, you can manually pollinate by shaking the tops once the tassles form.

The two sites below might give you additional information.

I planted peas April first (every year) but other plants may have to wait.