New Garden, Need Help

[Antithesis]

Hi everyone, looking to tap into the collective CP wisdom for some help with my new vegetable garden. Here are the particulars:

I built a garden box 5' x 16' so that it is south-facing which I know is right (right ..?)

I bought 3 yards of garden soil from one of those places that deliver.

Didn't add anything to that soil.

Planted the following: tomatoes, bell peppers, habanero peppers, chili peppers, jalapenos, strawberries, lettuce, onions, cucumber.

I've been watering every day in the morning. Things look OK in the garden except the two bell pepper plants look absolutely pathetic. Wilty and such. Watered with MiracleGro blue stuff the day after I planted (a week ago) and today and plan to do so every 2 weeks going forward.

Every day by the time I get home from work the soil is bone dry.

Here are my questions:

- Should I have added anything to the garden soil or should I top up with say some potting soil?

- Is the soil being that dry a problem since I am watering every day?

- Am I watering too much? Too little? Water starts pooling on the top of the soil fairly quickly (after a couple passes over with the hose).

- Any other advice to help me out here?

- Also: I have purchased two blueberry plants. I understand they grow better in soil with ash in it. Where in my yard should I be planting them, and should they be in the ground or in a planter?

Thanks!

I'm not a good gardener (this will be my 4th year attempting at growning stuff)I tried tomatoes last year and got nothing... plus the plants smell like cat pee. I heard that the Calgary climate isn't the best for them. My strawberries didn't turn out bad last year, so I picked up a couple of more plants for this year. Peas and Parsley seem to be no-brainers.

I'm sure someone else can get you all the technical stuff... I just dig a hole and plant a seed.
Good luck!

[Traditional_Ale]

Work goat manure into the soil before planting.

[GGG]

You might not be watering enough water will pool quite quickly on the soil but it takes time penatrate the soil. So I would say you need to be watering if you are using a hose for about 15 minutes to get decent penatration. The other thing you might want to use is a sprinkler rather then a hose because a sprinkler will put out less water for a longer period of time allowing the water to penatrate the ground before pooling.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by GGG

You might not be watering enough water will pool quite quickly on the soil but it takes time penatrate the soil. So I would say you need to be watering if you are using a hose for about 15 minutes to get decent penatration. The other thing you might want to use is a sprinkler rather then a hose because a sprinkler will put out less water for a longer period of time allowing the water to penatrate the ground before pooling.

Word!

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by Puxlut

I tried tomatoes last year and got nothing... plus the plants smell like cat pee.

I love the smell of tomato plants, so much that I'll rub the leaves in my fingers and smell it. Must get a cat.

Anti, you could also spike the soil with a fork around the plants for water penetration, and throw in a few of the tomato spikes for slow release.

As for bell peppers, I'm in the same boat. Everything else flourishes whereas I'm lucky to get one or two sad sack efforts of a pepper from them.

[jolinar of malkshor]

You may need more soil if it is drying out that fast. When I grow peppers it is always hit and miss and you have to make sure they have plenty of water every day, if you go away for a weekend and miss watering them on a hot weekend, you can kiss them good by.

As for the bue berries, I would plant them in the ground, they will root out to much to have them in a planter. It may take several years before you develope fruit on them so don't be disappointed if you don't get anything this year or next. I am sure the PH level should be more acidic, thus it is a good idea to have them planted seperatly from other plants.

When I plant my garden I always try as many different plants as I can, I have lots of space so I am able to do that, for you though you don't have that ability. Things that always grow good are carrots, lettuce, beets, potato's, radish, sunfowers, tomatoes. Oh, and when you water your tomatoes, try not to water the leaves and the plant, just the ground.

Not sure if that helped but what ev.

[Shazam]

Looking at the surface of the soil tells you nothing. Dig into the soil a bit with your hand and see how moist it is that way.

Use a hand held sprayer to water.

You can mulch the soil with fine bark to conserve moisture.

In regards to the pepper plants, they probably had some transplant shock. They're pretty wimpy plants, so they're probably goners.

Standard Miracle Grow is not suitable for vegetables. The best pre-made stuff I have found is Shultz's liquid tomato food, which contains magnesium, which our soil is lacking in.

Vegetables in general are heavy feeders. A better fertilizing schedule is to fertilize every time you water with just a bit of fertilizer. Get a big watering can, fill it up with water and add a bit.

Hose water is somewhat problematic. It's cold, hard, alkaline and chlorinated. See if you can fill up a garbage can with water and let it warm up and let the chlorine vapourize before applying it.

[Shazam]

Blueberries are really tough to grow in Calgary due to our very alkaline soil. They really prefer acidic soil. Add aluminum sulphate to the soil before planting.

[Cheese]

Compost...if you dont have your own get a bag of it. Mix it into the soil.
Peat Moss mixed in, may be too late, helps to hold the water and feed the plants slowly.
Growing a garden in Calgary? Sucker for punishment?
The Blueberries will die for sure...too cold in the winter. Try Raspberries instead but keep ahold of the growth or they will go wild.
If the plant is wimpy maybe you have watered it too much? Let it dry out a bit if you find the soil is moist below the surface. It helps the roots grow stronger.
A Garden in Calgary? Serious?
Wait for the first hail storm then run out and protect your plants before they become salad for the rabbits!

[Shazam]

Gardening is totally possible in Calgary. Got a few thousand tomatoes last year, for instance.

[redforever]

Personally, I would have used a 3 in 1 mix, part soil, part peat and part compost. But since you never, add some compost, work it in with those 3 pronged hand rakes, and as someone else suggested, mulch the top of the surface.

Also, you are asking for trouble if you plant your peppers with other veggies. They need their own care and so if you try to give them generic care along with your other stuff, they pout and wilt, which you are witnessing. I plant mine, around 4 or 5 per pot, in one of those long rectangular trays. That way you can water and feed them separately. They like to be evenly moist, will tolerate a bit of drought, but will not tolerate over watering.

Is this bed in the open? or against some structure like your house or garage? I hope you planted your tomatoes on the north side of the bed or up against the north wall since they will get the tallest.....so if you planted them in front, the other plants behind them are going to pout too. Tomatoes as well like to be evenly moist - if they are subjected to periods of drought followed by periods of too much water, you will get bottom blossom rot on your tomatoes, sort of a brownish looking blister at the bottom of the tomato, which turns into sort of a rotten part as the tomato ripens. Tomatoes also like calcium and bone meal, I usually sprinkle a bit at the bottom before I plant mine, not too much and the roots should not be directly on the calcium or bonemeal. And tomatoes need to be fertilized very regularily, there is fertilizer just for tomatoes, found in most garden centers in Calgary. One other thing about tomatoes, they do not like to be watered from the top, in other words, along the leaves or flowers. Get a wand sprayer and water them from underneath.

Cucumbers do not like cool evenings. You should be ok with a south exposure, but watch for a fungus that they are susceptible to once we get cooler evenings in August. At that time of year, don't water in the evening, the moisture at that time of day along with the cool evenings promotes that fungus. It just looks like a greyish powder and your cucumbers might look wilted as if they are dry but that is not the case. If they get that fungus, not much you can do, so watch how and when you water. Cucumbers are going to spread a lot too, so they would be best if you planted them along the front of your bed.

I would not have planted strawberries in that bed. I would have built a bed just for the strawberries. They are a perennial and will send out runners which will form more strawberry plants. You can't let all the runners plant themselves because then they will grow so crowded that they won't bear much fruit. Cut some of the runners off, let some grow. And when your strawberries are too crowded, that will happen eventually, just save some of the runners and plant them in your new bed. Also, the advantage of a bed just for the strawberries is you can put a netting over it. That way, you will get the strawberries before the birds get them first thing in the morning. You will have to fight for those berries, birds find them in a hurry.

Depending on the kind of lettuce you planted, you might be able to have lettuce all summer long. Lettuce does like it a bit cooler than direct south all day long though, so it does better where it might get a bit of shade from some of the other stuff you planted. Not that it wont grow in direct south sun all day, but you will have to watch it for bitterness. Too much heat and sun and some lettuce goes bitter. When you start to harvest your lettuce, just cut it off or snip it off with a scissors, leaving an inch or two of the plant and stem. Most lettuce will reshoot out as long as you did not cut off the main growing stem and root.

Not sure what variety of onions you planted but if you want very quick green onions, a good variety is Multiplier. You could still plant some in some of the obscure corners or places where nothing else is growing. From one multiplier bulb, you will get 6-12 green onions. And they will be ready to eat in 4 to 6 weeks, so then when you pull them out, some of your other stuff will have grown bigger and will be ready to cover the places the onions were.

Blueberries do not do well in Calgary. Look around and see what kind of native fruit trees you see growing, those are the ones that do well here and if you try other stuff that say grows in northern Alberta, usually it is an exercise in frustration. If you want to know what kind of fruit trees do well here, phone the Saskatoon Farm located south of Calgary, just on the east side of #2 highway, close to Okotoks.

[sclitheroe]

If you plant one raspberry bush, you really won't have to worry about planting anything else ever again. It's the plant that keeps going..and going..and going

[Antithesis]

Thanks for the tips everyone, I'm going to be printing this off for future use ... seems like my first garden may not be too successful but hey, I've never done it before! Gotta learn some how I guess.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

If you plant one raspberry bush, you really won't have to worry about planting anything else ever again. It's the plant that keeps going..and going..and going

Raspberries are basically biennials. They grow stalks and leaves the first year and then produce fruit on those stalks the second year. And the second year, you should have new growth shooting up, which of course will bear fruit the next year, so they should be self sustaining.......unless they winter kill or something eats the first year stalks, such as deer, which is what I have a problem with.

You also have to clean out the old stalks every spring, those would be the stalks that bore fruit the year before. It is easy to tell which will be the stalks that bear fruit this year and the stalks that bore fruit from the year before. The old stalks that already bore fruit will be much lighter, dry and woody looking. Usually you can break them off if you push on them with a rake but if not, simply get a pair of pruning shears and cut the stalks off at the ground and then dispose of them.

Do not plant raspberries in a bed with your other veggies or fruits, they will sucker out and invade the whole bed. They should be planted somewhere on their own, preferably with some of that black plastic edging stuff that goes quite a ways down in the ground, even then, they will probably sucker underneath that as well.

And raspberries are time consuming to pick, mainly because the stalks have little thorns on them, almost like a rose bush, but finer. Wear a long sleeved cotton shirt or your arms will look like you got in a fight with a cat.

They also need to be well watered if you want to get a good quantity of fruit and a good sized fruit. I usually feed mine with a bit of fish fertilizer early in the growing season and then water it in well. Compost or a bit of well rotted manure is fine too.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Antithesis

Thanks for the tips everyone, I'm going to be printing this off for future use ... seems like my first garden may not be too successful but hey, I've never done it before! Gotta learn some how I guess.

Oh I am sure you will get some stuff for your labors, don't be discouraged.

You mentioned that the water pools quickly. That is one clue that the ground is too dense and compacted, you should add something to loosen up the soil like compost. And regularily loosen the surface with that 3 pronged hand rake. That should prevent a crust forming on the surface and then the water can soak through easier.

Also, I know it is south facing, but do a test for moisture before you just water on rote. Take a hand shovel, dig down, see how the moisture is for the first 6 inches or so. It should be evenly moist, not saturated.

And it is best to give your bed a good soaking and then just water dry spots if they appear, or the tomatoes which might require more water than the rest of your stuff.

A sweat hose or a soaker hose would work great in a bed your size. Just coil the hose evenly throughout your bed, and then turn on the water until the bed gets a good soaking. Not saturated, just a good soak through. Then test the soil before you water again. And just leave the hose there all season, just hook it up and water when needed. No need to remove the hose every time you use it.

And keep in mind, that your plants might need more little waterings now, because their roots are small. But once they start to grow bigger roots, then soakings are better than little waterings.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by redforever

Raspberries are basically biennials. They grow stalks and leaves the first year and then produce fruit on those stalks the second year. And the second year, you should have new growth shooting up, which of course will bear fruit the next year, so they should be self sustaining.......unless they winter kill or something eats the first year stalks, such as deer, which is what I have a problem with.

There are now raspberries that bear fruit on primocanes. These are a little bit easier to manage.

[redforever]

By the way, veggies that are very heat tolerant for a south facing bed, are beans. And they do not grow very tall either, so would be a good choice closer to the front. Either green beans or yellow beans would work.

Carrots are extremely easy to grow, again, they dont get big, good choice for the front. Choose long ones, with the deep orange centers. They will be sweeter and will never taste woody.

Beets too are very easy to grow and don't take up much space. There is a yellow variety that is very sweet, a red variety that grows miniature, round shape. And the other that I always grow is Cylindra. They will grow longer, cylindrical, like a carrot. That type of shape is always uniform throughout, and again, does not get woody. The regular Detroit variety is ok, if you pick them when smaller. They tend to get very large though and when like that, can get woody, not my favorite kind of beet.

And no peas? You could have put a row of peas along the north side of the bed. Put in a few stakes, attach some chicken fencing, and the peas will trail up the wire, making picking very easy. And if you do plant peas this way, make 2 very close rows, so the fencing goes along the middle. Then one row of peas grows on one side of the fencing, other row grows on the other side, so you get peas on both sides. If your bed is against the house or garage, then just plant the one row. The second row on the north, right along a structure, wont grow. Regular peas work fine, so do sugar snap peas and snow peas. Snow peas REALLY grow though and might be too much for your confined space.

And I always plant a few sweet peas along with my peas. By the time your eating peas are done, the sweet peas will begin to flower. Sweet peas are one of the most fragrant flowers. I put my sweet peas in a plastic container with some water, freeze overnight, then thaw and plant. That loosens the hard outer coating and they will germinate easier.

You said you planted cucumbers, not sure what variety. Most cucumber spread a lot, BUT, there is a variety that will grow in pots. So you could grow them that way, saving space for other veggies.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Shazam

There are now raspberries that bear fruit on primocanes. These are a little bit easier to manage.

Yes, but I don't believe they are as tolerant to our winters.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by redforever

Yes, but I don't believe they are as tolerant to our winters.

They're perfectly hardy here, I've had some in my backyard for years now.

If OP wishes to have blue fruit, then honeyberry is a very good choice. You need two though for proper pollination. Another good choice is saskatoon bush.