How Big Is Your Vegetable Garden?

[productivegardener]

Just curious how much space my fellow veggie gardeners are using? Do you have a single potted tomato on your patio or a one acre market garden? Also, how many people are eating from your garden?

I garden about 2,700 square feet using the no-till method. My wife and I and our five kids get almost all of our vegetables from this plot. This past year we had enough to share some with the neighbors too. However, we end up buying almost all our fruit. Strawberries are in the works for this coming spring though.

Some of you probably have bigger gardens and some may be living in the city and have less space. If you have an urban garden, what techniques do you use to grow plants in that setting?

 

[Verdun]

My veg patch is prob about 400 sq feet.....36 sq metres or so?.
Mine is a no dig system except for trenching in compost for runner beans. Over the years loads of manure, mushroom compost, leaf mould and garden compost have been added.
This year it is garden compost liberally mulching the soil.....always applied in autumn and always ready for cultivation in spring.
Organically grown produce using fish blood and bone or pelleted chicken manure as a fertiliser.
Soil? Sandy loam, deep and easy to work.
Mainly for salad crops like carrots, beetroot, onions, spring onions, lettuce, peas, beans, tomatoes, radishes
Also grow apples, pears, peaches, gooseberries, blueberries, blackcurrants and rhubarb. Sometimes a few strawberries too
A walled garden near the coast so a warm, sunny place. A small greenhouse, a small pool, lawn and lots of ornamentals complete the back garden. An equally big front ornamental garden with a central lawn

 

[MoonShadows]

Hard to say since we garden in a number of raised gardens (8x10, 4x8, 4x4, 2x6) and a few other irregularly shaped gardens in addition to our 20x30 foot garden and our greenhouse. We expand them almost every year.

 

[productivegardener]

Mine is a no dig system except for trenching in compost for runner beans. Over the years loads of manure, mushroom compost, leaf mould and garden compost have been added.
This year it is garden compost liberally mulching the soil.....always applied in autumn and always ready for cultivation in spring.
Organically grown produce using fish blood and bone or pelleted chicken manure as a fertiliser.

Love your garden philosophy!

 

[Verdun]

Thanks productivegardener

 

[Tjohn]

You can see mine in my Showcases...

 

[productivegardener]

Here's an birds-eye view of mine.

 

[alp]

Here's an birds-eye view of mine.


View attachment 29783

Very nice!

 

[alp]

It's all right if you have sandy loam and no dig. I have solid clay which turns into a muddy slippy mass .. I dug for nearly 5 years to see decent soil with a bit more open texture .. NOW, I add nutrients to the broken up clay clods..

 

[MoonShadows]

Beautiful garden @productivegardener

 

[productivegardener]

Beautiful garden @productivegardener View attachment 29784

Thanks

 

[productivegardener]

It's all right if you have sandy loam and no dig. I have solid clay which turns into a muddy slippy mass .. I dug for nearly 5 years to see decent soil with a bit more open texture .. NOW, I add nutrients to the broken up clay clods..

I don't have sandy soil either. Have you ever taking a soil test to see what your soil may be lacking. There is some thought out there that a low calcium-magnesium ratio causes tightness or compaction in clay soils.

A quote from
http://www.greatlakeshops.com/hops-blog/the-basics-of-understanding-soil-fertility-and-soil-testing

"Magnesium is an essential micronutrient found in the chlorophyll of green plants. It is also necessary for metabolic processes and in every operation involving phosphorus. Magnesium levels have important interactions with calcium, sulfur, and nitrogen. The ratio of magnesium to calcium should be around one to six. Excess magnesium will reduce potassium availability. Having a soil with too much magnesium will take more nitrogen because the excess magnesium makes the soil colloids bind too tightly. Excess magnesium is what makes most clay type soils “tight”, restricting air and water availability, water drainage, root development and restricting microbial activity and organic matter decay. Applications of garden gypsum are often recommended for clay-type soils with elevated levels of Mg to loosen the soils."

Steve Solomon also pushes the idea of C-Mg ratio in his book The Intelligent Gardener.

Without seeing a soil sample I am just theorizing but I offer this info as a possibility.

Cheers!

 

[Verdun]

Excellent productivegardener
Not just productive but an eye on being attractive too.....my own style as well
On the other hand alp, although my soil is sandy loam, easy to dig etc., it still needed lots of hard work to get it into shape.

 

[lauraamihai]

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Wishing you the best!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Only been here a year and a bit, the previous owner was a 'get a man in once a month to do the lawn and hedges' and that was it sort. The lawn was full of moss and the hedges are about four feet thick in places. The old lady next door told me one of the previous tenants got in a huge lorry load of mushroom compost in an attempt to grow veg. and I am gradually discovering where they had beds, I think the oak tree at the end has grown a fair bit since, quite a lot of it is now under the outer canopy. The attitude of most of my neighbours seems to be that it is not worth trying in the heavy clay we have here, 'It just eats everything you put down', but I am gradually making headway one small bed at a time. Initially I found the 'men who did' had dumped everything at the end of the garden under the oak and I made my first good bed with that, shifted out about 3 cubic meters of well composted stuff, now it is getting harder. Still plenty of overgrown shrubs and hornbeam saplings that I am burning in an incinerator and making terracota with the small lumps of clay that continually hoe up. Now I have a good double row of strawberries, about a third mature plants I brought with me, a third one year olds and a third newbies, some decent raspberries I rescued and a couple of new plants I have put in one of those shaded beds that are doing well. I have had broad beans enough to freeze for the two of us for a year and climbing French beans the same, good crop of peas and mangetout last year, but this year I dislocated my arm and they got a bit pot bound before I managed to plant out. I also only got my red onions out, the whites were in the seed tray too long. There is a large, ancient, leaky greenhouse with a grape vine down one side, I have tomatoes the other side. It does grow black grapes, but it really does not seem worth it in England. I pruned it heavily last year, probably for the first time in many years, we shall see what happens. Overall I probably have about three or four hundred square feet under cultivation now, besides building a large flower bed in the house end of the garden, but it is all in bits and pieces that I plan to join up eventually. Oh, and there is a nice little quince tree and a plum that I am gradually pruning into shape. There were two quinces, but really, who needs two of them?