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Re: Novice gardener

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

 Kevin is right! You did do good with the squashes and zuchinni (and pumpkin) I find it pretty hard to kill them around here and have never had to much problems outside of overcrowding. Just make sure you give them lots of space.
JessicaM- Where the squash is rampantly growing. :D
--

On Sat, 05 Jun 1999 14:45:16   Kevin B. O'Brien wrote:
>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>On Sat, 5 Jun 1999 09:57:15 -0400, sstrubel@juno.com , late of Pablo
>Fanques Fair wrote:
>
>>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>>
>>Hello.  I just joined here this week.  I have NO CLUE about gardening. 
>>We live in SC.  Our tomato plants looked good, but now they look droopy
>>and slightly yellow.  Any advice.  Tell me exactly how you would start
>>plants, etc... I know nothing.  It seems like everywhere I look for
>>gardening info they assume you already know something.   We also have
>>zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkins, cantaloupe, lettuce, radishes, and
>>carrots.    ANY advice is appreciated.
>>Our soil is techinically clay, but it has a lot of sand in it too.  My
>>neighbor says it is very rich if you can just loosen it.  I do not have a
>>lot of money to put into a garden at this time.  I just want good organic
>>food for my family.  Thank you.
>
>Karen,
>
>I don't worry that much about how to grow plants. As an organic
>gardener, I have learned that secret is to grow the soil, and if I
>do that the soil will grow the plants just fine. Growing soil means
>organic matter, and the types you need to focus on are compost and
>mulch.
>
>All of my plant material (garden waste, kitchen scraps without meat
>products), plus egg shells, coffee grounds, etc. goes into the
>compost bin. I don't get too fussy about the recipe, I just throw it
>in and leave it for a while. Because I take the lazy man's approach,
>this year's collected materials become next year's compost for me.
>It is done when you have a crumbly black material. I put a layer of
>this on top of my beds in spring to help feed the soil. After I
>plant my veggies, I put a layer of mulch on top of the soil to
>retain moisture, cut down on weeds, etc. The mulch could be dry
>grass clippings, salt marsh hay, or any commercial organic mulch
>like cocoa shells. This mulch, being organic, will gradually break
>down and feed the soil as well, so you need to put a fresh layer
>down every year.
>
>The only other advice I would give is to not try and do everything
>at once. Sometimes people get so full of enthusiasm that they try to
>put in a full garden in one year, then give up half way through
>because of the work involved. I would recommend getting Mel's book,
>and setting up maybe 3-4 4'x4' squares your first year. If you do
>this, and use mulch the first year, you should have a ready-to-plant
>set of beds the second year that will not require much work at all.
>So the second year you add 3-4 more beds, and so on until you have
>as much garden as you want. I look at gardening as a life-long
>activity, and each year I have plans to add a bed here, or plant a
>tree there, etc. I think it works better if you pace yourself rather
>than try to do everything at once.
>
>Good luck with your garden!
>
>
>-- 
>Kevin B. O'Brien                  TANSTAAFL
>kob1@ix.netcom.com
>"I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to
>waste any of mine running around doing exercises" - Neil Armstrong
>
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>
>
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