Hello from Turnip..Sacramento CA!

Hello everyone!
I bought my first house in October..3rd owner of a 1966 home with just a bit over a quarter acre..I had to leave my veggie garden behind at the last place. There is plenty of land here for an edible garden, Bermuda grass galore, the last people were elderly and were here since 96 and weren't gardeners.

I feel like a fish out of water..when I need an onion for cooking..or herbs..or a tomato..I used to just go outside and pick it. Now I have nothing...but a large backyard waiting to be worked and planted!!

Last weekend my Mom (retired..lives with me..very active..) heard a radio show with Mel...and started telling me about square foot gardening. I had heard about it when in Landscape Design school in the SF Bay Area..sounded like a really good idea...but hadn't put all the concepts to use. Now I am starting over with my own land, and we want an edible garden this year. I bought the book today and am reading it...I have priced wood for the boxes...I'm trying to get all ready to start asap!

I am looking forward to hearing tips and tricks..vertical gardening, etc. Even though I have plenty of space for an edible garden, I still want to conserve water and space. I want to plan for the future so Mom will be able to go out and pick whatever she wants while I'm at work...and I don't have to worry when she's older that she might fall while climbing through plants. Since I'm starting from scratch, and have my edible garden area picked out (lots of sun!) I want to get the right program started. And I am in an area where we have hardpan 2 feet down, nice soil, then yellow clay, then a few inches of nice soil, then brown clay, then hardpan. So Mel's idea of 6" above the surface makes total sense to me.

I'm interested in growing food all year...I had fantastic snow peas at my old place, and I know we can do better here since we have better air flow. Please don't hesitate to give any ideas/advise..I have my list of things I want to grow, but am interested in trying new things (spaghetti squash???) since space is no longer at a premium.

Also interested in hearing irrigation tips/ideas on rain barrels, etc. Also worm composting..I have a compost bin that I need to place and start, but I have a worm bin that I have never used. I want to be as efficient and use resources as wisely as possible.

Thanks for having me on this board!! Looking forward to learning from all of you!

Turnip

Welcome Turnip,

You are in a great position to start from scratch in the SFG method. AND, to consider a few tabletops for your mother. I love mine and am suffering right now trying to get down to my son's ground level beds.

Kay

I stayed up and reat more of the book..read more this morning..can't wait to get started! And I like the idea of the tabletop or movable boxes. In addition to the regular boxes, of course!

I will spend more time searching this forum..I have some questions about things like covers on the 8x4 boxes, jump starting compost bins (I have to start over..need to find the connectors for my bin and I'm ready to go!), vermiculture, etc.

I really think this is the way to go. Mel says no weeds?? Fantastic!! I still need to clear the area of bermuda grass and weeds, but then I'm ready to get my supplies and build my first box and cover (cats in the neighborhood!)

Looking forward to meeting everyone here..already saw a great tip on growing peppers in 5 gal buckets!!

Turnip

Welcome, Turnip and Mom. When one has to garden, especially with a few years on us, this is the only way to do it.
I hope you and your Mom get to grow all the foods you love.
Enjoy the experience.

Turnip and Mom.
We have lots of threads here on composting and worms. You have a lot of reading to do. Always something new to learn. D

Three worm topics I enjoy are called
1-1,000 worms on the way, (about indoor bins)
2-Worm Tubes, (about outdoor worms in the garden) and also
3-Wiggler Hilton.
Go to the white search box above and left side of this page and type in one of the topics.

to the forum Turnip!! You are going to become addicted to SFGing! It is so much fun planning and growing and so easy to try new things with this method. Try the spaghetti squash for sure, I grew it for the first time last summer and it is fabulous, I still have 3 left so I know they store well too!

I plan on trying to grow spaghetti squash...everyone a work is eating it now, so I want ot gorw it and eat it too!

Made my first batch of MM today...planted red potatoes and my 2 strawberry pots (sequoia strawberries)..

How do you all grow tomatoes in the SFG? They grow over 6' high here in Sacratomato...they take a lot of room. I also grow sungold cherry tomatoes. I put those in a pot last year and still got tons!

I will check out the worm topics..I started my compost today and want to get the worm box started. Obviously I will need tons of compost to grow my SFG!

My plans are: japanese eggplant. Bell peppers. Jalapeno. Red onions. Sungold cherry tomato. Roma tomato. Russet potato. Red potato. Sequoia strawberry. Huckleberry. Carrots. Zucchini. green beans of some sort.

Herbs: Rosemary. Basil. Oregano. Lavender. Chives. Cilantro. Maybe parsley.

And I have 2 meyer lemons, 2 limes, one golden delicious apple, one Blenheim apricot, quince, another apricot or possibly plum.

Trying to get everything ready to roll for spring!

Turnip

It sure sounds like a good plan.

Check on your apple. It may need another apple to pollinate. Some do, so having only one won't be fruitful. I have no idea about your other southern fruits but check if they are self-fertile or not.

Good luck and enjoy.

Turnip!

You sure live in an area that grows some grand tomatoes! There are some good ideas here on how to trellis up plants that are amazing tall. One idea is to get a cattle panel and bend it into an arch.

Put your spaghetti squash and your tomatoes (if they are indeterminate) on a trellis.
My spaghetti squash did great in a tabletop bed with a homemade 6 ft tall trellis that spanned the ends of 2 tabletops & was about 9 ft long and shared the trellis with a thrombicino(sp?) squash.
My tomatoes are planted one per square along the west side of my larger cinder block bed on the ground. The trellis is a cattle panel about 5x5 above the blocks. I keep them pruned pretty well til fall and they produced well til I lost them to the freeze we had a couple of weeks ago. By fall I tend to neglect them and they cascade down from the top but keep producing. These were mostly cherry tomato types. Last year I pulled the still producing toms in february to clean up the bed for spring planting.

I really don't want to have anything much higher than 6 ft as I don't want to have to climb to harvest them.

Cattle panel arches are AWESOME You can fold them over so they arch only as far as you can reach!! That's what I have and I love them! I grew watermelon, canteloupe, cukes, spag squash, and tomatoes on them last year!

And they are cheap, $16 each at Runnings!

cheyannarach wrote:Cattle panel arches are AWESOME You can fold them over so they arch only as far as you can reach!! That's what I have and I love them! I grew watermelon, canteloupe, cukes, spag squash, and tomatoes on them last year!

And they are cheap, $16 each at Runnings!

I agree. I have lots of pieces of cattle/hog panels that I have had for a long time as I use them to contain the goats. However buying them new around here in So CA they run at least twice that price unless you have a Tractor Supply near by. Unfortunately the nearest one to me is about 4 hours away.

From So Cal here also, and just the other day I was browsing craigs list and found a guy that sells used cattle panels as well as other stuff, like metal roof panels etc. for a 1.00 a ft..Seems like a great deal to me..I think somewhere in Ontario..I'm gonna be taking a drive out there pretty soon, for some trellis/arch type supports Im wanting to put up..
IIRC everything listed was used and all for $1.00/ft..In case anyone was interested..

That's a good find, they are 16 feet long so that would be the same price I get them for!

I guess I'd better check onto them..I don't know what they look like, but I want to grow squash vertically if I can, and beans, snow peas. I have supports now, but these things sound extra sturdy!

Turnip

Turnip wrote:I guess I'd better check onto them..I don't know what they look like, but I want to grow squash vertically if I can, and beans, snow peas. I have supports now, but these things sound extra sturdy!

Turnip

cattle panels in action





Kay

Google Cattle Panels and a picture will come right up. At least, it did for me.

Turnip wrote:I guess I'd better check onto them..I don't know what they look like, but I want to grow squash vertically if I can, and beans, snow peas. I have supports now, but these things sound extra sturdy!

Turnip

Tractor Supply usually has the best prices for new ones. They are in the following CA cities: ATWATER, AUBURN, BAKERSFIELD, CHICO, CLOVIS, DIXON, GALT, GILROY, JACKSON, LOS BANOS, OAKDALE, OROVILLE, PASO ROBLES, PETALUMA, RED BLUFF, REDDING, RIPON, SONORA, TULARE, TURLOCK, UKIAH, WINDSOR, WOODLAND, YUBA CITY