Hello from Central California

Hi all new to the garden thing. My daughter has opened my eyes to a garden, she loves it and it allows me to spend good quality time with her. I am here to get some tips and help on growing my own foods as I have discovered the flavor of home grown foods to be much better. I am from the Fresno Ca area so we have a good growing season. I think my zone is 9b. Anyone else in the area? If so what are your favorite veggies to grow? I wish I had more room so I could grow some fruits and nuts as well. The area I have is only about 200 square feet unless I use the north side of my house which is in the shade always (any suggestions?). Last year I attempted to grow tomatoes, squash, green beans, bell peppers and jalapenos. I unfortunately have a small brown varmint and a large black varmint (one is a Dachshound and the other is a Lab/Aussie mix) that eat most of what I plant, I will attempt to fix that this year. Anyway any info/advice is greatly appreciated on my part. Have a great day all.

spoolnaround wrote:Hi all new to the garden thing. My daughter has opened my eyes to a garden, she loves it and it allows me to spend good quality time with her. I am here to get some tips and help on growing my own foods as I have discovered the flavor of home grown foods to be much better. I am from the Fresno Ca area so we have a good growing season. I think my zone is 9b. Anyone else in the area? If so what are your favorite veggies to grow? I wish I had more room so I could grow some fruits and nuts as well. The area I have is only about 200 square feet unless I use the north side of my house which is in the shade always (any suggestions?). Last year I attempted to grow tomatoes, squash, green beans, bell peppers and jalapenos. I unfortunately have a small brown varmint and a large black varmint (one is a Dachshound and the other is a Lab/Aussie mix) that eat most of what I plant, I will attempt to fix that this year. Anyway any info/advice is greatly appreciated on my part. Have a great day all.

Check our the regional forum for your area. There is lots of good info:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/f13-northern-california-coastal-valleys

I have a couple of very big dogs that I have to fence out of my garden. For your smaller dogs you might want to consider tabletop beds. Tabletops are also so much easier on your back and knees. Use the search function on either the top or bottom of the page on the left side. If you have gophers in your area be sure to put wire an the bottom - before starting with squarefoot gardening gophers destroyed nearly everything I planted.

I am in so CA, zone 9b so similar to your area. I am starting some seeds inside today: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers celery, chard and maybe some lettuce. I have lettuce, garlic, broccoli & spinach, growing in the garden now - they all survived the freeze we had a couple of weeks ago. And have just planted beans(maybe too early but am using up some old seed - plus I do have a volunteer bean already coming up), radishes, carrots, & lettuce. I have a couple of bunches of onion plants ordered that I will be planting ASAP.

Linda

Welcome, I'm a rookie too. This is my second year gardening.

I'm right up the foothills from you up the 180 in Squaw Valley. We are colder than you are, this winter we've gotten down to the very low 20s, usually 5 or 6 degrees warmer.

I grew all winter long using my table tops, a large temporary greenhouse over a 5 x 10 bed and some mini greenhouse toppers that fit them with Christmas light strings to keep them warmer. We have had to cover them with an additional tarp about 25-35% of the time but haven't lost anything.

I'm giving a go with straw bale gardening this year for my space eating, monster plants such as melons, tomatoes and squash. I live on 5 acres, so I'm blessed with much more space than I could ever use, wish I could loan you some, LOL!
Audrey

I just uploaded pictures to my album, I think you can see them there? I'm not sure as this is all new to me!

TABLE TOPS:



STRAW BALE GARDENS:

spoolnaround!

I know what kind of heat you can get there in Fresno, so if you want to expand into that north side that has much more shade, you may be able to try some lettuces, radishes, and such that could use the cooler area. Keeping those out of your direct sun areas will give you more space for warm weather crops that LOVE the plant version of tanning!

GG

Welcome to the Forum!!! Happy to see a new face here!! I think GG is right on with your north side!

Thank you all for the input. My daughter has gone crazy! Her moms x-father in law has let her plant what ever she wants on his property, appx 1/2 acre of space she can plant She is planning on a little road side stand with her brother. I have started from seed Chadwick Cherry Tomato, Nebraska Wedding Tomato, Pink Berkeley Tomato, Beauty King Tomato, Tomato Super Sioux, Roma Tomato (yes I know way to many variety's), Summer Crookneck, Black Beauty squash, Boston Pickling Cucumber, Anaheim Pepper, Serrano Pepper, Jalapeno Pepper and Ghost Pepper. We need to figure out what onions to plant and we have some cilantro. I hope we have enough room to plant all the tomato with out crossing them. I think I will plant the Chadwick and Pink Berkeley at my house on opposite sides of the yard. Her plan is to make some $$ to help with college next semester (I love this kid!).

So how far do the tomato's really need to be from each other to prevent crossing them? The squash? I would like to harvest seed for next year too. Thanks all and well back to studying

I do still plan a square foot type garden here at the house with the tomato, squash, cilantro, cucumbers and some peppers. I would like to find some different stuff too.

Too much of a rookie to be any help for you on the technical questions, sorry! Have you planted anything yet or are you in planning mode?

I'm about 2/3 planted, waiting for late March for the rest. We can still get frost until then.

Your daughter sounds like a great kid, how old is she?
Audrey

[quote="spoolnaround"
So how far do the tomato's really need to be from each other to prevent crossing them? The squash? I would like to harvest seed for next year too. Thanks all and well back to studying [/quote]

Here is an old thread where seed saving from tomatoes is discussed. https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t8557-seed-saving

You can do searches in the site or through google on the left at the top and bottom of the topic list.

Just one little thought in agreement with GG.. In the heat of the summer the north side of your place will be in sun, because the sun when it is straight up shines on everything.
You certainly sound excited

Hi! I'm a long time lurker here who has never posted. I too live in Fresno. You are welcome to come over sometime and see my sq foot garden. I converted it to sq foot last year. Funny about the road side stand - my 8 yo son wants to do the same thing. I don't get quite as many tomatoes with sq foot though because I prune so not enough to sell after consuming tons and giving to family. And for some reason my zucchini failed last year due to powdery mildew. I have a ton of seeds if you want to have any (many many varieties of winter squashes, tomatoes, broccoli, etc). I get my onion sets from the guy at the vineyard farmers market. He also sells lots of other seedlings like lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower (and warm weather ones when it is time) but i grow everything from seed except the onions.