First Time Gardener from Columbus, OH

countrynaturals wrote:This is soooo exciting watching your progress along with ours. Hopefully I'll have more pics to post later. I won't be actually planting in my beds for several more days, but I've been growing and buying plants for weeks, so I do have a head start.

In that empty bed behind the house, how about tomatoes in matching cages? What direct do they face? How much sun? Peppers would be beautiful there, but they grow so slowly that spot would just look like dirt for a long time. Maybe peas on a trellis frame would come in quicker and look good.

wyldhawk9 wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:This is soooo exciting watching your progress along with ours. Hopefully I'll have more pics to post later. I won't be actually planting in my beds for several more days, but I've been growing and buying plants for weeks, so I do have a head start.

In that empty bed behind the house, how about tomatoes in matching cages? What direct do they face? How much sun? Peppers would be beautiful there, but they grow so slowly that spot would just look like dirt for a long time. Maybe peas on a trellis frame would come in quicker and look good.

Thanks CN! I'm pretty excited too - I'll be sure to check for your updates. 

The bed next to the house faces south and I had thought to put tomatoes there, but wanted to opinions of seasoned gardeners. I'm also intrigued about pepper plants and definitely want a jalepeno plant or two...what do folks do with pepper plants in winter? Should I just plan to keep it in a pot instead of in the ground?

Scorpio Rising wrote:You are gonna have a great season, Wyldhawk!  Beds look awesome, kid is helping!  And off to an early start!  

wyldhawk9 wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:This is soooo exciting watching your progress along with ours. Hopefully I'll have more pics to post later. I won't be actually planting in my beds for several more days, but I've been growing and buying plants for weeks, so I do have a head start.

In that empty bed behind the house, how about tomatoes in matching cages? What direct do they face? How much sun? Peppers would be beautiful there, but they grow so slowly that spot would just look like dirt for a long time. Maybe peas on a trellis frame would come in quicker and look good.

Thanks CN! I'm pretty excited too - I'll be sure to check for your updates. 

The bed next to the house faces south and I had thought to put tomatoes there, but wanted to opinions of seasoned gardeners. I'm also intrigued about pepper plants and definitely want a jalepeno plant or two...what do folks do with pepper plants in winter? Should I just plan to keep it in a pot instead of in the ground?

herblover wrote:

wyldhawk9 wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:This is soooo exciting watching your progress along with ours. Hopefully I'll have more pics to post later. I won't be actually planting in my beds for several more days, but I've been growing and buying plants for weeks, so I do have a head start.

In that empty bed behind the house, how about tomatoes in matching cages? What direct do they face? How much sun? Peppers would be beautiful there, but they grow so slowly that spot would just look like dirt for a long time. Maybe peas on a trellis frame would come in quicker and look good.

Thanks CN! I'm pretty excited too - I'll be sure to check for your updates. 

The bed next to the house faces south and I had thought to put tomatoes there, but wanted to opinions of seasoned gardeners. I'm also intrigued about pepper plants and definitely want a jalepeno plant or two...what do folks do with pepper plants in winter? Should I just plan to keep it in a pot instead of in the ground?

A south facing spot is good for tomatoes; they like the heat.  I put pepper plants in my SFG as annuals, I don't have a good indoor spot to bring plants in during the winter.  Pot one up and try it if you have a good spot to see if its worth it

Scorpio Rising wrote:I know from experience, my east facing windows will not keep basil alive over the winter.  Rosemary yes, house plants, yes, but not the more sun hungry stuff.  Nothing to lose!  If I had a south facing window, maybe....

wyldhawk9 wrote:These first two photos were taken on 4/6. You can get the lay of the land of our future garden. Vibernum line the fence, and I'll need to thin and top these plants to let more light in in coming weeks. You'll notice the bales of pulled English ivy (which is everywhere in our yard!). I wish I'd taken a before picture. The empty bed at the bottom of this photo housed 3 very overgrown taxus yew bushes which I removed along with a couple mature rose of sharon trees. I burned all of the taxus yews and rose of sharon, and as much of the ivy as I had patience for in the fire pit and put the ashes into the compost heap. 


Here is a photo from the opposite vantage point of the photo above. Any suggestions for what to plant in that now empty bed next to the house? I don't normally park my SUV in the side yard, I pulled up and jammed all of the remaining English ivy - I was too impatient to burn all of it - and hauled it away. I have plenty more in my yard that needs to come out, but for now, this was a good start. Oh, and I was just messing around putting a cover on that 4x4...just to see what it would look like. There was nothing in the box. 


Here's the actual layout of the garden boxes on 4/13...you can see in my zeal, I removed sod from one of the biggest plots first...



Here we are...cooking up our first batch of MM. (4/13) I love it when my oldest yells "Vermiculite!"




Ready to fill our first box. (Ironically, this is the last box I made and you can see I used 2x6s instead of pallet wood - soo much easier!)

Yes, this box is in the ground about an inch. I removed the sod before I asked about this...now this box is filled and planted, so I'll just have to do the other boxes correctly.


On 4/15, my buddy and I planted box #1. Now we'll see if anything grows in it... 




Filling up box #2 on 4/17...the pallet wood boxes are a little taller (7 in.) plus I didn't lower the ground so the other 3 will seem quite a bit taller than the box made with 2x6s.