Greetings from a haggard mom

Hello everyone, 

I'm trying to kickstart a garden at our new home, but I have a bad habit of wanting to start things and never actually doing it. I've found that if I join a forum, I'm more encouraged to keep doing the thing, so here I am! 

I'm interested in planting fruits and veggies that I know my family will eat (no sense in starting something we'll waste) and experimenting with flowers. I'm aiming to be as practical as possible (e.g. lazy) so I'm trying to figure out what works best for a busy Mom on a small lot. I've been successful with tomatoes and almost successful with cucumbers (the flowers died and nothing came out of the plants after, for some reason  ) and I'm open to trying anything twice. 

I'm on a corner lot with a very nice stretch of land running east and west, shaded only in the early morning with our neighbor's house; by noon it's bright. Now, as the sun sets, tree shadows could be a problem, and for the life of me I can't remember what they did last summer, which doesn't help. For now though, it's definitely the sunniest part of our land. 

I'm hoping to plant green beans, cucumbers, summer squash, acorn squash or butternut squash, sugar snap peas, carrots, lettuce, strawberries, potatoes (I think those need shade, so I'll put them someplace else), melons, and maybe peach trees if my winter experiment succeeded. I killed the avocado seeds I started a year ago so I'm trying to be hopeful...Anyway, I think that's all that springs to mind right now. I'd love to try broccoli, cauliflower, and maybe cabbage, but I feel like I heard those were difficult, so we'll see. 

I'm joining a few forums at once to see if any (or all) stick, so if you see this same message somewhere else, it's me, being lazy again. Thanks for the opportunity to share, everyone! 
~Lucy

Welcome to the forum, from SW Ohio.  It is not clear to me from your description if you plan on using raised beds, or if you are planning on using Square Foot Gardening?  Have you read either the 2nd or 3rd edition of the All New Square Foot Gardening?

MamaV, From years of experience on this Forum, the best advice I can give you is to read either the 2nd or 3rd Edition of ALL NEW Square Foot Gardening. Check out from the library, order on Amazon, buy used on eBay. The books are easy read with lots of photos.

Browse the Square Foot Gardening Foundation website. https://squarefootgardening.org/

If you get inspired:

- Involve the kids
- Place the garden where you will see it
- Grow what you like
- Start small with one bed
- Download a vegetable planting guide for your area from the County Master Gardeners or Ag Extension

OhioGardener wrote:Welcome to the forum, from SW Ohio.  It is not clear to me from your description if you plan on using raised beds, or if you are planning on using Square Foot Gardening?  Have you read either the 2nd or 3rd edition of the All New Square Foot Gardening?

Hello from NE Ohio! I'm not sure what to use yet, hence my forays into different forums. I'm also looking into books to read to figure out what suits my situation and goals best, so I'll add those to my list!

sanderson wrote:MamaV,  From years of experience on this Forum, the best advice I can give you is to read either the 2nd or 3rd Edition of ALL NEW Square Foot Gardening.  Check out from the library, order on Amazon, buy used on eBay.  The books are easy read with lots of photos.

Browse the Square Foot Gardening Foundation website. 

If you get inspired:

- Involve the kids
- Place the garden where you will see it
- Grow what you like
- Start small with one bed
- Download a vegetable planting guide for your area from the County Master Gardeners or Ag Extension

Hello! I'll look into that book, and I didn't know planting guides existed! I'll start trying to find one now. Thanks!

My memories from when I was a haggard mom are that I needed to start small and find a way to keep it organized and have kids involved. Also it had to be cheap. So raised beds with wooden sides came around when kids were bigger and my knees protested at kneeling. I made raised bed/berms to concentrate my good soil, and the berms on top were 2-3 feet across with enough room between berms to mow the  annual rye grass (rye grass out competes most all weeds and adds organic rich compost to the soil to be added annually). Then I used the square foot garden principles of the squares and spacing with in the squares and mixing of plants, in other words I used that form of organizing. In my case there was a lot of annual flowers among the vegetables. The kids each had their own 3'x3' garden space to grow big seeds, a few nursery plants, and various trucks and fairy towns. We made a pole bean tipis big enough for them to crawl in, and sunflower houses too. I bent cattle panels into hoops for plants to climb over and make tunnels for kids to climb through. Cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas are great for tunnels and provide the best snacks. This is not orthodox square foot gardening, I used what was useful for me.

Turan wrote:My memories from when I was a haggard mom are that I needed to start small and find a way to keep it organized and have kids involved. Also it had to be cheap. So raised beds with wooden sides came around when kids were bigger and my knees protested at kneeling. I made raised bed/berms to concentrate my good soil, and the berms on top were 2-3 feet across with enough room between berms to mow the  annual rye grass (rye grass out competes most all weeds and adds organic rich compost to the soil to be added annually). Then I used the square foot garden principles of the squares and spacing with in the squares and mixing of plants, in other words I used that form of organizing. In my case there was a lot of annual flowers among the vegetables. The kids each had their own 3'x3' garden space to grow big seeds, a few nursery plants, and various trucks and fairy towns. We made a pole bean tipis big enough for them to crawl in, and sunflower houses too. I bent cattle panels into hoops for plants to climb over and make tunnels for kids to climb through. Cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas are great for tunnels and provide the best snacks. This is not orthodox square foot gardening, I used what was useful for me.

This is so smart! My little girl just turned 1, so she won't be very helpful yet, but I'm certain she'll try to be involved, and this is just the ticket! Plus I love tunnels   I'm hoping to go to the library with her today to find some gardening books and get started on making a plan for actually doing things instead of dreaming about it! Thanks!

Hi MamaV!  Welcome from a fellow Buckeye!  I think your kids and you will like the simplicity of the SFG method.  One box is enough, and you already know what you like!  I hope you find inspiration!

If you look at 10 books of gardening, and one is an edition of ALL NEW Square Foot Gardening, you will see that it narrows all the alternatives down to one simple method.

I was in Barnes and Nobles book store the other day looking for a gardening book about indoor gardening (which I don't and wouldn't do, but I was curious). I had a long talk with the salesman about different books on the shelf. He asked, if I had to recommend just one book, which one. I pulled our book off the shelf and showed him the photos, diagrams, chapters, especially the one on Mel's Mix. I told him I recommend this book to beginning gardeners. Even if one doesn't want to use the method, there is so much information and a lot of take away.

A second book I recommend is Teaming with Microbes by Lowenfels and Fields. We owe our existence to these little creatures in our dirt.