I recently relocated to Temple and I am wanting to put a garden in the back yard. Any suggestions on what to plant, garden size, # of plants per sq. ft, raised vs. in ground, keeping the birds out, etc.?

Thanks for this post...I'm curious too...

Hmmm. Interested too.

I do know you can grow the schiittt out of cayenne, banana, habanero, and other peppers as well as peas, tomatoes, beans etc.

I would suggest that you not confuse this warm streak with Spring. We ain't done with winter just yet.

Yeah Captain, didn't figure we were, but now is as good time as any to start plowing up the ground or building raised boxes...


Anyone have advise??

I'm curious too, but have little to offer. This link from the "home improvement board" isn't specific to temple, but may be of some help.

sounds like there is a lot of us interested in starting in this area though, maybe this thread can grow and be of some help to us all.

http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=1791628&forum_id=61

Until his health precluded it, Dad used to have a large garden in the back yard. Tomatoes, squash--both yellow and white (the kind I can't find for sale anywhere)--bell peppers (great to stuff)--and hotter versions--radishes, blackeyes peas (best picked when you can have a few snaps) green beans, and okra.

All of these things were better from the yard than anything you find in the store. The ground seems a little to "hard" to have much success with onions, but he did try to grow them some years.

Squash won't last all season, and if it is too wet in the spring won't grow well, but if it is a good year, you can get enough to freeze and last all winter.

This question is almost to complicated to answer in a post.

Depends on where you live... are there deer, what kinda soil, etc. You def. want full sun with no shade, or very little shade. Either above ground if you have a small garden or just till/plow up a section of yard for bigger gardens.

Some plants can already be in the ground, while others might still be a tad to early to plant, such as tomatoes. You can already plant them, but in case of a freeze or frost, you need some way to cover them.

You probably need to go to a place like Empire Seed or Temple feed and supply and talk to someone there about what and when to plant. Both are downtown Temple.

3rd named a lot of them though. Tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, squash, cucumbers, all kind of peppers(jalpeno, bell, banana, etc),garlic, onions, potatoes, watermelons(depending on soil type), cantelope, strawberries(have to watch for rabbits/birds)... really almost anything.

[This message has been edited by jpb1999 (edited 2/28/2011 8:53a).]

Thanks for the comments!! I am on 31st about 2 miles south of the mall in a residential neighborhood. Back yard is fenced in so the only critters I would have to watch for are birds and bugs really...maybe the occasional rabbit if it could get in the yard.

I have 12X8 section bricked off for the garden. I stripped the sod off of the top and the soil is pretty dark and moist (eventhough the grass is brown). My house faces north/south so the sun rises directly over head and the back yard is always sunny.

Any comments on how to find out what exactly I need to put in the soil to make sure it has enough nutrients or recommendations on what you use?

Thanks!

P.S. If there is interest I will take and post pictures/progress/veggies planted/yields as well as what I am doing and what doesn't work...let me know...

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 2/28/2011 12:25p).]

Great info; I should be moving to Temple in the summer and am interested in having a garden the following spring. Ol' Rock please do post pictures and what not, I think it'd be cool to see the progress. Thanks!

[This message has been edited by beatlesphan (edited 2/28/2011 1:02p).]

As far as soil additives go... I would really go talk to they guys at empire or even the Ag Extension Agent. They can even do soil test for you...

Another big decision is whether you want to go organic of not. There are a lot of natural choices as far as fertilizer goes.

Thank for the tip jpb. I did a quick google search and found this...

http://forages.tamu.edu/PDF/Soiltest.pdf

I will be collecting the sample tonight and sending within the next two days.

Last night I finished removing the sod from the top soil and am ready to begin tilling. I will post pictures when I get home from work tonight.

Things I learned so far:
-Stripping the sod off the top soil is not as easy as some would have you believe.
-Snakes hide between the sod and the top soil. I found two while working yesterday...they have been sent to their maker.
-WATCH OUT FOR SPRINKLERS!!
-Raised boxes would probably be easier than in ground.

Pics to follow...

You can also strip the top soil, till it up, box it in but only 2 to 4 inches high, and then add your garden soil. This way you get the best of both worlds. You don't have to till as deep, and you don't have to be completely above ground(6" or more).

http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/site_main.htm?modecode=62-06-00-00

or

http://www.brc.tamus.edu/

Not sure if this is the right place, but Blackland also does soil test. You could probably call the numbers on the websites and ask.

Alright yall, as promised here is my progress...

I started out by bricking a 12X8 section of ground as a outline for where I wanted my garden to be and started to strip the sod.



Here it is after I stripped most of the sod.



During the stripping process I found the little guys as I said before. May they rest in peace.



After some hard work I completed stripping the sod and prepared to start tilling the soil.



While tilling I realized just how lazy home builders are. I found several large rocks. Here is a pic of me being a goober while relocating a rather large rock to our flower bed. I am going to clean it up and use it as decoration.



I also realized that you will find the unexpected when digging around in the yard. Look what I found. I am going to rebury it and make its location one of the center walking rows.



Here is my progress so far...I have half of the soil tilled up.



Once I get the ground soil in the garden all tilled up I am going to build a 12X8 box around it out of 2X12s. Once the box is built I am going to line it with the stones in the pictures and get some good nutritious soil (maybe miracle grow or from a garden center) to mix in with the ground soil. I am going to either rent a tiller or borrow one from my grandfather to mix it all together until I get a good consistency. When it is all said and done I should have 8 - 12 inches of good quality soil for growing. I am hoping to be able to plant by early next week.

Things I have learned so far:
-Stripping the sod gets easier as you go.
-Hand tilling the ground is some hard work.
-My cat likes the outdoors.



More to come!
~Rock

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 3/2/2011 8:19p).]

Nice pics!

Hand tilling... you are crazy!

You may want to look into peat moss, mushroom compost, or manure compost. You can find all of those at Wal-Mart. There is also fish emulsion, molasses and the like, but would need to go to Empire Seed for that. Fish emulsion is good stuff. My mom always puts cut up fish from the tank under her tomato plants and they grow like crazy. Fish emulsion is the same concept but already composted for you in soil.

You can also contact a local compost like Bluebonnet Compost near Salado. If you have a truck, she will dump it right in the back of your truck. They have really good turkey manure compost there and it is pretty cheap. It is very hot stuff, so if you get the pure stuff, you would def. want to till it in your existing soil as you mentioned above.

Thanks for the info jpb!! I am going to go either tomorrow evening or Saturday to get the soil/compost/etc. to mix in with the ground soil. I am also going to get the materials to make the boxes. I think I have decided to go with 2X6s rather than 2X12s because I was able to get a nice depth with the tiller. I think another 4 inches will be great leaving a 2 inch lip between the top of the soil and the top of the box. (Suggestions would be great on this topic.) I didn't get as much as I wanted to done tonight, but I did get the rest of the garden tilled up. A buddy of mine from work brought his tiller over and I was able to use it to finish. I am thinking of expanding the box a little bit to allow for one more row or to make a separate box in the back right corner dedicated to tomatoes. We will see...here is the progress so far. Sorry only one pic tonight.



Things I learned tonight.
-Tilling is much easier with a gas powered tiller and it does a much better job of breaking up the soil.
-Gardening can be fun and good exercise!
-My cat does not like the tiller! He ran and hid the entire time I had it on.

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 3/3/2011 7:27p).]

So, I decided to go with a raised box/in ground hybrid. I tilled up about 3 - 4 inches of the ground soil and then built two boxes out of 2X8X12 and 2x8X8s. Each box is 2X12X4.25 ft.



One thing that I learned is that you always want to do the box closest to any structure first. While having an enormous brain fart, I decided to put the front box in first thinking that my approximate ground measurement were without flaw and both boxes would fit perfectly. I was wrong. Before even building the second box, I placed the first box and filled it with soil and mixed it all together so, even on the off chance that I made a mistake in the measurement, I could not move it. Well I made about a 1 foot mistake and now my boxes, although still functional, are six inches closer to the fence and six inches closer to each other than I wanted.





I used two different types of soil/additives for the soil mixture.

Miracle-Gro 2 cu. ft. Garden Soil for Flowers and Vegetables.
http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Garden-Center-Landscaping-Supplies-Soil-Soil-Amendments/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbc17/R-100355778/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

and

Miracle-Gro® 2.0 cu. ft. Enriched Spagnum Peat Moss.
http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Garden-Center-Landscaping-Supplies-Soil-Soil-Amendments/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbc17/R-100355781/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I chose this route because, although I wanted to go organic, I wanted my first try to be a success and I have heard that organic is a bit harder. I don't know if this is true, but I didn't want to have a kill joy on my first attempt. I want some veggies to produce.

In each box I added 6 bags of the soil and 2 bags of the peat moss and mixed it in with the ground soil.

Here is the final product.



I went to The Home Depot this evening and bought the following...

- 2 big beef tomato plants
- 2 cherry tomato plants
- 4 jalapeño plants
- 4 sweet banana pepper plants
- 2 green bell pepper plants
- 1 red bell pepper plant
- 1 yellow bell pepper plant
- cucumber seeds
- squash seeds
- sweet onions
- zucchini seeds
- some herbs that the rib is going to grow in pots
- cantaloupe seeds
- carrot seeds
- broccoli seeds
- green bean seeds

I know this sounds like a lot for the room that I have. I am not going to plant all of it but I couldn't decide what to get...

I am going to plant the cucumbers along the 4 ft width at the ends of each box and put a chicken/hog wire fence there so they can vine up it rather than taking over the garden.

Any tips are appreciated. I will post more pictures after I plant tomorrow.

Thanks and Gig'em!!
Rock

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 3/6/2011 10:04p).]

Initial reaction is that you don't have enough room. Both cantelope and cucumbers take up a lot of room. Now, if your cucumber idea works it will save a ton of room... will be interested in seeing how that turns outs as i have read about it but never have tried it.

Another thing you need is tomato cages. They are must haves. It will contain your plant as it gets big and keeps it growing upwards. It will also save room as tomato plants can get really big also. We also made our own. Here is a pic of what I am talking about.
We just used chicken wire and rebar. Leave the rebar longer on the bottom(about a foot or so) so it will stick in the ground.

Thanks for the info and suggestions jpb1999. I agree that I probably don't have enough room, but I planted a lot anyway. I will thin if I need to. Also, I am currently using standard tomato supports that you can get from Lowe's and Home Depot. I am probably going to upgrade to something like you suggested soon, but the ones I have are serving the purpose for now.

As of today, everything that I planted, both from seed and from plant, has grown and sprouted. The tomato plants have a few tomatoes on them. You can see them here on the left side of the front box.


Here are the tomatoes up close.






Here are the cucumbers.


Here you can see the fence I am going to have the cucumbers grow up. My cousin did this and it worked like a charm. I have three rows of cucumbers that I am going to have grow up fences.


Here are the green beans that we planted. They are doing very well.


Here is the zucchini.


And squash...



These are random squash that were relocated due to me deciding to re-till the box to further mix the soil after planting the squash. I know...dumb, but I believe it gave my garden a better chance with better soil.


And the okra...


Here you can see the random squash, a row of banana peppers, a row of jalapeño peppers, two rows of green beans, and the cucumbers at the end.


Here is the first thing that the garden yielded. This is a strawberry that was produced from a Topsy Turvy I planted.


I was sweet and good.

Things I have learned.
- Gardening is great fun if you really get into it.
- Watching things sprout and grow from you hard work is a great feeling.
- It is a great activity to share with the rib.
- It can be hard work.
- It can be expensive.
- Read the instructions and recommendations for planting.
- Make sure to water enough, but not too much.
- Gardening is addictive.

Thanks for reading. I will post pics as the veggies grow.

That is it for now.
~Rock

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 3/18/2011 11:57p).]

Everything looks great! It looks very efficient and neat. I think that is going to be the key with how tight everything is... keeping it weed free and in their places.

Where I grew up on a farm/ranch, we had a huge area for a garden... so we never had the need to be very efficient.

On the expensive note you mentioned. It would be interesting to keep a tally of how much you spent compared to how many fruit/vegetables you produce. Then compare that to how much it would have cost buying it all at the grocery store. This first year may be a little off because of initial start up cost, but I would bet even then it would come out to about the same. Plus it tastes better than store bought stuff and you know where it came from and what was put on it.

Wow! Was all that stuff planted this year? Very nice!





[This message has been edited by Captain Pablo (edited 3/22/2011 5:36a).]

A little off topic here, but something else I have always wanted to do is to install a rainwater collection system. For one, it would save on watering bills, but it would also help the plants grow big time. Rain water is like crack for plants... while tap water will just keep plants alive...

CP - Yep, I planted everything 3/4 weeks ago. I will take some more pics tonight. The green beans are growing like crazy. I have about 7 tomatos growing and have yielded 3 strawberries to date. The only thing I am concerned with is that my tomatoe plants don't seem to be getting much taller than they were when I bought them...at least I don't think they are. I am assuming that it is because of the cool weather. My g-pa said that they like hot temperatures and so far I don't think it has been above 85 here in Temple.

jp - I have been looking into RWCSs and have decided that I am going to set one up as soon as I can. However, I don't think we get a heck of a lot of rain here so I don't know how successful it will be.

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 3/22/2011 8:52a).]

Interesting...I'm moving there in a couple months, and we want to put a garden in our back yard to include a rain collection system. I'll be sure to look up this thread.

Wow, I just went home for lunch and man'o'man the sun/heat has been a blessing for my garden. Everything was looking a bit depressed due to the cool temps and kicking wind, but today everything looks great. I will try to take some pics of the progress and post later tonight.

Alright peeps, here is the latest update to my garden. Everything is growing well and I have added a few things.

We will start with a new topic first. My wife and I have been working on the flower beds around the house and here is what the final product looks like. I don't have a before picture. Sorry.







Ok, now for the garden. My brother helped me put a fence around it today. Here is the final product.


A few more views...






And now for the plants...
Cucumbers



Strawberries


Jalapeños, green beans, banana peppers, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and okra


Tomatoes






I am giving a few green beans and squash/zucchini to my brother to transplant.


We are also growing cilantro, basal, and chives in pots.




Final touches:
- I am going to put a 2X8X12 down on between the top of the boxes to make it easier to walk between them a pick the veggies.
- I am also going to put a platform made out of a 2X8X12 and some bricks that I have behind the boxes to make walking/picking easier.

True Before and After




Thanks and Gig'em
~Rock

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 3/27/2011 10:39p).]

Is there a gate we can't see. How are you going to get into this to harvest and tend to the plants?

I had the same thought 3rd... unless it is low enough to just step over.

Is the fence to keep the pets out?

There is no gate. I am going to put stools on either side at the location of the gap between the boxes. The fence is only ~4ft tall and I can sep over it if I stand on the bricks as it is. There is going to be a walk way between the two boxes and behind the back box when I put down the final two 2X8X12s. This will make picking much easier.

Not the best design and I'd highly recommend more space between structures and between each box, but it works...

Yes, the fence is to keep out the new puppy and Zipper (the cat).

You sir are tall. Four foot fence is to my shoulders. NO way I could step or climb over it.

Glad to know you will be able to do that.

edit for fat fingers. The fence is 3ft tall. Sorry!

DP

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 3/28/2011 6:07p).]

are you in waterford?

Nope...bentwood

UPDATE: As of today things seem to be going well I have some tomatoes growing and all of the other veggies seem to be coming along well. I think that the cool weather has stunted some of the growth of my plants. Here are some pics of how things look today.

Tomatoes (Big Beef)








Tomatoes (Cherry)




Green Beans


Squash


Garden level view:


View from above:




Basil and Cilantro


I seem to have something wrong with a few of my cucumbers, zucchini and cherry tomato plants. If you know what is going on please let me know.

Pics of problems...

Yellowing of leaves




White blotches on my cucumbers (sorry for blurry images. I took the pictures several times and couldn't get a good shot.






Brown spots on my cherry tomato plants and fading of leaves






I suspect that I may have been watering to much so I am cutting back until it gets warmer. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

Well, that is all for now...

Good night!
~Rock