For years I’ve yearned for a vegetable garden, and now I finally have a backyard to plant one in. I want to plant cherry tomatoes and a larger type (beefsteak?), plus bell peppers, some sort of leafy green (kale, maybe), watermelon, peas, and maybe corn. Oh! And herbs!
What, if anything, should I be doing now (winter in Michigan) to prepare? Should I start some of these plants indoors now to transplant in the spring? Is corn hard to grow? Do I need to plant a ton of it to make it worth my while, or is 2 or 3 stalks enough? What about herbs? Can they go in a shady spot? Do they have long roots? (Shady spot may only be a foot deep before it hits concrete.) Any books to recommend to a new gardener?
Seed-starting is a higher-level skill that I’d recommend a newbie skip; wait and buy plants in the spring for herbs, tomatoes, and peppers; sow lettuce, corn, and watermelon directly in the garden when it’s time.
You need a substantial corn patch for pollination purposes – at least 100 sq. ft., I think (never grown it myself). A compact patch is better – 10x10 is significantly better (again, for pollination purposes) than one thats 50x2.
Herbs need sun and lots of it. Veggies, in general, do, though you may be able to grow greens in light shade.
Two best books:
Barbara Damrosch’s Garden Primer (link is to 2nd edition, which I haven’t seen – you may be able to find a used copy of the first edition, which is a classic. If you’re only going to buy one gardening book, this is the one.
If you’re going to buy two, the other should be The Big Book of Gardening Skills – which in a better-ordered universe would not be out of print. It’s worth tracking down a copy, though probably not at $30.
I recommend sweet 100s for cherry tomatoes (very likely you can’t buy any other kind in flats). For big tomatoes, I have had success with beefsteak, also fantasy and I am sure there are many others. In MI, you will not be able to grow tomatoes unless you start them indoors, maybe in early April and set them out in mid-May (and even so you may lose them to a late frost). I have never succeeded with bell peppers or eggplant here in Montreal; the growing season is simply too short, even if you buy plants. Corn is really not worth it in a small garden. You have to plant a lot of it, because it is wind pollinated and the plants at the edge usually give only partly filled rows. When I tried it, I got one ear per plant and it was just not a good use of space. All kinds of brassica (cabbage, broccoli, kale) grow well and can be harvested until the first snow (even after if you clean the snow off right away. The stand up to considerable frost. Last year, I grew some potatoes. I got a large bucket, put a few inches of soil in and laid down seed potatoes. As they grew I added more soil (good quality soil is crucial here) until nearly filling the buckets. At the end, I emptied the soil and sorted out the spuds. Yukon gold is recommended for this. They are not keepers, but were delicious new potatoes.
With herbs it depends. My wife keeps a nice herb bed in a place that gets some sun, but not a lot. She grows parsely, sage, rosemary, yes and thyme. Also sorrel (makes a wonderful potato-based soup). There are a couple other things, I think, but I don’t recall what they are. Oh yes, chives come back every year. Most of the herbs do. Oh we have some perilla (a mint that reseeds itself, heavily used in Japan under the name chiso). I grow basil every year in the main garden. It is also a mint relative (another name for perilla is Japanese basil) but does not reseed itself, although it grows quite easily. We use it fresh all summer and my wife makes and freezes a load of pesto base (add grated parmesan cheese and blend when you want pesto sauce) in the fall.
When I was getting started I found the Sunset gardening book useful, but now I just use my experience. I am sure there are many other good books. Ask at your local garden center. With the internet now, advice is just a mouseclick away.
I’m sure more knowledgeable folk will be along shortly, but the good thing about gardening is it is cheap enough that you can learn what works through trial and error.
Winter is pretty much a time for planning for those of us in northern climes. So you are on the right track by starting to think of reading. And you are doing great thinking of the “micro-climates” in your yard. Not every plant will be happy in every location. Despite reading up on the sun, soil, drainage requirments of various plants, it can be trial and error to find out what is happiest where. Your best source of info could well be your neighbors. Feel free to ask them questions. Gardeners tend to be very eager to share info (and plants!)
Start with a smaller plot than you might think the first year. A large garden can be a ton of work for the neophyte. Location can be very important. I.e., put the plot where it is convenient to water. And plant the herbs where you can easily step out of the kitchen and grab them when cooking. A well maintained garden can be very attractive, and need not be tucked way in the furthest reaches of your yard.
Another winter activity is ordering seeds if you wish to start them yourself. It is far cheaper than buying seedlings, but you will need a few materials and a space to keep them.
Research your area’s weather. When is the last and first frosts? And plan your garden to start off and end with some cool weather veggies. Also plan staggered plantings. Plant a row of leaf lettuce, radishes, carrots, every 2 weeks, so it isn’t all ready at the same time. And check the maturity time for various types of the same veggie.
take an inventory of your tools. You don’t need many, but quality tools will make your gardening far more pleasant.
-Many herbs can be grown in pots, and don’t have overly deep roots.
-Corn is very easy to grow. But you don’t get too much bang for your buck. 3-4 ears per stalk and theyre done. Not like tomatoes. peppers, zucchini, etc. which keep producing and producing. A simple way to start is popcorn. You can simply plant the kernels you buy in the store.
-Leaf lettuce is one of my favorites.
-Watermelon, and most of your vines take up a surprising amount of space.
Like I said, twicks and the other true gardeners will be along shortly.
look for publications by Rodale Press, publishers of Organic Gardening magazine. They have great books, try your library before you buy a bunch of books.
All the seed catalogs are coming in the mail now. Tomatoes and peppers you can start indoors and transplant when it’s warmer. Greens usually go straight into the ground from seed. You could grow corn for the novelty of it, but it’s not very efficient for a backyard garden if space is limited.
the lore is to plant peas on St Patrick’s Day, and Memorial Day is generally considered the start of the main planting season for summer crops here in se MI. (when you’d set out your transplants, or direct sow warm weather plants)
Michigan State University has a Master Gardener program. They have experts you can phone, e-mail with questions. These people are helpful and knowledgeable and - Free!
here’s the link to my local extension office, you can navigate to yours from here http://web1.msue.msu.edu/mastergardener/genesee/
I can’t remember the proper name of the office, Agricultural Extension office maybe? These guys are also free and helpful (and maybe even the same guys as above). probably
Have fun, gardening is a blast. I mostly just do a tomato plant in a pot these days but I used to be really into it. Herbs are easy, big return for little investment/work and a lot of them prefer neglect. (Most of the herbs I’m familiar with prefer some sun, I don’t think they’re very deep rooted in general)
Heirloom tomatoes are tons of fun and still very low-maintenance as far as homegrown veggies go. I grew some very tasty miniature yellow pear-shaped tomatoes last year, and this year I’ll do a re-run of those with some Green Zebras.
Re: herbs, you’re probably out of luck if it’s a full shade patch, since most herbs need at least part sun to do well, but if the patch gets at least 4 hrs of good strong sun you’ll be OK. I’ve done well with sage, lemon balm and thyme in part-shade. Also, mint will grow just about anywhere, but it’s incredibly invasive and should be grown in pots to avoid a hostile takeover of your garden.
Not sure if I have any gardening neighbors, but there’s a community garden a few blocks away that I plan to stop by. Wish they had a website.
I’m sorry, this went over my head. Do you mean you ate them early because they didn’t keep well?
Sounds like corn is out of the question, I don’t want to take up precious room for only a few ears yield. Any suggestions for my shaded patch? What has shallow roots and grows in almost full shade? I could dig down and pull that concrete up if I needed to, but I’d prefer to leave it alone. Sounds like the sort of project that turns into a week long event.
I have some gardening tools, but not a shedful. What’s essential?
I’m printing the thread so I can hit the library with all of the book suggestions, thanks!
Hostasdo very well in full shade and acanthus is beautiful but I have it in deep soil so I’m not sure how it does in shallow soil. It gets very big and spreads all over. Foxglove is easy to grow in shade too.
Just let it wait a while, then. One day you’ll find yourself sitting around and decide you are unhappy about having that concrete down there, and you’ll start digging away. Once you get the gardening bug, weeklong projects won’t give you pause! After all, if you don’t finish it on any particular day, it won’t be going anywhere. Just a pile next to a hole…
Just be sure to call Julie before you do any significant digging.
Necessary tools?
Well, you’ll need at least one shovel. A pointed round shovel like this is my workhorse. I’ve bought Craftsman and had them replaced without question after I stupidly broke the handles using them as prybars. My second most used shovel is a spade - for cutting sod, outlining beds, splitting plants, cultivating soil…
Then you’ll need at least one hand trowel. Not all trowels are alike. My favorites are one piece cast metal. I have bent/broken every non-1-piece trowel I have ever had.
Then you’ll need some hand clippers. The 2 main kinds are anvil or bypass. If only getting one, I would start with a medium bypass. Again, find one you find comfortable. And do not skimp on quality.
A couple of other near-necessities are a dirt rake, a hoe, and a hand weed/dandelion puller.
Also a nice big, light watering can if your hose does not reach.
Maybe a fork, especially if you have a compost pile.
And you’ll eventually want some stakes and twine to hold up your tomatoes, beans, etc.
I think that might be all I’d consider “essential.” But I tend to be pretty minimalist in most things I do.
I always like eggplant. Even if you do not get much fruit, they can be beautiful plants with purple stems, flowers, and leaf veins. But beware - if you do get fruit, you’ll never be happy with storebought eggplant again.
My essential list would match Dinsdale’s with the addition of some heavy work gloves, especially if you have long nails or have to do enough work to get callouses. I agree that cheap tools never pay off in the long run unless all you’re going to do is some light container gardening. I’ve bent or broken every handle off a hand tool also unless it’s one solid piece. Dinsdale, have you found a weed puller that gets the whole dandelion root out?
If you have enough land eventually a week long project will feel like a small one and the big ones take all summer.
Another vote for heirloom varieties. They were FAR heartier and healthier than the common store bought varieties. This year we started with all heirloom seeds and everything is sprouted up already. Of course I live in FL. So I’m ahead of the game.
Yeah, I was thinking about adding gloves, but I rarely use them. I find bare hands so much better for manipulating hand tools, feeling roots and such. And I hate it when gloves get wet and mudcaked. And I find my hands perfectly washable. But my nails are certainly nothing to look at and no one would ever accuse my hands of being soft and smooth!
Dinsdale, have you found a weed puller that gets the whole dandelion root out?
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Are you suggesting such a thing exists?
I’ve come to the conclusion that if you don’t want to drown your property in chemicals (which I don’t) the best you can do with weeds is do a “good enough” job, keeping them down to a level where you can co-exist with them. Show me a garden/lawn that is entirely weed-free, and I’ll show you a gardener who is either deranged or just has too much time on their hands!
Just a plain old hand held one seems to get enough of the roots that they are slow to come back - if at all. I find best results if I make a point of getting them early in the year, especially in the morning when the soil is moist. Not much you can do in July-August when the ground turns to concrete, and nothing else is growing strongly enough to out-compete the weeds.
But it is something you just kinda have to keep up with all year as the need presents itself. That’s another reason why I like the snall handheld ones - they fit nicely in your back pocket while you are doing any other garden task, and you can just whip it out when you see a weed that bothers you.
If choosing among different ones, get the one that is longer, sturdier, and has a brighter handle. Same for all garden tools. A bright-colored handle can save a lot of time hunting for tolls you “just put down right there!” Not that that has ever happened to me …:o
I have all of the tools mentioned, except that my hand trowel isn’t a solid piece. I’ll have to look for one. Oh, and the danelion puller, don’t have one of those. I don’t have a lot of dandies in the lawn, but there are plenty of other weeds. (Including a VERY stubborn climbing vine that I pulled and pulled and unwound from all of the bushes in the yard allllll summer long. That rat bastard vine. I’m gonna get it for good this year.) I have a great pair of stretchy gloves with rubber palms, helped enormously when I was dealing with the out of control rose bushes last summer.
Hostas for my shady spot would be perfect! I have a few in the yard that need to be moved to make room for veggies. Thanks for the suggestion, Karyn!
The woman who lived in my house before me was an avid gardener, but it’s all flowers. My yard is filled with roses (beautiful, fragrant blooms last summer), lilacs, hostas, burning bushes, flowering quince and lilies. I have a pear tree of some sort in the back yard, and a gorgeous catalpa tree. Unfortunately, when she died the caretaker took a mower to everything and cut almost all of it down to the ground. In the 4 years the house was empty, things started to come back, but in a funky, wild way. There’s a mulberry stump that had spindly branches sprouting from it last year and the rose bushes are straggly and thin. There are lilies everywhere, including in the lawn. There are green onions growing in the back lawn and mint patches all over the place.
Anyhow! It’s very cool to have all of this stuff in my yard, but it’s out of control! (Or it will be in the spring, provided I didn’t kill everything with my efforts last year.) I love the flowers and trees, but I’m also interested in growing stuff I can eat I think I’m going to have a good tan this year!
Dinsdale, I’m convinced that one doesn’t exist which was why I was so surprised. I don’t like to use chemicals either so I declare war on specific weeds each year and get up every one that I see. I’ve managed to virtually wipe out a few but dandelions are the most stubborn. I soak the ground before trying to get them out and it makes a muddy mess but then I can get the whole root out. I don’t wear gloves for most weeding because then I can’t feel that little pop that you get that lets you know that you got the whole root.
Nikki, when we bought this house it was in the same condition. An earlier owner had put in beautiful gardens but in the intervening years tenants had let most of it die or go wild. It took a lot of work but eventually I had some wonderful big foundation plants and a lot of sturdy groundcover. Clearing it out also gave me lots of room for fruit trees.
Yeah, mint is the devil’s weed. (or at least, one of his faves!)
I used the word dandelion to describe the weeder, just because I thought that is what people call it. But IMO it is the best tool for many weeds, in lawn or cultivated gardens. Violets, buckthorn seedlings, whatever. Makes a narrow cut without disturbing surrounding plantings. Plus, it can be put to just about any use you have for a long, skinny, pointy “thing.” For example, when digging out a stump, I find it useful to occasionally clear dirt off the stump underground to see exactly where I am at and what I’m dealing with. Or if you run into something below ground, you can poke it with the tool to see if it is rock or wood. That kinda thing.
One kinda odd thing, that is one of my most used. I have a rusty old paint scraper that I think I found in the street many years back, hanging outside my garage door on a loop of wire. So whenever I am done gardening, I have the perfect tool right where I need it to scrape extra mud off my tools, shoes, etc. Keeps the tools in better repair and keeps the garage far cleaner as well. Just the kinda thing you might not think of immediately…
I don’t declare war on the mint because I always lose. It should be illegal to plant that stuff outside of pots. The only good part is that it makes your hands smell good when you pull it out over and over again. I’ve also decided that vinca major is not an invasive weed but a beautiful flowering ground cover. If you can’t beat them, join them.
Great suggestions here. Also, make sure your plants are suited for your climate zone. Seed packets usually have a guide on the back. Your nursery also should be able to guide you in the right direction.
Do you mean you ate them early because they didn’t keep well?
