Learning Vegetable Gardening

In a matter of days, I will be moving into a new home. This will be the first time either petit pois or I will have ever lived in an actual "house". We're both city kids, having grown up and lived our entire lives in apartments. This is an actual house with a backyard, basement, and stairs to a whole 'nother floor!!

One of the reasons I'm looking forward to having a house with a yard is the opportunity to learn to grow my own vegetables. But, I know next-to-nothing about vegetable gardening, and when I start to look up resources, I'm overwhelmed by the glut of information available.

Can anyone direct me to any resources (books, websites, etc.) that would be a good place to start? There's so much info. out there that I need some help separating the wheat from the chaff. (I'd even be willing to buy someone dinner if they'd stop by and give me a little advice on how to get started.)

Obviously, there's no better way to learn than by doing, but I'm starting from scratch in a yard that hasn't been used for this purpose. There is an area in the yard that now has some decrepit bushes that seems like it could be dug up and used to grow some veggies.

lil' help?

Best,
Michael

Hi,

University of Illinois Extension has research-based information on gardening. They not only have books, but they have Master Gardner Volunteers to speak with when you just have a question or run into trouble. They also don't endorse products.

First things first, I would collect soil samples to have them analyzed. You will then have fabulous information on how to enrich your soil. U of I doesn't do this but they will give you resources to contact. You probably need a lawn mower, I would ask for information from U of I as well as Consumer Reports.

This is probably not the closest office, though they will tell you were to go: U of I Extension - Cook County Northern Suburbs.

Regards,

Michael,

Congratulations on the new house. The Chow Poodle and I had a similar situation around 4 years ago when we moved from our longtime lakefront condo to an actual house with a back yard. I did a bunch of research and settled on using a method called square foot gardining, where only a 4" X 4" square of soil can yeild more veggies than the two of us can eat and give away. Of course, you can add additional squares if you want to grow more varieties, but you won't need to in terms of having enough yeild on the crops you plant. I built a raised bed out of cedar that is 8" deep and it's been serving me very well. I've turned a bunch of other people on to this method and everyone seems very happy with it.

I second the rec on Square Foot Gardening, which I am trying to get our building to adopt. Raised beds also make life a lot easier, if you can stand the investment after your house purchase.

Rodale's Garden Problem Solver is also a very handy book that covers pests, diseases, and other problems, with the added benefit of using organic methods. A severe case of tomato blossom drop a few years ago was stopped dead with their suggestion of a single application of seaweed extract.

Having a garden is one of the main things I miss about living in Vermont. I didn't know anything about gardening when I moved in--and thought that even with the best advice, my attempts would still be largely trial and error.

Say what you will about her--but I used Martha Stewart's "Gardening From Seed-The Keys to Success with Flowers and Vegetables" as a resource. I used raised beds as well--but I did not need to encase them in wood. Rather, I just brought in a couple beds of fresh moo-doo enriched soil and heaped the soil into 3x3 sq ft plots--leveled off. This allows proper drainage--and it allowed me to start planting earlier because the soil was warmer sooner.

My first year, I grew several varieties of tomatoes, herbs and chile peppers--and had tremendous success. Cathy's advice about having your soil analyzed seems to be the key advice. I took the lazy-woman's route, and just piled new pre-enriched soil on top of the old, but that's just me. PIGMON's ex-wife is a professional gardener here in Chicago, and he says she always used mushroom compost.

Anyway--I am looking forward to living vicariously through your new gardening experiences.

-trixie-pea-

I don't garden .. maybe it is because of all the "forced labor" of my youth. My father had a two acre garden and did not believe in roto-rooters and used about 2 55-gal barrels of fertilizer from the local stockyard. This had to be worked in by shovel ... like, manually.

Personally, I'd rather hit the markets and barter with farmers.

Back to your question.

First, you really need to determine the quality of the soil. A lot of builders remove most of the topsoil and then spread just enough topsoil to support a lawn. I lot of times, all you have is a clay packed mess. You may need to add more topsoil.

Second, my father believes that you need to work the soil as much after the harvest as you do before the planting. Throughout the month of October, my father will start turning the soil in MOST of his garden (except the area where he has his root vegetables). He saves that area for November. He still does two acres at age 75 only his garden is now on the flood plain which has great soil. And now that his free labor has moved on, he has a roto-rooter.

Start small. Most people are way too ambitious and tire out of all the work involved. Also, talk with the ag-extention people and local gardeners to find out what varieties work in this zone. there is stuff that works well in Southern Ohio that would not work here because the season is not as long.

jlawrence wrote:First, you really need to determine the quality of the soil. A lot of builders remove most of the topsoil and then spread just enough topsoil to support a lawn. I lot of times, all you have is a clay packed mess. You may need to add more topsoil.

For those who run into this situation. Don't drop a lot of topsoil on top of the clay, then plant and expect good results. Rototill the topsoil into the clay along with any other organic material you can mix in. Those top soil and plant combo don't work because the plant's roots don't leave the top layer making a weaker plant; especially in drought conditions. You want your plants rooting down, which mixing the clay and top soil will force them to do.

I wasn't 10 years a Master Gardner for nothing!

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:University of Illinois Extension has research-based information on gardening. They not only have books, but they have Master Gardner Volunteers to speak with when you just have a question or run into trouble.

I would highly recommend taking your Extension's Master Gardening Certification Course, if available. I took the local one and it was a most valuable experience. I think one of the reasons for my recent "Perfect Storm of Peaches" was I learned how to monitor the critical soil factors and adjust them as needed.

Bill/SFNM

Thank you all for the advice and good wishes. This definitely helps me narrow down the field of information that I found quite overwhelming.

I am a bit concerned about how much sunlight my yard will get. I guess I'll have to measure that next weekend.

Best,
Michael

The forums at the website Garden Web have been very helpful to me. Those guys like gardening as much as you guys like food

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/

Keli

When measuring sunlight, keep in mind that, especially in smaller yards, the amount of sun can vary radically at different times of the year, and that you need to plan and plant accordingly.

Our building (vintage Chicago six-flat) spent a small fortune last year re-landscaping (if you can call overgrown yews and lawn grass that doesn't thrive landscaping to begin with) the front yard with a "landscape architect" who came with a personal recommendation from someone in the building. Don't get me started on condo politics, please

This supposed professional visited exactly once in March/April, and then printed up pretty pictures of plants (with no indications of scale) and ordered plants. A significant number died last year because they were simply not suited to the conditions. A significant number died or failed to flower this year for the same reason.

Much of the loss of plants could have been avoided if the so-called professional had simply noticed that one tree in the parkway was a linden, one of the last trees to leaf out, but which then provides a pretty dense shade.

Bottom line, start watching your sunlight now through the fall (it will be approximately the same in the spring, although the effects are a bit different because the sun is moving in a reverse direction). Start reading about days to germination, length of time to production, etc. (all of which is in the Rodale book I mentioned).

I second C2's rec not to just dump topsoil on top of unturned soil. One of the things that happens if you try to do this in smaller beds (even 5 x 12 feet) is that when it rains a lot of the soil just washes away. Part of this is basic physics. Part is because Chicago soils are essentially clay soils, so rain will go through you topsoil, hit soil it can't easily penetrate, and then just run off with your topsoil.

Also everyone's rec of getting a soil test. I also still strongly endorse raised beds because I think they work well with aging knees (or the prevention thereof), troublesome soil conditions, and can really make an attractive addition to a small yard.

Another interesting book to look at is Rosalind Creasey's "Edible Landscaping."

trixie-pea wrote: I used raised beds as well--but I did not need to encase them in wood. Rather, I just brought in a couple beds of fresh moo-doo enriched soil and heaped the soil into 3x3 sq ft plots--leveled off. This allows proper drainage--and it allowed me to start planting earlier because the soil was warmer sooner.

I didn't actually build raised beds in the strictest sense of the word. I built frames that were 4' X 4' X 8, got some of that gardening fabric that is supposed to keep the weeds from growing up through it and put it at the bottom of the frames right over a grassy area of my lawn, then filled the frame with my own soil that I made to the specifications given in the Sq Ft Gardening book. The frames are actually on the ground, but I use the term raised becaused they are not incorporated into the ground soil at all. The gardeiing fabric allows for proper drainage.

Some things depend upon what part of the metropolitan area the "new" house is in. The issues with a few inches of top soil spread over clay have been going on for decades in the Chicago area. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if scraggliness is a result of poor root systems. In any case there is near certainty that organic matter is sorely lacking. Organic matter is key to tilth and must be replenished regularly because it breaks down to ash eventually.

Except for some long root crops like carrots and parsnips, spading orgainc matter into the top 12 to 15 inches should be sufficient. Raised beds are great for several reasons. Just make sure you don't have sharply defined layers anywhere. Doing some rough tillage followed by a short-term cover crop such as buckwheat will buy you some time before building the beds and make building the beds easier. Leave the soil rough over winter; freezing and thawing will leave it in good shape by spring. I spade to the full depth of my spading fork in late fall and make no effort to break up the huge clods. In spring I only need light work with a tined cultivator before planting. But then I have been building the organic matter in my vegetable garden for 28 years. My inlaws bought a place in the mid-1980s where the side yard had clay subsoil piled over the original top soil and then a few inches of top soil put on top. By the second year we had terrific vegetable and rose gardens in raised beds.

Yes, all that spading is the real reason to install raised beds. You don't walk on them, you put good soil and amendments in them, and then you can lightly turn them.

I have double-dug too many beds in my lifetime to ever want to do another one.

Chicagoland Gardening magazine, as the name indicates, is about gardening in the Chicago area. We have subscribed for several years and found it well worth the price. They cover both ornamental and vegetable gardening. The advertising tends to be local. This magazine is quite useful given the climatic and soil peculiarities of the region.

Illinois Gardener’s Guide by James A. Fizzell (Cool Springs Press, which now seems to be a division of Thomas Nelson) has been a good reference for ornamentals. There is a revised edition, which I have not seen. There certainly are a lot of new cultivars (aka varieties) out since the first edition was published in 1997. The introduction is a mini course in climate and soils relative to Illinois gardening. There is more relevant information on these two topics in a few pages than most garden books have in total. Each species typically gets close to two pages covering description; pests and diseases; and the important where, when and how to plant. Fizzell was the northeastern Illinois horticulturalist for the University of Illinois Extension Service. He regularly appears on WGN radio early Saturday afternoons.