? about first garden

[swellmomma]

The place I just bought has a HUGE garden. It takes up 2/3 of the backyard. I have a couple questions about using a space that big to the highest potential. Right now my plans are to plant some apple trees along the very back of this space at it goes nearly right to the alleyway and there is no fence. Along one side is a chicken wire fence(along the proprty line) with a couple raspberry bushes. I plan to add a couple more in the bigger gaps. That leave the bulk of the space for gardening. SO here are my questions, Is it better to use the space as is and have 1 VERY large veggie garden, to use part of it for veggies with a border around it and then plant a flower garden in front of that (meaning from sitting on the lawn you see the flower garden, but behind it is the veggie garden), sodding half the space and gardening on the other half, OR creating smaller gardening spces in amongst the big space(like separate beds/squarefoot gardening) type situation with grass or mulch in between separate beds?

If you could have 2/3 of your yard already be a garden, wiped clean and ready to design yourself what would you do? Keep in mind I am a brand spanking new gardener, I have never even had flowers/plants in pots to worry about before. But I really really want to have a nice garden this year.

Oh yes in case it makes a difference, we have a very slow growing season. I will be on the cusp of a zone 2/zone 3 (see I have been doing some research.

So WWYD?

[ms.shell]

Congratulations, mama! That sounds awesome!
If you think the garden area is larger than the amount of vegetables than you will need, then i think planting flowers in the front is a great idea.
I would definitely not consider sodding any of it, personally.
I am not sure how large a space you are talking about; i might just plant the whole thing as one garden or i might divide it up into smaller raised beds. We have carved up more than 2/3 of our small yard into gardens, and that is what we did; we currently have 3 seperate raised beds and i wish we had room for more. We started out with one and have expanded every year.
If you feel like the area is too big for you for this first year, you might consider cover cropping some of it....that is, planting clover or legumes or rye or sunflowers or something suitable to build the soil in the area you are not using. Or I might just plant lots of zinnias in the spaces i am not growing vegetables. Because if you are like me, every year your garden will grow and you will want to plant more with each successive year. I would really discourage you from sodding any part of it, but it is just my opinion. good luck!

[swellmomma]

The garden itself is about 8' by 14' or so (rough estimate I have not measured it). Basically it is bigger than my livingroom lol

The remaining part of the backyard is grass, with enough space to maybe put a patio table and chairs or a swingset. There is very little lawn left. THough if the kids stick to the patio and grass along the side of the house and front lawn to play it might work.

[lmonter]

Oh my, it's 8'x14'? That's pretty darned easy to fill up with goodies. I have almost 1200sf of garden space in my backyard, plus two pear trees in pots, 4 mature fruit trees and 8 more teenage fruit trees in my yards. We started off with a 13'x45' "small" garden space in our yard, and kept adding and adding to it.

Do you happen to have a photo and sun pattern for back there? I have a hard time envisioning things unless I can see a space to start from.

Raised beds don't even phase my kids (6yo, 4yo, almost 2yo, plus babe). They use the beds as obstacle courses and chase each other around them. In between sneaking raspberries and strawberries to eat if those are in season.

Weeding could be easier if you aim for a more raised bed kind of approach, but it is nice having the flexibility with crop rotation and changing crop sizes/yields from the big blank slate an entire in-ground plot provides. Part of why I have a combo of both I suppose.

Anyway. Planting. I'm more of a food kind of girl, and the flowers are a bonus thing. My 6yo loves flowers, so he gets to pick out those things, and I plant the medicinal stuff as well. I'm rather fond of things I can't kill like lilies and chives and hardy roses and so on.
Food wise, there's also grape vines you could plant next to a fence, strawberries can use a fair amount of real estate on the ground, hops can be fun if you're into that, blackberry canes are also yummy (just need to keep them separated from the raspberries), blueberry bushes or asparagus crowns are also a plant-once kind of deal.

[ms.shell]

8'x14' is a good size for a first garden, and like lmonter said, definitely easy enough to fill with veggies. One of my beds is 8x16, and it is filled already with just tomatoes and peppers (and some lettuces almost done).
since you are in such a short-growing season zone, i would definitely start with purchased seedlings on the tomatoes and peppers, tho i would direct seed beans and squash/zucchini. I think you will find there is not much room for flowers there! I might plant the edges with marigolds, tho.
If you are worried about the kids and the garden, you might want to consider what we did, which is using wood trellising to fence the garden. DP got them to make him a "cull package" at Lowe's and got 8' trellis pieces for only $2 a piece. He used 2"x2"s and hinges to make gates and we are very happy with the protection it provides our gardens from little boys and a puppy. Our beds are also raised two landscaping timbers high, which we like as well.
again, good luck!

[lunarlady]

8' x 14' isn't really all that large. If you do rows (short way) you really only have room for about 8 rows before it gets super crowded. And some plants, like squash, pumpkins, and cucumbers, are happy to take over about 4 sq. feet per plant! So I would say for make it all a veggie garden, but then I'm a gardener.

If you decide that you don't want it all garden, I would encorage you not to sod. Grass is so invasive and will eat away at the edges of your garden with a vengence. I would much rather put a 2 ft. barrier of mulch on all sides to shrink the space and help prevent weed creep. It makes a nice walkway too. I'm not a huge fan of raised beds because I'm in love with my rototiller, and I can't imagine trying to lift the beast of a machine into a raised bed.

If you have the time, go to a garden center or look on line about the reccomended space for the plants you're considering. You may be surprised how piggish some plants can be. Remember that you will get the best yeild from well spaced plants, even though it won't be as visually attractive as a packed in garden. You can always scatter annuals in amongst the veggies to pretty things up a bit. I, personally, plant marigolds all over the garden. They look lovely, don't spread, and help attract the pollinators. Good luck!

[swellmomma]

Now you all have me thinking I was wrong in my guess-timate of my garden space. I was estimating by picturing my 6'2" bil laying down along 1 edge lol It seems so huge to me, especially with very little lawn left. Then again the yard in my current place is HUGE so maybe that is why this seems like no yard and huge garden.

I will look more into space requirements for plants. My plans as far as veggies go this year is peas, beans(sugar, pole, wax, and a purple kind I can't remember the name of), carrots, green onion, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, tomotoes(a couple kinds), spaghetti squash, zucchini, cukes(long and pickling). Plus, chive, basil, thyme, parsley and oregano(though I want to do all of those in pots so I can bring them in the fall/winter and keep using them). It seems like even if I put teh trees in there will still be too much room, but maybe once I start planting I will see it differently. My neighbor got so much out of 2 small raised beds last year, I can't imagine needing the whole space for 1 garden.

I like the idea of mixing marigold through out. My neighbor did that last year too and I forgot to ask her why, but it did look pretty.

If I can use it all for veggies I guess I will, I just thought it was way too big for a beginner like me. It kind of scares me a bit

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by swellmomma

If I can use it all for veggies I guess I will, I just thought it was way too big for a beginner like me. It kind of scares me a bit

Nah, it sounds like a nice starter garden. Besides, when you get tomatoes and peas (which, btw, if you get little 2-3ft peas, tomato cages rock for 'em!) and everything else you want in there (even if it's just one plant each), you'll find you're running out of space fairly quickly.

[kcstar]

I started with flowers for companion planting. Marigolds and petunia show up on those lists a lot. Mine is a potager, everything 'mixed together' from my own plan.