Community Garden Newb -- Okay, now what?!?

[Belleweather]

So I signed up for our local community garden, paid my $27.50, and am ready to go. Gardening opens April 26th, so imagine me standing there by my recently tilled 20x10 plot with a vast pile of compost and hay arranged beside me, and a couple of shovels and rakes and implements of destruction.

...now what?

I'm interested in square foot gardening. The soil is probably decent, since it's been organically cultivated for 20+ years. I'd like to reduce weeds. I probably can't put in a whole lot until at least mid-may to be sure to have missed the frost. So um... yeah. What should I do next?

[aliah79]

Wow sounds like fun!!!

So do you know what you want to grow? I'd first go through a seed catalog or something to decide how much of what I wanted to grow.

Then I'd figure out the best arrangement to plant them in, making sure to put beneficial plants next to each other and keep others away. Also know what zone you are in and what thrives there :

HTH a bit! I'm still a newbie, just my second year...hopefully someone with more experience will chime in.

[Belleweather]

Originally Posted by aliah79

Wow sounds like fun!!!

So do you know what you want to grow? I'd first go through a seed catalog or something to decide how much of what I wanted to grow.

Then I'd figure out the best arrangement to plant them in, making sure to put beneficial plants next to each other and keep others away. Also know what zone you are in and what thrives there :

I am in zone 5a, and I'm thinking I'd like to grow some combination of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, basil, eggplant, zucchini, baby watermelons, peas, carrots, potatoes and radishes. I don't think I'm brave enough to attempt brussles sprouts yet, so I'm saving that for next year.

We have an heirloom gardening group from Iowa that brings seeds and seedlings to our farmer's market, so I'll probably do most of my plant-getting there.

I'm wondering what to do about the soil, though... especially for keeping down weeds since most stuff won't be ready to plant for a few weeks. Do I put down newspaper and mulch, or what? And where do I find out what plants are complementery and which aren't -- I've never heard of such a thing before!

[FarmerCathy]

I highly recommend "The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food" and companion plant like aliah79 suggested. This is my first year at the community garden and I am weeding then putting newspaper down and then straw. Next I am going to figure out where my rows will go and make my rows out of compost I'm going to get by the yard. After that I will put in my irrigation system and then put straw over the compost (where I'm not going to plant crimson clover for mulch for my strawberries). When it comes time to plant (end of April here) I will dig holes in my mulch to put my plants.

I read in the Organic Gardening mag last year to use crimson clover around my maters to mulch. It keeps out the weeds and fixes the soil with nitrogen for my plants. And its pretty.

Also, I have pictures in my New Blog in my sig of my garden plots and what they look like after weeding and mulching with newspaper and straw.

HTH

[FarmerCathy]

Oh, and I wet the newspaper down before putting the straw down to help it stick.

[Belleweather]

Thanks! I'll get that book out of the library too -- it's a good thing I'm in the north, or I'd never have a chance to read them all before it was gardening time.

See... it's the mulching that has me confused. I've never done that before. I'm thinking that I will put down a layer of compost worked into the soil and then newspaper or paper bags, and then straw to get the soil ready. Is that reasonable to keep weeds down, or do I need to do more? Also, I'm assuming that a month (a very wet month, likely) is enough to have the newspaper mostly decompose before I put plants in. Or should I plan on it still being there and just cutting through?

[FarmerCathy]

That will work too. I'm just trying to get the weeds out right now, then I will worry about my rows later when it is closer to planting time. I'm not putting cold weather plants in my community garden plots. The newspaper decomposing is fine and will add to your compost.