I have 2 weeks to go from weeds to planted.

When I consider my gardening experience, it is a mixture of childhood memories and haphazard backyard beds in rented homes. I don't know how to fertilize, I just toss some compost . Now, as I have to start quickly, without the benefit of my compost pile, I realize how much I don't know about the principles of ensuring success with the soil. Setting myself up for success from the start is my main goal. The rest is easy....until the yellow tomato leaf appears. That will be a different post.

I just lucked into a 20x30 plot of weeds (maybe a few raised beds are under there?) that needs to be cleared and 2/3 planted by the end of May. That's two weeks! No time for soil testing. No free leaf mulch left. No grass clippings or compost stockpiles. Gave away most of my tools when we sold the house. I have a weedwhacker and a shovel. I have tendonitis from lifting a one year old baby. I dont have the kind of time I used to to collect free things and the budget is slim (see aforementioned baby). I am not used to having to share a water source or drive to my garden. I gotta get this done simply and efficiently. Here's my plan so far:

Weedwhack and clear trash this weekend.
Get it tilled next week. (can you till raised beds?)
Get XXXX amount of ????? to toss on top for conditioning and fertilizing (In the past I have had leaf mulch and grass clippings/compost saved but I won't have that here).
Try to source larger must have items/tools on Craigslist. Which are.....?
Install straw over landscape fabric to mulch paths and beds
Consider watering strategy. With hose time at a premium,Skip the soaker hoses and do it by hand OR use hoses with holes.
No time left for spring crops. Start with relatively drought tolerant live summer crop plants.
Plant a good portion of the plot in broad leaved fast growing things like squash and melon the first year. Lots of coverage and weed suppression.
Take advantage of trellis structure with pole beans.

That's as far as I have gotten. The thing that intimidates me most is preparing the soil properly. Weed seeds are going to happen. There's no way to avoid that. I will have to get an SUV load of some expensive heavy stuff to mix into the soil, I have come to terms with the idea. I just don't know the specifics yet.

 

Well my goodness, you are off to a roaring start! I take it that this is a plot in a community garden? Have you had a chance to scope out your plot and the community garden as a whole? Many community gardens have tools for everyone to use and a compost area that is free for the taking. Other gardeners are usually quite generous with extra seeds, transplants, advice, etc.

Last year was my first year having a plot in a community Garden. I envisioned planting 1/2 of it & then throwing down a cover crop on the other half for weed suppression & to improve the soil. I wound up planting the whole thing (okay, my plot IS smaller: 20X20) . But I was surprised that I could actually manage the whole plot.

Here is what other gardeners have given me: mint, french sorrel, french tarragon, chives, leek seedlings, squash transplants cilantro, cucumber seedlings and a rhubarb. Not bad, huh?

Sjoerd (another Garden Stew member) has a great way of watering tomatoes. He cuts off the bottom of a 2 litre bottle, upends in at the root ball of the tomato, planting in in the soil. Can you follow what I am describing? He then pours water into the bottle. It is a great system if you are in a community garden without access to water from a hose. (Disclaimer: I have left out half of his planting system for tomatoes....I tried it last year & it worked well. If you look for his posts on tomato growing, you should find it, complete with photos). I have since used this system to water other transplants in my plot.

Hope this is helpful Red A. I am impressed with your energy. Good luck with your gardening!

 

Thanks C Morning! Some of the energy is fueled by nerves and lack of sleep (baby is getting better at sleeping but I am hunting online instead of following suit). Your plot sounds excellent. It is a good reminder to leave room for serendipity.

 

Good luck with the little one. You are truly fortunate to have a baby.

 

Don't set yourself up for failure! Start small. Be patient. One bed for growing this year sounds like a big enough chore with all of your other responsibilities, and time constraints. That will give you ample time to source tools, and to discover what wonders the rest of your garden area has in store for you. People have asked how my garden got the size it is. I tell them, one square foot at a time.

 

I have no advice to offer, but I hope you update, preferably with pictures (we love pictures here!!!) because I'm following with interest!

 

FBGuy and Ronnie, Thanks for your encouragement. One step at a time is a helpful reminder for me, as I get a little excited and my brain gets full.

I just got off the phone with the Garden Administrator. I learned that they discourage the use of soaker hoses. Lots of people use upturned milk jugs or even lengths of PVC near the roots to water their plants. I was thinking about making a U shaped run of PVC with holes in the length that lays at root level. Just grab a funnel and fill it up a few times.... I am really motivated to save water and time. With all the broad leaved viney vegetables I want to cover my plot with, I don't want to get powdery mildew by watering from above all the time.

 

Red Audrey.. welcome and congrats on the baby and garden. The first thing that jumped out at me was the straw over the landscape fabric.. don't waste your money on straw for that. The fabric will not do a better job with the straw on it. if nothing else weeds will grow on top of the fabric through the straw ( hear experience here...)
Secondly, if you have straw available for mulching fine, but there are usually lots of weed seeds that come along with it. the worst is canada thistles. We use a lot of plastic in our rows. We actually have a plastic layer since we do so much of it, but we used to do it all by hand. Trench in the plastic (black) around the edges (buy the size closest to your bed if possible) and cover the soil from side to side of the bed. This will save you oodles of weeds and weeding. plant right trough the plastic in rows. This also helps eliminate the tomatoes from getting splashed by rain water dirt and causing disease to grow rampantly on the foliage. Are you discouraged from using a soaker hose because of the water bill? or just the principle of it? others use the only spigot available? You could use a soaker at nighttime with a timer on it. It is a manual timer that shuts off the flow after the set time to run. It can run while no one is there. a soaker hose will not make your foliage wet if you use it correctly (no squirting water should be going on.. you should have just enough pressure to make condensation on the hose). If you have to water by hand the jugs/bottles works okay. even with the plastic. there are pros and cons to the plastic. the soil wont evaporate the moisture into the air, but no rain soaks in if there is very little of it. If there is a really wet period going on it protects the plants from splashing and the soil being over saturated and leaching all the fertilizer out. keep asking we'll keep trying to answer.

 

Carolyn, your message is timely! I just got more information. The tiller knows the garden well and told me that voles will be attracted to my plot if I use straw. They do have a presence in the community garden here! I can't use plastic according to the rules (probably because puddles make mosquitos?). If I were to use permeable landscape fabric, which is allowed, I would have to cover it with some type of organic material. But they are out of leaf mulch and I am back to straw. I feel like I am going in circles a bit. Jim, the tiller, recommended leaf compost for both a topper and conditioner. He recommended a good source that delivers for a good price. I am in luck because I got an end plot with good access. I can just peel back the fencing and have it dumped directly on the plot after it is tilled. Then I can spread it.
As for the soaker hose, the Garden Administrator discourages its use. There have been problems with folks repeatedly hogging community hose time (even with splitters) or, much worse, flooding neighboring plots and wasting lots of water. She recommended inverted gallon jug funnels and pvc stakes for direct watering of plants. That's how I got to the U-shaped, perforated PVC plan I described above. I wonder if there are other methods.? I thought of elevating a large plastic bin with a tight cover and attaching a spigot to it, and then using that to feed the soaker hose set up. It might be above my skill and energy level this year.

 

RA, you may wish to place a water butt at the high end of your plot. Fill it during your time for water usage. Then you can use a soaker hose if and when you wish. If your plot is absolutely level, elevate the butt on a couple of blocks. Just throwing an idea at you. Feel free to ignore it. I'm not thin skinned.

 

Ahh, I see. Sounds like an HOA.. sorry for your luck in that, but lucky you got a plot.
Silly regulations. there is nothing wrong with the permeable fabric use it. Do they just not want black? Spray paint it with a couple colors of brown and camo it. Anything on top of it is a mess.

you won't have enough water pressure to make this work. The pvc with small holes drilled in it to release the water slowly is a better bet. cap the end and have a tube extending above ground to fill easily.

 

You've got a lot of work, in a short time, ahead of you but you've got some good plans. My one suggestion is to flatten cardboard boxes and lay them on the ground before you add your straw or wood chips. It would save you a lot of weeding and help keep the moisture from evaporating from your soil as fast. You could lay them down, water them well and cut hole to plant your seeds or plants in.

 

FBGuy, I like how you think. Carolyn, I am sure there is an equation to figure out how elevated it would need to be, and at what volume to get adequate pressure through a given length of soaker hose. To your point, I do not know what it is! 2ofus, i will need to save my Amazon delivery boxes this month!

 

Any Dollar store will usually give you cardboard boxes. The thing with the soaker hose and bin is you need pressure to make it work. The water has to be pushed through. The PVC will work by gravity flow. Just drill your holes or each individual plant and make sure the holes are big enough for the flow you want.
Many of us have seeds to share that will save you money. I have cantaloupe, pretty sure I have squash and zuchinni, cucumber and corn (peaches and cream) a very sweet bi-color corn.

 

Mart, after some thought, some thoughtful feedback here, and conferring with my husband, we came to the same conclusion and will forgo the soaker hoses. Its down to PVC and all that is left is choosing the configuration. Will probably also have some inverted jugs. I wonder if anyone has used those permeable stakes that screw on to 2 liter bottles? I feel like it is a bit late for seeds for me this year. Especially considering that there will be so many weed seeds germinating and I am not sure of the soil quality. Corn would work, though. I haven't had room for corn since my dad rented a plot when I was a kid!

My tiller went out this morning with a brush clearer and cut down the weeds. He said the beds were possibly in good condition and he was considering getting his tiller inside them rather than taking them out. They have a decent volume of soil, so hopefully that means it has been improved over the years. I wonder if he is going to till in the weeds or bag them. They drop so much seed either way I don't know if it would make much difference.

I am hoping that I dont have the same problems I had in my previous garden with squash vine borer, since I want to plant so many squash and melons to cover ground.