Help me with my garden

April 29, 2009 10:16 AM

TexasvegetableGardenFilter: Ok..So i decided to build a garden box and i need help with what i should and shouldnt plant. I built a 3x8 garden box and is about a 1 1/2 ft deep, and would like to grow organic vegetables, what can i plant this weekend? I was hoping to grow a salsa garden..Onions, Tomatoes, Jalepenos, etc..What else?? How many plants is it capable of housing? Spacing between plants?? Never done this before and im really excited just need some advice to get started. Thanks!!! I live in Dallas, Tx.
posted by lateriser to home & garden (8 comments total)

I cannot recommend that enough: check out your local library!

We have a herb garden in our small patio (Houston, TX), and were able to get more than a couple of books specifically written about organic herb and veggie gardening in Texas, answering the particular questions you have for every single plant, in addition to other invaluable advice.

I can probably get the names of the books if you need them (I'm not home right now), but you could just go to the appropriate section in your library and see what they have.
posted by halogen at 10:23 AM on April 29

You are late/early for onions, but the tomatoes and peppers would be perfect to go in right now if you buy already started plants. If you do tomatoes and peppers you could get 8 plants in that box easily. you could put some nasturtiums or maybe some basil (keep it under control) in the spaces between without too much crowding too.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:37 AM on April 29

You're looking for these people. The Master Gardener program is part of COoperative Extension, and these folks are trained to coach new gardeners in your climate and region. Dallas County has a chapter:

Dallas County Master Gardeners provide free gardening advice to area residents. We welcome the opportunity to help you find the solution to your gardening problems.

Just give us a call @ 214-904-3053
Hours: M - F, 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM

Your tax dollars at work. Great program. Take advantage!
posted by Miko at 10:39 AM on April 29

I would do 3 tomato plants and 2 peppers (a jalapeno and a poblano). Plant the first tomato about 1 foot in from the short end and 1 foot in from the long end. Plant the second tomato 4 feet in from the short end and in line with the first tomato. The last tomato is in line with the other two, and one foot in from the opposite short end. The two peppers go in between the tomatoes, slightly forward. Then in the space in front of the tomato/pepper row, you plant cilantro, basil, and maybe some lettuce or green onions.
posted by sulaine at 10:56 AM on April 29

One each corner of one end, you could plant a watermelon and cantaloupe. The vines get pretty long, so train them to go over the side so that the don't take up space in the bed.

You could also plant one hill of three pole-type cucumbers. (Basically, picture a clock face; put one plant each at 10:00, 2:00, and 6:00.) Surround with a tomato cage or other trellis and train them up it. They won't take up very much room at all.
posted by mudpuppie at 11:11 AM on April 29

McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container is a fabulous, fabulous resource for all of these questions and more.

White/yellow onions aren't terrifically suited to container gardens -- they take too long. But scallions, green garlic, chives, etc. would work fine and grow fast. Tomatoes and peppers can be planted right now. Cilantro can be fussy, in my experience, but give it a go -- plants are cheap! Basil loves to grow next to tomatoes. Personally, I find cherry/olive/grape tomatoes to be easier and more beginner-proof to grow than the larger varieties, they need less room, too.

Nthing your local cooperative extension, too.
posted by desuetude at 1:24 PM on April 29

You can do tomatoes and peppers now, you can do tomatoes again in August/September and likely get fruit until Thanksgiving if the weather holds. It's hot enough now to do eggplant (I'd recommend good old Black Beauty for your first time, and you better like eggplant a lot) but don't expect it to get crazy until it's too hot to go outside and pick them before 9pm.

You can put in climbing cucumbers, but make sure you provide ample trellis (I use that green plastic large-square construction/garden fencing) and put it on the North side of the bed so it won't shade the rest of the garden. In the fall you can use the trellis for peas.

Basil loves our weather and is considered a companion plant for tomatoes. It'll stay shrub-sized and won't shade the tomato by the time it matters. I've dotted my beds with nastrutiums (edible, and allegedly pest-repelling) and sunflowers for interest.

In the fall/winter you can cut back on large plants and do lettuces. I built (most of) my beds with hoops so I could cover them with frost cloth (and right now, bird mesh); our freezes are so random and the cloth will also protect small plants from hail. (The hoops are held by tension on the double-height beds in the photos, but I used electrical conduit straps on the single-height bed and it works a treat.) In cool weather, I also do staggered planting of radishes (mature in 35 days, very rewarding) and little carrots that come out so sweet they're like dirt candy. Swiss Chard is also a not-hot go-to, and pretty too.

When you can, use a real local garden store like North Haven Gardens rather than hardware stores and Callaway's; they put their plant starts out according to actual local 7b/8 timing rather than whenever Bonnie/Burpee ships them to stores, and their staff is super smart. They also have free classes just about every weekend.

I could talk about this stuff all day, mefimail me if you have any specific questions or just want to bs about it. I started gardening by the "chuck it in and see if it grows" method, which I heartily recommend.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:28 PM on April 29

Actually answering the question: my 4x8 bed has 4 tomatoes. I could probably have squeezed in 2 more, but had left a spot in the middle for other things. Tomato plants are impossibly large at production size; call it 4 square feet of ground space but you could squish the margins in a little. That's for full-size tomatoes, but a non-bush cherry tomato could still give a big tomato plan a run for its size-money.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:41 PM on April 29