This is a page to keep theories and conclusions of what I do in my vegetable garden. With luck the information I come up with will be useful to people and to myself when it comes to working with a vegetable garden. Here I will put more general information about different topics, and I learn I will make changes as needed.
Seed Starting
Start pepper seeds about February 1st and no later than March 1st.
Start tomato seeds about February 15th and no later than March 10th.
Sowing Seedlings
Last year I had pretty good luck with buying a tomato and pepper plants. Tomato produced a lot of tomatoes, but the pepper plant didn't do so well. Both plants survived the summer, but I believe because of the lower sun exposure and the number of plants surrounding it the pepper plant never produced any peppers.
Found having beans or other plants between tomato plants I not good either as the sun doesn't seem to get to them for very long. Might try and have the tomato plants along the back and others in front might allow for more space for other plants.
Sowing Seeds
Last year I sowed directly green beans, yellow beans, swiss chard, radishes, snap peas, cucumbers, garlic, onions, and spegetti squash. Most of them did pretty well. Though there were some complications.
The swiss chard and the snap peas didn't make it through the summer, because of a number of rabbits and possibly other hungry animals. The peas might have been at a disadvantage also being behind a number of large plants against a wall. Hopefully with me prestarting these it will help in them fight against some of this. I also have some theories on the rabbit pest which I will explain later.
The garlic and some of the onions, didn't make it above the ground. I believe the problem there was lack of water in the area they were planted. It could also be lack of some sun and possibly pests. Hope to try again this summer if I get a hold of some this year.
As for the rest the beans and the squash actually made it on my plate more than once. As did the cucumbers and radishes, but I need to work on watching them closer to void them getting over ripe. I hope to RTFM :-) on the seeds and hopefully harvest on time.
Plant Support
For the most part the plants that I had did well with out any kind of support. Tomato, peppers, peas, cucumbers, and squash I realize it is possible to rack or cage. Tomato and pepper plants I did cage, but I don't recommend the funnel type cages for tomato plants. They are weak and unstable, I would suggest what my parents and grandparents used for a number of years. They used a heavy gauged fence wrapped into a cage about 2 feet diameter (I might be off on that measurement). They are extremely reusable and last quite a few years. I will be either building or aquiring some from my parents.
As for the cucumber and squash, they are difficult to cage and need constantly watched. The cucumbers are the most likely to be able to be caged, but the squash's fruit might be to heavy for the cage to support. Had luck with the cucumbers being caged, though they grow longer than the cages they do seem to work well. I have also tried small watermelon in a cage, they tend to spread to other cages is not taught, the fruit seem to to hold on well. I have also put pumpkins on a 45 degree trellis that seemed to work well, though it is good to support the pumpkins at a certain size.
Pests
Well, my number one most wanted is rabbits and believe the next might be deer. Though I have seen deer in the near by woods, I haven't seen them in my yard. As I have seen the problem start, I started looking for deterents to more or less keep the rabbits and other rodent pests. I was able to find Liquid Fence product that seems to help, but need to make sure that you keep it up. You need to spray things down after every rain fall. Otherwise it washes out and doesn't seem to work well. I hope to be a bit more diligent in it's application and hopefully it will help. Otherwise I might be looking at rabbit soup some night :-) We will see how this year goes.
Having dogs in the yard so seem to deter some of the rabbits. Sill think I get some and some deer. I haven't used the Liquid Fence since getting the dogs, though might look into doing that more.
Clean up
Well, didn't do much of this, for the most part I left it the way it was and didn't really take anything out. What branches and such that are left will possibly be pulled and I may take what I have of leaves and try to work them into the soil. But will know more when the snow is gone. While that works, it is not the best solution.
I have pulled out the plants from the garden and put them into a compost bin. I have two, on I leave alone for the summer and don't add anything to. With that one I empty in the fall and spread on the garden and refill with what I can from the gardens. The other I fill with food waste and other things, then alternate them yearly.