This gardening has me scratching my head

[Freds]

My first time "real" garden with any size to it is killing me right now. Here's what I am witnessing.

First off, I planted corn and beans on Memorial Day according to the locals that don't put plastic over their crop. We had two hot, mostly dry weeks after that. I had also used, as some of you may recall, a PITA walk behind planter I had gotten from TSC and the seeds came out anything BUT uniform.
Well, it looks like maybe 20 % have germinated and are about 4-7" tall. They are staggered such that some plants are 2" apart and some are 4'. You can just make out that there are rows /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif. The beans are pretty much the same story, but what I don't get... as I was grabbing lunch about a week after Memorial Day further inland (warmer temps, but still dry) at a little roadside place, I was looking at corn that looked like it had all germinated and without me seeing any irrigation setup.
Also, inbetween the plants and rows was dirt. Inbetween mine right now, now that we've had rain the past day or so, is a bunch of grass AND more germinating corn plants. Same with the beans.

The second batch I planted about 5-6 days ago is already poking up (although sporadically, but better with a different walk behind planter), and so are all the grasses. I'm at a loss if I should even get out the stirrup hoe and weed because of the late bloomers I have had with the first batch. I could end up hoeing tiny corn plants along with the weeds. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

This is a very interesting experience. I didn't have this problem growing tomatos and peppers in the city, but then, I didn't start with just seeds either.
I guess that's the thrill of gardening for yourself on a small scale out in the country, just seeing if you can do it. Now I fully appreciate the pics of gardens in the other post.

Aghhh

 

[HRS]

Hang in there! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Each year you will learn something new, and the next you will do a little differently.

 

[thingy]

Well,,,its all a learning experience alright,,,,I've been raising a big garden by myself,for over 20 years,,,and I was brought up raising a garden,,,remember running a rototiller when I was about 7,,,[not for the fun of it either],,,so.......corn,,,,if you plant your corn to deep,it won't germinate,,same with all seed crops,,,gotta be carefull there,,,corn should not be planted more than 1 to 3 inches deep,,,,,hard to jjudge that,,unless you have a forrow and are covering up by hand,,[of course unless you are planting acres of corn,,and using a big machine,,and even than,,better hope that machine is planting at right depth],,,beans are a little less critical,,,but not much,,,,,maybe next year,,if you got a big inuf garden,,vary the depth,,,on plantings,,,in different rows or something,,,you will learn something,,that way,,,better to learn from your own mistakes,,,than advise from some stranger,,,anyways,,,,,my corn is up maybe a foot now,,,greenbeans are starting to form pods,,tomatoes are about two feet,,,and most of my sweet potatoes died,,,,,been dry here,,,and I got a 1/2 acre garden,,,too big for me to do much watering on a well,,,,,,,,,thingy

 

[AMP762]

Idon't know if this is relative as I'm in SC, but I planted same corn,same ground,same planter as last yr. I've maybe got a 40% stand. As has been said hang in there. I think I learn a little every year,but the next year I'm not so sure. Make you glad you're not doing this for a living,don't it /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Don't worry,nothings going to be alrite

 

[thingy]

PEACHES AND CREAM. THINGY

 

[Birdman]

I always plant 2 batches of corn, so I can enjoy it longer. The first batch I planted and we had cool wet weather, it was too cool for much to grow and then after I planted the second batch we had hot dry weather and not much grew. I always planted by hand. Back breaking job and it took a few hours, but every thing was nice and straight and evenly spaced. Then I learned about using a piece of pvc pipe to drop the seed into the furrow. Easier on the back but still time consuming. Then last year I got one of those Easyway planters at the flea market for $15. Not as evenly spaced as when I do it by hand but it only took me 15 minutes to plant. I can live with that. I am to the point that I don't worry so much about every thing being straight and evenly spaced as long as it tastes good. I just added a couple more rows this year to make up for the missed spaces from the planter.

 

[Chuck52]

If your garden spot is new, you're going to have at least some of whatever was there before try to come up, unless you well and truely nuked it. I started a new corn patch this year. Back during some warm days in February, I used RoundUp on a 50x50 patch in a fescue field. I sprayed the area about three times over a two week period. I actually used generic glyphosate and not the branded kind. At the end of the two week period I could hardly tell where I had sprayed, but I tilled it under anyway. I then tilled it about every chance I got until May, when I planted the first 25x25 block. For that patch I used my Gardenway planter, and when the corn came up it was so crowded I had to thin out about 2/3 of the plants. For a while, nothing much in the way of weeds appeared in that patch, and I continued to till the rest of the 50x50 area. I planted the second 25x25 using the pvc and a stick method. Took longer, but at least I didn't waste any seed. That patch came up pretty clean. Still not much in the way of weeds. I've planted one more 25x25 and will do the last one this weekend. Seems like the repeated tilling has done in most of the weeds and fescue in all but the first patch. The glyphosate must have done a decent job killing the fescue anyway, because what is coming up is mainly other weeds.

Now my main garden area is another story. If I kept up the weeding each year and never let any weeds go to seed, I expect I'd have a much cleaner garden. However, every year I manage to let some of the weeds go to seed, either during bad weather spells, or at the end of the season when I begin to ignore the garden. I know that's bad practice, but that's just the way I seem to do things. I'm planning to plant some kind of green manure crop on both the corn patch and the main garden this year. I planned the same thing for the garden last year. Maybe I'll actually follow through this time.

Chuck

 

[EastTexFrank]

Welcome to the club of frustrated gardeners. Gardening is a continual learning and experimenting experience. What works well in one area doesn't work in another. What works one year won't necessarily work the next year. Personally, I've been on a 25 year quest to design the least labor intensive vegetable garden possible. Still haven't made it but it's getting better. It'll probably take me another 25 years, if I'm still around but you know what? ... it's a lot of fun and it feeds the family, and their families, and the neighbours, and friends, and the church and ..... you get the idea.

In a new garden, grass is just a fact of life. As you till the ground, you turn in all the grass seeds that were lying on the surface. As you keep on weeding it and killing the weeds before the run to seed, it will get better as time goes on. Living in the country it's a problem that you may never master as seeds blow in from the land around you.

I've never used a walk-behind planter so I can't comment. I've always used a couple of stakes and a length of string, made a furrow with a pointed stick in newly tilled ground, dropped in the seeds and covered them up. probably a little harder work than a planter but it sounds as if it's easier to keep things straight and at the correct depth. My rows are short though, about 100' or so.

Keep at it. You'll find that you get "smarter" and better every year. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif And you're right. Part of the fun is just seeing if you can do it and trying to figure out better ways to do it.

 

[Freds]

Thanks for the "support" guys. I knew there would be a learning curve, but I didn't expect it to start this early.
Next year I'm going to spray all the weeds before I till them under. I'm sure they have gone to seed and that's one of my problems.
Guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I might start hoeing it in a couple days and if there are any more late germinators... oh well.

/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[fractal]

I plant my beans and corn by hand. I don't get a straight line eiather. I plant seeds at half the recommended spacing. It too find that I get splotches where they all germinate and splotches where none do. My solution? Dig the seedlings up with a trowel and move em. Yeah, a lot don't survive the transplant but heck, I was gonna pluck em anyway.

It all works out in the long run. You find what you can grow and what you can't. I can't grow tomatoes or corn here. The fungas and wilt get the tomatoes and the worms get the corn. The "june gloom" or fog that burns off by dusk (barely) does them in. That and gophers eat anything you don't put in baskets..