***What's growing? The official garden thread***

I can't believe I never saw this thread, gardening is my biggest passion.
I call growing food "the holiest of rituals" and I scale up every year. We just bought a house on 5 acres so this year is a huge expansion year.
Who is going to water my sets when I go on vacation to see PJ lol

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Hi my name is 30 Bills Unpaid and I like gardening!

Hahaha that's so appropriate with me, it's like an addiction.

Question:

What must a novice gardener take into account prior to planting a garden in its second year? In particular... what considerations must I give the soil before making my choices for what to plant?

Last year (off the top of my head): lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, squash, radishes, peas, and tomatoes (in four large plant pots).

Can I just repeat the same selections? Should I rotate them to different areas of the garden patch?

rgambs said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Question:

What must a novice gardener take into account prior to planting a garden in its second year? In particular... what considerations must I give the soil before making my choices for what to plant?

Last year (off the top of my head): lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, squash, radishes, peas, and tomatoes (in four large plant pots).

Can I just repeat the same selections? Should I rotate them to different areas of the garden patch?

Rotation is a good idea, but in my second year I would focus more on priming the soil.
I planted three years straight in heavy heavy clay my first few years. It wasn't big enough to rotate anything because I mostly grew tomatoes and peppers which are in the same family anyways. The biggest reason to rotate is to prevent maladies in a particular family of plants from building in the soil. Most of the stuff that we grow for the table feeds pretty heavy on the nutrients in the soil, so rotation won't save you from nutrient deficient soil.
Back to priming, compost is the best thing you can work into your soil to build fertility, especially in the long run, but fertilizer is somewhat necessary as well. I fertilize with an organic granular before planting but I don't side dress throughout the season at all. Through the season I use an organic fish/kelp emulsion that I buy locally. It mixes in the watering can and goes on every 2 weeks, with an extra use at bloom time.

2nd and 3rd years are good years to focus on the soil, before you get bogged down in adding more planting space and varieties. When I expand I do very little soil work, I just get it broken up enough to plant and take that first (usually decent) harvest with gratitude. During the expansion is when I am focusing on working the compost deep and really getting good filth from last year's addition.

Lots here.

Thanks you!

First off, can I just say how difficult it was to find this thread in a sea of Madison Square Garden posts?

Second, I've been thinking about an herb garden for a while now, because fresh herbs are so expensive and inconvenient to purchase. (If I only need two sprigs of thyme, I'm not spending $5 on a whole package, and even if I do, the rest will just go bad before I can use it again)

I was originally considering a windowsill box but then I remembered that my building is run by assholes. By sheer coincidence today, I found this!

http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/04/window-herb-garden.html

So I'm thinking of using that set up, only problem is there's really no specifics it's just a design example. Enter in this guy: http://www.hgtv.com/design/rooms/kitchens/grow-your-own-kitchen-countertop-herb-garden?crlt.pid=camp.0VxMJY0RnqK3

Figure combine the two ideas by putting rocks in the bottom of the Ikea tin, and then putting the food can into that. I don't really know how to garden. Like at all. Like I'd probably kill a cactus. But I mean how hard can it be, really?

The challenges for me are:
a) as mentioned, my building sucks. Can't put pots on the fire escape (the lady that used to live next door used to do that and got a lot of shit for it. I'm rent-stabilized so I can't afford to be taking any risks like that.
b) the way the building is, the heater is under the window. So I can't just leave plants on the windowsill because it gets really hot when there's heat coming up.
c) I have a cat who could easily jump up on the windowsill and munch away.
d) I have to be able to open the window because they installed new smoke alarms outside my f-ing door. Everytime I make bacon I worry I won't have enough for the firemen!
e) I can't hang anything from the ceiling because a)it's too high, I'm too short b)my upstairs neighbors are a tribe of stampeding elephants.

So what do you guys think? Suggestions? I'm figuring I'll go for Basil, Rosemary, Thyme and Cilantro.

We're going to try another "surprise garden" this year. How does it work? Section off a little portion of your garden, mix in a couple inches on compost with the soil, cover with a little mulch, water occasionally and wait a while and pretty soon "things start jumpin' up from the ground" ( a line from Neil Young's, "Home Grown"). Last year we got some flowers, a few different types of melons, a number of different tomato plants that ripened at different times and some very cool unidentified pioneer plants. It was a lot of fun!