One of the ways we are looking to reduce our grocery costs is to have a garden in our local community garden. I should preface this with the fact that my husband and I are not gardeners. We don’t really know what we are doing, so we are considering this first year our learning experience.
Here is what our garden looked like last week:
Then, over the weekend, we finished planting and added mulch.
We have planted the following:
3 bell pepper plants
2 tomato plants
5 zucchini plants (which is way too many for the space, I think, but we are going to try to have them grow up)
1 cucumber plant
4 hot pepper plants
and onions all around the border
Experienced gardeners, what do you think? Are we going to have zucchini overrunning our garden? Any advice you have about the garden in general?
About the zucchini… yes, that is way too many! I suggest waiting a couple weeks to make sure they all live, and then thin it down to no more than 3 plants.
I have 3 7 x 3 raised ‘square foot’ garden beds. The middle one has 6 tomato plants, one hot pepper plant, and 3 zucchini plants.
In the 1st bed I have 1 block of spinach, 4 brussel spouts plants, 4 broccoli plants, a row of beans, and 2 cucumber plants.
In the third bed I have 2 watermelon plants. So far that is all but I plan to also plant maybe 2 cantaloupe plants, some lettuce, and more beans.
Your gardens sound great! Do you put some of that up for the winter?
I have always wanted to start a garden, but with our house on the market, this is not the time to do it! My dad has a backyard garden, though, and last year he had an amazing harvest – more peppers and tomatoes and eggplant than he and my mom could eat! They had to give it away, otherwise some would have spoiled!
Just found this, love it! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Having gardened all my loooong life, I’m still learning and experimenting… and frequently break long-established gardening rules, sometimes on purpose..lol Raised beds are wonderful, drain well in rainy weather, easy to weed… downside is in hot weather, they dry out fast. Most of my cukes and zukes are bush-type, take less space. Yes, you will have lots of zucchini! If they try to overtake the other plants, just pull up a few, you’ll still have an abundance 😉 Don’t forget to talk to those plants, they like to be praised for doing their jobs;) Happy gardening!
Thanks for the advice. I have noticed how quickly the boxes dry out. We have to go water at least every other day or the poor pepper plants look wilted.
I think the basic understanding for zucchini is that one is MORE than enough for any family to handle. Yes, they will totally take over your garden and you will be giving them away to total strangers by the end. I am guessing you are planning to grate and freeze yours for future baking, but even still, you will have way too much. 🙂
I love that you are going for it even if you don’t have much experience. It’s the only way to really learn.
LOVE IT!!
Thanks for the input. Maybe we will get rid of a few. 🙂
You are going to have so much zuchinni that people will run the other way when they see you coming 🙂 5 zuchinni plants is a lot for one family, unless you are going to eat it monring noon and night and freeze some for the winter.
How much would you say one zucchini plant produces?
I’ve done a square foot gardening for the past 3 years with two 4×4 boxes. In my experience, 2 zucchini plants were really all a 4×4 bo could comfortably fit. I’m not sure how much luck you’ll have with getting them to grow UP instead of OUT. Can’t wait to see how it goes. If it does work, I’ll definitely have to try it.
being that zucchini is a heavy vegetable, you will find it’s harder to have them grow up. But, it certainly isn’t impossible. I grew one plant 2 years ago, and I ended up with MANY zucchini. I still have some grated in my freezer for breads.
There is joke around here that you do not leave your car unlocked or someone will fill it with Zucchini. I think you will be one of those people with that many plants.