Frogleg wrote:

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 20:48:10 GMT, DigitalVinyl
wrote:

My landlords have offered for me to use a 5x12 square of lawn at th
eedge of my patio for next year's gardening. This year was a definite
success.

Pictures, Digital, of the new spot. We want to see Before and After.
Of course!
http://members.aol.com/digitalvinyl66/PatioGarden.jpg
The area trailing off the right side of the photo is what i'm looking
at. The grass closer to the camera needs to be kept clear for the
drying rack and because there is a tree off to the right that shadows
it considerably in spring and fall.

There have been many posts here on the process of digging up/removing
grass for either garden or new lawn prep. You might want to search
Google groups.
I've been going back through old posts on agent and reading up.

A 4" slope (in the 5' or 12' direction?) doesn't sound like much, but
In the 12' direction. There is a slope down the 5' to the retaining
wall. I hadn't thought to measure how steep that is. I had problems
with the bed I cultivated this year because the left side sloped just
an inch or two lower. I saw runoff down to the left and more than half
of the seeds to the left never came up. They either drowned or washed
away.
might be a problem with newly dug dirt and amendments. Maybe a border
of large stones or bricks could be employed. A nearby yard has been
growing veg on a rather steep slope with stone terraces for years.
I'll stop by and take a closer look to see if the stones are just set
in the ground or cemented in some way.
Hadn't really thought of using stone brick. My mind was more on
leveling it out when I rework it...although I may have oversimplified
that in my mind.

I agree with other posters that a small corn plot is a waste of space.
Not only is the yield small, but the yield bugs or birds don't get to
is even smaller. And corn is *tall*. Didn't you try growing some
already? (Of course, tomatoes are tall, too -- just not *that* tall.)
Yes I did and I got half a cob with about 60 kernels from 6 plants. I
messed up the fertilzer and the tassels came out a month before the
silks ever formed. Though I have to say that my corn variety was 6'
where my tomatoes grew to 5 1/2'. And the tomatoes formed a wall of
green that I could NOT see through. I would still like to grow corn
successfully -- even if just once.

Weeding will, indeed, be an issue. Without constant attention and/or
thorough mulching, weeds will steal water and nutrients from your
plants. And they can't just be killed once. Eternal vigilance is the
price of tomatoes!
I did pretty good on that front this year. I spent 20-40 minutes each
morning in the garden early on. Once the garden filled in it keep the
weeds out naturally. However, I was self-employed/unemployed so time
was not a problem. Once I go back to work that simply won't happen. I
usually rush in the morning and work long hours. Except in deep
summer, I get used to coming home in the dark.

Given your green thumb, I expect you'll be running your own fresh veg
stand by next July. :-)
I prefer to grow what I will eat and give the rest to friends, family
and neighbors. I'll be satisfied if my planning and scheduling is
better next time around. Also I'd like to succesfully germinate a few
no shows from this year.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
1st Year Gardener