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06-05-2004, 06:04 PM

(Cinnamon) wrote in message . com...
Hi everyone.

I recently purchased my first home and will be moving in on May 27th.

It has a very large, slightly sloped backyard and I live in
Cincinnati, if anyone is familiar with the climate and strange weather
we have here it may be helpful I guess.

I haven't had a garden since I was a kid, so there is a lot I don't
remember.

Can anyone give advice on what to do to get a start on a garden for
next year, and how to plan my garden now?

you can start this year if you roundup the grass (or cover with
cardboard and plant through the cardboard), then fertilize, and that
will probably give you a handle on how to start organizing your garden
for the fall. Three things come to mind:

1) which wildlife at your site? You will probably suffer some damage,
but you will get an idea what you need to defend against. You will
almost certainly need some defenses eventually, at least for some of
the plants (herbs need no defense, but greens almost certianly do).
The cicadas will love your young vegetation, so you may want to
protect with an insect cover or wait to plant the lettuce until
august.

2) which plants where? some plants strongly prefer full sun, but I
always plant strawberries, lettuce or chicory in the shadiest part of
my garden. Start getting an idea about what grows where.

3) where to put the garden? full sun, say I, with automatic
irrigation. everything else matters less. You will never grow very
good peppers in a place that only gets 4 hours of sun. You can still
have satellite beds for strawberries (I have two for strawberries, two
for raspberries, one for mache, and one for herbs)..

The soil type (clay or sand) only matters from the point of view of
whether you need, or not, raised beds. In all cases you will have to
come up with large amounts of organic material by the fall, I would
start with at least two inches of compostables, to be laid down by the
fall (if you start garlic this fall, make sure it is under something
it can poke through in the spring. Matted leaves can kill it). All my
beds have over the years received at least one foot of compostables.
You probably also want a soil test. In time you will learn what
prefers fresh compost and what can go on a bed that was composted the
year before. You will also learn that some plants like your site and
some do not. If you have heavy clay, it will be quite a few years
before you have acceptable carrots. If you have acidic soil, the
onions will be unhappy. All can be corrected over time, but if my
experience is any guidance I learned to be satisfied with what grows
without problems.

For herbs, forego the tender herbs like ginger or bay, and concentrate
on those that grow well at your site (thyme, mint, oregano, and sage).
Give them a well drained, permanent spot in full sun, don't fertilize,
and put some rhizome barrier (I use old vinyl siding) because they
are all quite invasive and cover all their allotted space.