On 4 Oct 2006 17:43:10 -0700, Tater wrote:
I just bought my first house and it is on 1.4 acres. I can finally
have a garden! now I have never done my own garden before, and I dont
want to devote a lot of time to working it. what should i plant?

What do you love to eat? And what can you get easily at farmer's markets
near you?

Personally, I wouldn't bother to grow sweet corn, as that's a crop
requiring a fair amount of space, and something that's pretty easy to pick
up from local growers.

But interesting lettuces, fresh snow peas, specialties like asparagus
bean, endive, okra, etc. can be difficult to find in the upper
midwest, so I'd go there, first. And, to me, there's nothing like
fresh tomatoes, seconds off the vine (just don't underestimate
the productivity of a tomato plant!)

Start small. Once the weeds get away from you, gardens become drudgery.
So does 36 tomato plants for two people (btdt!). You're going to have
some more projects in other areas ahead of you next summer, so make the
garden fun. When you start to dig your first garden, I wouldn't make
it any larger than I could completely fork over (after the initial
sod stripping) in an hour. Not a complete double digging, but I'd use
that amount of labor as a sort of benchmark to help decide the size
of the patch. Next year, you can always go larger. Try adding
one thing new every year.

You'll also want to decide whether you're going to water or not.
Many years in the upper midwest, you can get by without irrigation,
especially if you have mulch and fairly large spacing between plants.
If you're growing things very closely, you're probably going to need
water -- which means at least a spigot and hose, unless you really
enjoy hauling buckets of water. I've done the bucket thing, too...
given the choice of bucketing water or canning the proceeds of 36
well-manured tomatoes... well, I think I'd pick the tomato problem.

You can also consider where and when you want to put in perennial
crops like rhubarb and soft fruits like strawberries and raspberries.
You might want to consider solarizing beds for those next summer, with
planting the following spring.

And don't forget to sign up for all the good catalogs! They start coming
just before New Year.

Most of all, enjoy!

Kay