New to vegetable gardening

[soodjunk]

I have a small backyard in Northern California and am thinking of starting my first urban garden. Any tips on how to get started and what vegetables would be easiest to grow in this climate and in a relatively small space? Thanks!

 

[Dave2000]

You have a good climate, basically whatever you want to grow. Starting out, the more gratifying results would come from buying established plants since they had a head start on growing, but even starting seed, in your zone you could have results from that too.

The question is, what do you want to eat?

 

[ninnymary]

Where in northern California do you live?

Mary

 

[schmije]

What do you like? I believe that every garden should have tomatoes, bell peppers, and green beans. Since you're limited on space, think vertically and give things like pole beans a trellis to climb.

I agree on buying established plants. Visit your local garden center, and see what's available. You'll probably be surprised by the variety of veggie plants that you'll find. Experiment with a few things and see what works for you. Pick out a couple of herbs to try.

And when the end of the growing season nears, plant some lettuce and spinach seeds. I never realized how great spinach could be until I grew it in my yard.

 

[soodjunk]

Great ideas! Thanks for all the feedback. I live in Oakland, CA. I'm really interested in growing kale.

 

[plainolebill]

I live in Oregon and we grow kale during the winter as it tastes better after it's been frozen or put through some cold weather. I don't know if that's true of alligator kale or not - we only grow Red Russian and similar strains. We've been growing it from seed we gather for many years so who knows what it actually is anymore.

Here's our gardening strategy: since my wife and I live in town and have a limited amount of space we tend to grow high value or hard to get crops. Good fresh, ripe tomatoes are hard to get here or very expensive in farmer's market so we grow them. I also grow garlic because organic garlic is 5-6 dollars a pound. I have 150 plants that we'll harvest in just a few more weeks, probably about 20 pounds.We're already eating the scapes. Enough garlic for us to eat for a year, give away a little and have seed for this fall's crop. Another criteria we use is lots of food from a small amount of space = pole beans, we can get a lot of green beans from 6-8" of trellis, enough to have all we can eat during the season and be able to blanch, vacuum pack and freeze 4 or 5 lbs.

I must admit, the largest amount of space is taken up by tomatoes.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us!

I did as bit of research. USDA Hardiness Zone 9. Frost possible in several months based on record lows, but mosy likely in December and Januaray and it will almost certainly be a light frost. It is pretty dry, especially in the summer, so you will probably have to water. Hot days are possible but an overall nice average. That water does moderate the climate.

Your climate is less severe than mine, except maybe for rainfall. You can do a lot. Here is a planting guide I found online that might help you know when to plant.

http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/opr/s/cgardening/OAK031402

Kale is a good choice for you and your limited space. Two to three plants will keep you in all the kale you want to eat and in your climate it should be available practically year-round. You'll need to keep the flowers picked off so it doesn't go to seed but if you do that, it will continue to produce. I agree it is much better on colder parts of the year, but I still think my heat of the summer kale is pretty good compared to many options from the grocery store. Once it is up and growing, kale can take a light to even moderate frost, or you can cover it if a frost is predicted. I think it does taste better if it has had a light frost. My problems with Kale are that it does lose quailty in the heat of summer and it can get wormy.

I plant kale in the fall, cover it during hard freezes, and it is one of the very first things I get out of the garden on the spring. I also plant another round in the spring as soon as I can work the ground because the over-winter stuff tends ot bolt fairly young and I have to keep taking the flowers off to keep it producing.

I admit I like Chard better, both in taste and because it does not tend to get as wormy, but it burns out in the summer heat.

I like Plainolebill's strategy for limited space. You need to pick what you like because it does no good to grow it and throw it away. Along with green beans (plant pole beans especially meant to be used as green beans, not dried beans) I find tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers can be really productive. Zucchini and summer squash can take up a fair amount of space, even if they are the bushing type, but they are hard to beat for productivity. Lettuce (leaf type, not heading type) and mesclun mixes can produce a whole lot off good eating in the cooler parts of the year. You might look at growing potatoes in a container of some type, not in the garden. Potatoes are really suited to that. Radishes produce a whole lot in little time. If you like them, I'd suggest trying them. You can stagger planting a few every two to three weeks in the cooler months to keep eating them. The big benefit to me of radishes is how fast they mature. I'm kind of torn in limited space on carrots and beets. You might try a few. I think the productivity will work in a small garden.

It will take some practice and you'll go through a learning curve, but look at succession planting. When a cool weather crop like lettuce burns out, plant a warm weather crop, like eggplant or tomatoes.

If you can at all, I suggest you look at composting. Even on a small plot, you will generate a lot of vegetable matter. That makes such a good fertilizer and improves the tithe of your soil so much, it is a shame to throw that in a landfill.

From a productivity aspect on limited space, I'd stay away from corn, peas, and dried beans. My first corn of the year will be ready in about a week and I am really looking forward to that, but it does tie up space. Pumpkins, winter squash, melons, and sweet potatoes, most of the vining plants, just take up too much room. But if you trellis them, one or two cucumber plants can produce a lot. For fresh eating, plant the slicing type, not the pickling type.

Welcome to the adventure. You will be amazed at the difference in taste you'll see in your homegrown stuff and what you can buy, even from the farmer's market just because of the pure freshness. You'll go through a learning curve and there is real work involved, but you will be amazed at what even a small plot can produce. Once again,

 

[ninnymary]

Soodjunk, I highly recommend a book called "Golden Gate Gardening" by Pam Pierce. It is specifically written for our area. It has everything you need to know about gardening. It has a great chart that tells you when to plant things either from seeds or transplants. Kale is super easy to grow from seed in our area.

I live in Alameda which is about 5 degrees cooler than Oakland because of the proximity to the water.

Glad to have you on board.

Mary

 

[Collector]

Soodjunk, Welcome to TEG. Iagree with the above posters, grow the things you like to eat or are not easy to get fresh in your area. How big of an area are you going to have for gardening? If space is really limited you might check into square foot gardening by googling it, Its amethod of intensly gardening a small space. good luck.

 

[catjac1975]

Start small and first work on the soil. It is all about the soil. If you have limited sun you will need to experiment with different parts of your property to see where things grow the best. If space is limited you can supplement space using containers on porches and decks.