Tennessee Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Gardening
I am thinking of starting a garden this year (probably a raised bed) and I was wondering if anyone had any advice for the area. We just moved to our house in November so I really have no idea what to expect. I was thinking of starting with some peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, and some strawberries. Any suggestions based on knowledge of TN/Memphis gardening conditions?
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Re: Gardening
i had a garden this year in Nashville. It was my first garden. I had an amazing crop of tomatoes. I had amazing squash crop (zucchini, yellow, pumpkin, cantelope, cukes, watermelon) at the beginning of the summer but then I developed a mold from all the rain in June. My peppers did well but they were really *hot* I think the mildness of a pepper depends on soil acidity.
I also did herbs. The great thing about herbs is I bought seedlings and I don't think I'll need to buy more next year, my cilantro went to seed early summer and it popped back up again in the fall, same with my basil. My sage, parsely and rosemary are still producing fresh herbs for me to pick in the dead of winter (at least until this frost).
Lettuce did well early summer. My fall crops didn't do very well. I got some swiss chard but the brussel sprouts and cauliflower never matured.
I want to do beets, carrots, potatoes, etc this year by making another bed.
I have a separate bed with strawberries and raspberries. The first year you won't get much. I think we got 10 raspberries all year, but we should get more. Strawberries the same thing. I think we probably got about 50 strawberries. My dad says this year we should get about 1 quart of strawberries per plant which means I might be selling them out of the back of my minivan because we have about 100 strawberry plants.
Wow! You are quite the gardner!
I'm excited to try it but I'm really nervous about it. We had a garden growing up but I would only really pick the produce and turn on the water to water it when my Mom told me to. When do you usually plant things in TN, do you get the plants or the actual seeds?
I did some from seed last year but this year I'm just going to get seedlings, much easier. I was able put seedlings out end of April and we had a our first green tomatoe appear right before we went to visit the ILs in England and it was still green when we got back.
I always buy the plants to start my garden. I am not sure how large of a garden you want, but they can be a lot of work. Do you have a tiller??
I grow lots of tomatoes. I also do squash & a bazillion types of peppers. I don't do much more than that because the racoons come & ransack the gardens.
I use my chicken & horse poo as fertilizer. Chicken poo is a very good fertilizer!
Organic takes a lot more work & can be pretty impossible if you have a larger garden. I tried it one year & it was bad! It was fine at first, but it just does not work. ?:(?
we moved here a few years ago from Michigan and are just now getting to the gardening stuff. i got this book from the library, it has so much good information in it! i can't wait for gardening this year
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Month-by-Month-Gardening-in-Tennessee-and-Kentucky/Judy-Lowe/e/9781930604896/?itm=20?
Nashville = USDA hardiness zone 6, Memphis = zone 6 or 7. That's a good start for plant and seed catalog searches.
I've had pretty decent luck with tomatoes in containers. I've also had great luck with squash, cukes, canteloupes. Haven't had good luck with peppers except for serranos. The others don't really get a good head of steam going. Eggplant is another star performer. As long as they get water, they produce all the way to frost.
Herbs I have growing in separate containers and they do great except for cilantro and dill. Rosemary, mint, lavender, tarragon, sage, basils, parsley, chives. They can take full sun and a bit of neglect. The more space you give them, the happier they are.
I have a lot better luck with plants than seed (plants take more reliably with me and produce quicker). But I won't plant until the last frost/hard freeze of the season, about early to mid April. You can put money on it. So it's either buy little plants after frost or cover your little seedlings once frost hits. Or make your own little plants.
I'm definitely going to go look for that.
If you are seriously interested in garding it will help you to purchase a few books by Judy Lowe! Check your local library first to make sure they have the info you are looking for Month by Month is EXCELLENT! The Tennesee Gardeners Guide is equally as great but talks more about annuals pereinnals bulbs etc.
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