Hi, I posted this to r/vegetablegardening but wanted to see what you guys thought since my main focus is peppers (they are my favorite crop). See below in bold for my pepper concerns:
Hi all, I have a 9×19 ft enclosure (see 2nd photo) to keep animals out and this will be my 2nd year growing in it. I am going to add two extra 2 ft wide beds outside of it for pole beans and some extra peppers. Everything not in the beds will be in either grow bags or 5 gal buckets.
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Info on the location: Zone 7b NY. Full, very intense sun. The right side gets the most sun as my house casts a shadow on the left side in the morning, but I had eggplant and tomatoes in both left corners last year and they did fine. There is a row of thick hedges on the other side of the structure (visible in 2nd photo). There is a narrow 6 ft tall trellis in each large bed for the tomatoes and cucumbers.
I grew eggplants in 5 gal buckets in the same locations as the layout and they did well last year, even in that far corner. Im a little concerned about the back row of peppers in grow bags. They will get less sun, but I had to move some of them there last year because the heat was too much and they were dropping blossoms (this worked and they finally set fruit). Also is it okay to place some peppers in front of the tomatoes in the beds. I trim off the bottom branches of the tomato vines.
Should I swap the two big beds (Tomatoes on right, cukes on left)? I also want to know if I can fit 10 or more pole beans in the smaller bed. God damn those are amazing, I want as many as I can get! If I can add more peppers too without overcrowding Id love that too.
Thank you! I am still new at this. Last year was the first time I really took veggie gardening seriously and we had unusually hot and humid weather, so Im not sure if I can totally trust my experience from it.
by OSRSjadeine
1 Comment
Woah your organized and that was a lot.
1. The best part of gardening is the waiting game. Try out one way, try out another way next year and maybe again and again. It might take multiple years but you will really get to know your yard and how to optimize the space for max yields
2.I’ve seen chaotic gardeners get decent crop yields. Even if the layout does not work the best, you will still most likely get some yield
3. This is my own philosophy. I have a feeling a post like this may cause some debate on this thread for best thing to do. That is why it is good to try different things because no one in this thread gardens in your exact backyard, with you exact seasonal temperatures, exact humidity, exact soil, etc.