I want to start an tiny garden in my back yard. I have the spot picked out, which is coved in grass now (of course). My question is, do you have any tips on types of soil via bags at the local home improvement store I can get? I’m sure the soil now is not the greatest.
I’m planning on digging away the grass to about 4 inches deep. I don’t think I’ll put one of those black ‘mats’ down to stop the weeds since I’m perfectly fine pulling them out by hand.
I am a cherry tomato addict, and just want to plant a few plants to suppliment my habit haha.
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Get a bag of peat moss and work that into the soil. You should dig at least 6 inches deep. At least one foot wide where the plant will be. You don’t need to till the entire area.
Check the pH of the soil with a soil test. If not just add a little lime as most soils need it.
If you don’t want to dig, check out lasagna gardens. They are a type of raised bed. You basically lay down newspaper or cardboard to kill the grass, then layer down different materials like grass clippings, compost, manure, fall leaves, peat moss, etc… It all breaks down over time, grows great vegetables, and you don’t have to worry about weeds as much. What weeds do come up are easy to pull due to the thick layers of mulch.
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf582744.tip.html
Check out craigslist for free/cheap compost, manure, etc…
Try planting your cherry tomato in a pot…a big Terra Cotta coloured pot….but make sure it’s plastic / or a composite.
I have a huge garden and still plant all my tomatoes in pots…..I can fertilize and water better
Try Cherokee and/or Brandywine……
Please don’t even think about placing a black sheet of plativc down, it sends the soil underneith it poison.
Must warn you this way takes a while,
I have just done that, I started by killing the grass, leaving it for a month, then started with grass clippings out of the mower, then all my household cuttings [excluding anything with animal fat, i.e. bacon rind or beef fat]
just the vegetable peelings and leaves not needed i.e. lettuce, tomato and onion heads and footers, egg shells pea shells, banana peels etc. These are all great for invigerating the soil, along with some chicken poo or cow poo or if you are like me and live near a race course – horse poo, and I keep adding grass, the additives mentioned above and some package soil, just keep adding these till you reach the level in height you want, making sure your last layer is soil, keep mixing it with a gardening fork till the mix looks great.
Plant seeds, because if you do this instead of seedlings your plants will be stronger for it. You will also have the added yield of anything you have sewn i.e. potato scraps, sometime s they take as well so you will have more in your garden than you anticipated.
I have great luck with this and even though I have a very small garden 2 ft in width by 8ft, I have a great yield every season.
Good luck Cheers and let me know if this is good for you
Pots are a good idea, just get LARGE pots and only one plant per pot, tomatoes need room.
If you want a garden, with other veges as we all do, and you are in the USA. Contact your local Co-op and ask for general recommendations or where you can get a soil test kit. For the test you take a sample of soil and mail it to a lab. The lab analyze it and provides a list of additives, organic or manufactured depending on the kit, to balance the soil for your stated crops. If you are new to gardening take advantage of the co-op they are a quasi-government adjacency originally intended to help farmers but now help mostly gardeners. Good luck.