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This ground contains a lot of quack grass. This would depend largely upon the character of the soil. Root crops, beets, carrots, and parsnips do not do as well on new ground as on land that has been worked for a few seasons. This is especially true of onions. Turnips, however, often do excellently on new soil. Corn and the various vine vegetables, if generously fertilized, should do well. Also, potatoes should do well if the ground is suitable for them. However, the quack grass is likely to prove troublesome unless killed with herbicide two months before planting. |
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YGS
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| Joined: 06/24/10 | 09:56 PM Aug 29, 2010 |
 gardenrocks
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What vegetables would grow best in ground that has never been cultivated before?Ask your neighbors & friends what they grow. I continue to experiment with vegetables and flowers; some years produce better results than others. If you start early enough you can always replant if something isn't doing well or doesn't germinate. Green beans sprout within 10 days, radish, acorn squash & zucchini (seed), parsley, basil, tomatoes, peppers are all easy (unless you have squash bugs.) I use composted cow manure when I plant and dig in other compostables during the summer & fall to feed the soil. Be good to your soil and it will reward you. Good luck.
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| Joined: 08/13/10 | 05:32 AM Dec 17, 2010 |
 sagelady
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What vegetables would grow best in ground that has never been cultivated before?When we purchased this farm the land had been used for periods of time for horses...if you know anything about horses then you know how rough their being is on the earth they trod upon...just totally hard packs it and makes it useless for growing anything. We spent the better part of 2 years working and building the soil back to a healthy growing state...we did this by clearing out all the weeds , just keeping them mowed down to the surface on a constant basis, the areas we had plans for garden spots we layered with cardboard...until the grass underneath was dead, we then proceded to compost on top of the cardboard, building to a 12" height and allowing to cook and settle over the winter months...in the spring it was a healthy planting medium. For areas we didn't plan to use raised bed methods we killed the grass in the same manner, then tilled and filled with good top soil and nutrients + organic cow manure , planted crops of greens ( all kinds ) and allowed then to compost back into the soil, after one year ( one season ) of these methods, the ground was ready to grow most anything we wanted. We still opt for the raised bed method for most all projects. ( we live on a rock planet in Tennessee.):) It's important to remember when using herbisides, pesticides, etc., unless you are using a natural product...then you will be depleting your soil furthur by doing so. It can take a year or two to bring bad soil back to a good state, but with a good balance you'll discover you don't have need for chemical products...
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| Posts: 2 |
 Groundskeeper
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What vegetables would grow best in ground that has never been cultivated before?Quack grass and hard soil call for the same remedy. Smother the grass with cardboard as sagelady does or with packets of newspaper overlapped like roof shingles. Cover with a deep layer of compost topped with mulch to hold everything in place and feed the soil as the cardboard or newspaper decomposes. Fall is a good time to start, winter too in warm climates. There are photos of the process here: http://www.yourgardenshow.com/users/Groundskeeper/pastor-bobs-hunger-garden
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| Posts: 613 |
 BeeGuiled
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What vegetables would grow best in ground that has never been cultivated before?@sagelady: I would like to recommend that you read Salad Bar Beef by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. He gives excellent ideas about improving grazing land and healing an abused field. I love his philosophies. You can find his site Polyfacefarms.com
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Groundskeeper
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What vegetables would grow best in ground that has never been cultivated before?Mr. Salatin, who's been profiled in a lot of ways and outlets, has figured out how to mesh the cycles of input and output on a small farm so that nothing goes to waste, everything recycles, and the harvests of every kind are organic. It's a lot of work and complicated but all the rest of us can take inspiration from his successes. There's a way, there's always a way, wherever you garden.
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| Posts: 613 |
| Joined: 05/15/10 | 01:03 AM Mar 13, 2011 |
 WhitneyHill
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What vegetables would grow best in ground that has never been cultivated before?agree with most of the advice posted, but don't agree with herbicide. smother the quack grass, top with compost, and then add veggies that will fix nitrogen to your mix of crops. also, deep rooted veggies like daikon radish improve tilth i'm told. same with potatoes. in general, get your soil tested too so you know what nutrients to add. generally any university ag. extension has inexpensive testing available.
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Groundskeeper
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What vegetables would grow best in ground that has never been cultivated before?WhitneyHill, I like your mention of crops that open the dirt. I have no experience with daikon radishes but they sound promising. The vegetables that fix nitrogen are mainly in the pea family (beans and peas) and one of them, the fava bean, is often grown in mild climates as a winter cover crop.
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| Posts: 613 |
| Joined: 09/24/11 | 02:28 AM Sep 25, 2011 |
 trampledbygeese
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What vegetables would grow best in ground that has never been cultivated before?To start a new garden I recommend growing peas, beans, potatoes and beet. These are all fairly forgiving plants and by watching how they grow, you can see what you need to add to the soil for next year. For example, are the beets all tops or roots? This, of course depends partly on what kind of beet you are growing, but also on the soil. All tops, and no bottoms means it's very strong in nitrogen. (Do we have a discussion around here somewhere about analysing soil quality through weeds and plant growth yet?) These plants also help prepare the soil for next year. The peas and beans are useful for augmenting the soil, so leave them in the ground long after the harvest is finished to help fix the nitrogen. The potatoes require lots of digging. First dig deep to plant them, then dig deep to harvest them in the late summer - fall. This loosens the soil for next year. If you have a chance, a few months before you begin your garden, cover the land with thick layers of newspaper or something to stop the light getting to the weeds. Also, if you live somewhere with a proper winter, loosen the dirt with a shovel during one of those early warm spells - after the ground thaws but long before the last frost date. The frost will do the work for you and break apart large clumps of soil.
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Groundskeeper
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What vegetables would grow best in ground that has never been cultivated before?Plants as indicators of soil tilth and nutrients is a terrific idea. A gardener would need a fair amount of experience to read the signs, I think. I dropped soil test long ago in favor of feeding the soil with organic matter, especially compost, and let Nature do the rest.
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trampledbygeese
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What vegetables would grow best in ground that has never been cultivated before?Reading plants as a way to understand soil quality has really interested me lately. Soil tests are all well and good, but surely there are better ways to understand soil health. I'm also interested in learning about weeds. I hope to buy a larger homestead in a few years, and would like to be able to tell the state of the soil at a glance by seeing what weeds thrive where. Wet, dry, acid, NPK, even trace minerals show up in weed activity. I know a fair bit about what local weeds can tell us, but I would love to learn more about the rest of the continent.
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