new to gardening.

[BigBoxaJunk]

The important part is to have fun with it. Experiment. And dont let failures get ya. I tried Celery for the hell of it. Didnt even germinate. I also laid down 14' of beets. MAYBE 8 seeds actually germinated. Thinking it was a bad package as our soil normally does awesome with beets.

I also like to try new stuff. This year it was Quinoa, and I was surprised how well it's done. Right now the plants are almost 3 feet tall and the seed heads are beginning to form. I tried a new kind of white dent corn, but I havn't grown corn in some years and I'm out of practice. Some kind of worm got into the centers and did a lot of damage before I saw it and could dust them with sevin. I still should get a few ears for my trouble. I do white half-runner beans every year on 6-foot trellises and the beans this year look awesome so far. One of my favorite ways to spend a weekend with my wife is picking a couple of bushels, breaking them all and canning them. It's quality time for us.

 

[Balinor]

I have aprox 40 tomato plants (3 types)and 70 pepper plants (5 types) along with beans, squash, carrots, Sunflowers, and cukes. This year I planted them in a grid system so that i could run a small rear tine rototiller in between and along the rows. What I found was that the weeds came anyway (too close to the plants to till with the rototiller with out damaging the plants). Also wasted a LOT of space. The mulch system as explained in above comments worked well but again I was looking for an easier / better way of weed control. The rows and the "in between" look great for about 3 days, then the weeds really start up again with the freshly turned soil.
I am using (this week) for the 1st time a herbicide, just to see how well it works in a completely weed free area. Its 100% organic (corn gluten) and the label says its good for 4 weeks of weed control. If it works I'll try it in a larger area and sooner rather than later. Now this product only stops new growth (pre emergence<sp>). so I had to hand weed everything out and mix it into the soil as the product describes. Time will tell.
In my smaller (4 x 8 ) garden, the tomatoes and peppers are so close together with growth that they have crowded out all weeds. Try what you want learn and do what works in your situation.

 

[Rikkrack]

Planting densly and using companion planting in combination with the mulch is the best solution I have found. That being said, one of my gardens is completely overrun at the moment. Funny that corn gluten is a growth inhibitor. Makes you wonder what it does to us when we eat it.

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

Planting densly and using companion planting in combination with the mulch is the best solution I have found. That being said, one of my gardens is completely overrun at the moment. Funny that corn gluten is a growth inhibitor. Makes you wonder what it does to us when we eat it.

It makes us poop little corn kernels?

 

[Keith_Indy]

grow what you like most of all. stuff you will eat. stuff you will have a surplus of to can/dry.