I have a spot to put a garden this year. I have no seedling started. It gets shade 1/2 the day and is in N/E Kansas so what advice for vegies to grow do you have for me? Size is about 35' x 4'. Thanks.

Most leafy veggies will tolerate 1/2 day of shade and still be productive Root crops can do well also.

First and foremost I have 13 years of mistakes I can speak about with you.

So my best advice, FOR GOODNESS SAKE, is go get a soil sample. Go to your local extension agent, send in a sample and within two weeks you will know what your soil needs or not. DON'T WING IT!! You will regret it!!

That said, I would stick to things with a short growing season. Squashes, beets, lettuce, radish if you must put something in now. If I were you, I would wait and do a fall garden. Putting things in the ground after you make amendment adjustments just makes sense so you can get a more bountiful harvest. You will be planting around end of July/first of August. Things like brassicas, greens, radishes, beets, etc.

You will need irrigation. Not that hard with your size garden and some soaker hoses.

For now don't plan on corn or tomatoes. Gonna get hot on smaller plants.

Best of luck.

start with what do you like to eat not much point in growing things you hate


not to late to start green beans , cabbage and chard heck even zucchini wouldn't be too late

all are fairly easy to grow and don't need a lot of days

Plant zucchini today and fill your friend car with the fruits of your labor in a week or two!!
Happy trapping! ScottW

I'd think you have time for most things, we don't usually plant until Memorial day to avoid frost.

This year we planted our corn a couple days after mothers day, and got lucky with one lite frost that didn't hurt anythig.

My wife just planted her cucumbers yesterday.

had an insurance guy who would just stop by years ago , he had a little moped he would tool around town on ,I asked him if he liked zuchini oh he loved them what else would he say I hate this thing you grow a ton of and I never want to sell you any more insurance. I loaded all his baskets up with those great big 2-3 foot zucchini , he never stopped in again.

A spot like that down here would be prized for those cool season veggies that can't take the heat in order to get an extra week or so, particularly if it's afternoon shade. Things like lettuce, spinach, english peas. Even for some stuff that prefers cooler soil but can take the heat, garlic comes to mind.

Like said, first step is getting to know your soil and getting it in shape. Next would be weed control. Ideally a full flip plowing that inverts the soil burying the top 3-4 inches under 3-4 inches of fresh clean soil to bury the weed seed bank. But barring that removal of as much seed material as possible. Cutting, tilling and let sprout then kill, rinse cycle repeat to deplete the seed bank. Solarization with plastic would work if you didn't have shade.

The key to weeds is getting to them while tiny still in the thread stage.

35x4 in the shade half the day sounds like it might be on the side of the house

north , south, east or west

today is day 151 you should get to right about day 300 without frost

you could grow almost anything if not the north side , if it is the north side stick to the cooler weather shorter season crops like beans cabbage

but you could go buy a couple cherry tomatoes plants and get them in the ground and still be eating on them for a while

nice part of 35x4 is that a singe roll of black plastic will save you a lot of weeding for your first year , make slits to put your plants through and lay a soaker hose under it

get some lime on it first marty it all starts with good Ph them grab a little ferz and plant what you like to eat keep it watered and good luck

This is in a garden at a csr's house. Center of yard but a big birch tree just east. Then there are 2 huge cottonwoods to the west 50'. I am going to turn it with the mattox tomorrow. Then lime and fet, then rake and shape it. Should plant soon.

Should do alright with tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini
probably wouldn't be able to find onions or potatoes this late
should have time for radishes and beets, that would be a good
start for this time of year, then you can plan for a fall garden.

You can take a soil sample to your county extinction office
they will send it in and get test results.

Trees close will rob water from your garden. I just planted 4 rows of taters last week. Nothing else as they'll be on their own on a programmable water timer and weed barrier fabric.

Marty,
Seeds are relatively inexpensive, they have instructions on the packs, Pepper's tomatoes and onions are best planted by plants, get some lettuce, green beans, zucchini, squash, watermelon, much melons, etc. and get goin. See how it does, next fall add some chicken manure and till it in, in my opinion, not that it matters,soil samples are a joke.

my garden is about 40x60 and has a row of pines on the east side , a pin oak to the south and until last year had a big hackberry to the west

it got mid day and afternoon sun but still grew a lot of stuff , it gets a lot more sun with that hackberry down but it grew stuff ok with it up

trees robbing water never gave it much consideration , our soil is sand , i have a lot of organic matter in the top 2 feet but where the garden isn't you only need to dig about 8-10 inches to hit sugar sand it looks like light brown sugar.

and aside from the occasional rock it is like that down as far as I have ever seen dug with a backhoe we can drive a point water is about 16-17 feet down. so watering and mulch are important here in the sand

it is clay there I grew up and my parents sump pump would run in the heaviest drought once a day and when wet about every 10 minutes both would run
it was essential the gutters be clean and the down spouts get the water 15 feet from the house
when you hit about 9 feet down it goes to blue clay

I don't have gutters or a sump pump that is how fast it drains in the sand here.

How hot do you get in June-August. Planting kale type crops like cabbage, b rocolli, cauliflower, and then radishes, early peas etc. don't do real well in higher heat with dry conditions. They spike quickly and many times can become bitter etc. Lettuce can spike and get bitter quickly as well. Don't know about carrots as I plant mine early. I know people who do late plantings but that is up here and they are hoping for late October digging. Also if you do want some of the Kale crops you could plant some seeds now and transplant later and they will do well late in the season, right up to a hard frost. Spuds could do well too coming later.
squash, cucumbers, green beans, sweet corn, onion plants or sets (if watered well) do well in the longer and hotter days. If you don't get a killing frost until say mid-September you have a lot of options yet. Germination is really quick when soils are as warm as they are now. The half shade will be great and help keep soil more moist. Around here even as far north as we are, being closer to Lake MI we usually don't get a killing frost until about October 10th on aveage.

Bryce

look on the seed packet Marty says how many days to maturity, I plant sweet corn until July 4th

Carrots do just fine. We can plant them spring or fall. Fall planted don't bolt come spring.

thanks everyone, I am going to do green beans....getting some seed from a friend on here.

I will be starting my garden late this year.( Western Alaska is always late)

I like to grow turnips planted thick and then harvest turnip greens to thin them out until bulbs start producing.
Also cabbage grows well into late fall.
Both are very healthy to eat, and my favorites.