Subject: Help My Backyard!

From: [email-masked] (Yuet Cheung - SHTM/W94)
Date: 31 Mar 1995 01:26:47 GMT

I moved to my current house few months ago.  At that time, my backyard 
was covered with a layer of snow, so I did nothing for it.  Now it is 
time to do some gardening work, right?  However, I didn't have thorough 
knowledge of doing it.

At my backyard, there are five fruit trees (3 pears and 2 apples), each 
of 8 feet tall.  What should I do now?   Add appropriate fertilizers or not?

And, on one side of my backyard, there is a very small farmland which is 
about 10ft.x 18ft. in size.  As I was told that the land was used to grow 
tomatoes, peas, and brocculi.  If I want to keep the land for planting 
vegetable, then what things that I should do now?
  
Your advice will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Yuet
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Craig & Joan Mathew)
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 95 09:17:12 PST

Hello,
  I am a very new gardener myself, and my husband and I moved into our 
brand-new house last July.  We didn't have *any* yard at all, just 
dirt...our back area looked like the Mojave Desert for awhile last 
summer... ;)
  I have a few suggestions for a new gardener which are things that worked 
for me:  observe your landscape to find out what lighting conditions you 
have (how long does the sun shine there, what time of year does the light 
shine in that location due to seasonal changes, etc.), when is your first 
frost, when is your last frost, what kind of soil/drainage do you have, is 
your soil alkaline, acidic, or neutral, etc., etc.  Also -- and this is the 
BIG one -- read everything you can on gardening subjects which pertain to 
your situation!
  If you want to get started right away I would suggest that you could plant 
the same things the previous owners did in the garden area.  While you're 
observing how that works out, I can suggest a few books that I've bought for 
my personal library, in the order which I rank their importance based on 
usefulness for beginning gardeners and also price:

ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC BOOKS (in my opinion):

1)  The Experts' Book of Garden Hints (this is EXCELLENT for new gardeners!)
2)  The Gardener's Home Companion
3)  Carrots Love Tomatoes (by Louise Riotte -- a book on companion planting 
for successful gardening)
4)  Roses Love Garlic (also by Louise Riotte -- another book on companion 
planting, but this one using flowers in conjunction with vegetables, etc.)
5)  The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control

CAN WAIT FOR AWHILE:

6)  Pruning: A Practical Guide (by Peter McHoy)
7)  The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening ("The 
Definitive Practical Guide to Gardening Techniques, Planning, and 
Maintenance" -- pricey, but an excellent reference)

  I also exhausted the gardening sections of several public libraries in my 
area over the last year.  While our house was being built (Jan-Jun '94) my 
husband and I started reading everything we could get our hands on relating 
to gardening, and we also started ordering seed catalogs from all over.  
Even if we never intended on ordering from certain mail-order nurseries, 
looking through all these catalogs helps to give you ideas of what's 
available in the way of vegetables, annuals, perennials, vines, ground 
covers, trees, fruits, shrubs, PRICES, etc.
  In addition, I started looking through my local gardening stores to see 
what kinds of products they carry, their prices, and also scoured every 
gardening MAGAZINE I could get my hands on.
  I ended up subscribing to Organic Gardening and, for a very short time, to 
the new Garden Gate magazine.  Everyone will have their own opinion on 
what's the best magazine for their personal situations and/or preferences, 
so I leave that up to you.  You will find a stunning array of interesting 
articles about all topics of gardening including veggies, flowers, bulbs, 
etc.  I should mention, though, that Organic Gardening has had some 
excellent articles over the past few months about *easy* flowers and veggies 
to grow, which is just what you and I both need right now!  Don't know about 
the other popular mags...
  I also try to catch certain television gardening shows on a regular basis. 
I especially enjoy Gardening Naturally, which is televised in my area on 
weekends.
  Most of the time when I spoke to other new home buyers and also people who 
had done this in the past, they told me one basic thing:  observe your plot 
for a year and record every little detail of changes in temperature, soil, 
drainage, weather, exposure to sun, etc., etc.  Having this kind of 
information to back up your reading in the books, magazines, USENET 
newsgroups, and TV gardening shows will really help to bolster your 
knowledge.  It's fun, it's creative, and it's all YOURS!!
  I have a vegetable gardening area that is approximately 12' x 25' plus an 
alleyway outside our fence for stuff, and also I have huge garden beds which 
I can use for flowers, shrubs, trees, etc.  In my vegetable garden area I 
have eagerly been planting over the past 3 weeks and now I have little 
seedlings of carrots, lettuce, potatoes, chives, marigolds, nasturtium, 
radishes, onions, strawberries, cucumbers, corn, beets, tomatoes, 
pastel-colored poppies, cosmos, spinach, garden peas, bush beans, squash, 
thornless boysenberries, a seedless grape, an espalier dwarf peach tree, 
snow peas, leeks, Jerusalem artichokes, and the list goes on and on.....
  On New Year's Day (I live just north of Dallas, TX) I was out planting 
some tulip, crocus, and hyacinth bulbs.  In the last month those have 
started blooming and I have been greeted with their beautiful blooms in the 
morning as I look out my bedroom window.  My daylilies and asiatic lilies 
are really taking off, as is our new honeysuckle and clematis vines trained 
over 2 different arbors we have at the house.  I'm looking forward to 
"playing" with new combinations of color and plants over the coming years!
  I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with all this information!  As a new 
gardener and home owner myself I related to your post and wanted to give you 
a sketch of my experiences over the past year and what I'm still involved in 
as this Spring gardening season has already begun!
  I'm sure other gardening folks here on the forum will be delighted to 
provide you with other ideas, suggestions, and opinions regarding your 
coming 'initiation' into the world of gardening!

Above all, have fun with it!!!   :)

Joan

And...P.S...welcome to the group!

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] 
says...

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From: [email-masked] (Craig & Joan Mathew)
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 95 09:17:12 PST

Hello,

CAN WAIT FOR AWHILE:

Joan