Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
alea_gw

lots of space

alea
15 years ago

Hello all,

I am seking advice in a very general sense. Any help is truly appreciated.

Last August I bought a home upstate NY with the most amazing gardens. 3 huge plots, watermelons, cantaloupe, strawberries, raspberries, and far too many veggies to list. This year, I am looking at 3 pretty empty dirt lots and getting depressed. I have spent hours replanting and don't even have a full plot yet. As a single working mom, I have had to face the fact that there is no way to return my gardens to their former glory with the time I have available, but I have to try!

My question is,

What can I plant that is fairly low maintenance, and/or beautiful and hardy, to fill this space?

I am considering turning one plot into all flowers, so that I can plant varieties that will come back every year. But of course, I would still like some veggies. The past couple of weeks I planted tomato, zucchini, cucumber, eggplant and brussel sprouts. I also threw in a few cloves of garlic from last years harvest. (I have no idea if this will produce a plant or not, but figured I'd try.)

I have read a few of the posts and responses, and I know half the fun is seeing what works, but time efficiency is a must for me. I even have a greenhouse, and shamefully, haven't done a single thing in there.

Any and all responses will help me. Even advice for next year. Thank you so much for reading my long post.

Alea

Comments (4)

  • lindac
    15 years ago

    Daylilies are prolific, care free and if you know someone that is moving or dividing some....free.
    Also small shrub roses are pretty care free....roses like The Fairy or Nearly Wild...
    I am assuming your garden is mostly sunny....
    And you could plant grass!
    Linda C

  • yourpal
    15 years ago

    If you're new to gardening, don't overdo it because you'll get discouraged. A big problem you're going to have with large plots and no time is... weeding.

    Not hardy, but will take up a lot of space.... pumpkins.

    There's a winery on Long Island called Pindar. I visited there some years ago and they had a beautiful field of sunflowers. Not difficult to grow, also not hardy. Nice "eye candy" though.

    You could also grow a field of wildflowers. I remember when I was a little girl my grandpa turned a pasture into a daisy field. If you Google "wildflower seed catalog", you'll find some vendors. They typically have mixes bred for a particular geographic area; I'm sure some are perennial some are annual within the mix.

    My advice is simple really: don't overextend yourself; it should be fun, not a race. You'll fill them in time, or not. Enjoy your time and your child(ren). As to the veggies, there's always the farm stands!

  • duluthinbloomz4
    15 years ago

    With lots of space in separate beds to deal with - don't overlook adding some deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, maybe a fruit tree or flowering ornamental, a Japanese Maple, or an interesting conifer or two. Those types of plantings give your garden beds a focal point or an anchor around which to add other things.

    I echo the above advice - you can't do everything at once. Gardening's a continuing process, with the process and the anticipation being half the fun.

    A plan is always good, too - nothing elaborate, just a rough sketch and a plant list. I'm sure upstate NY has some wonderful garden centers and nurseries - be sure to check them out - but don't overlook the seasonal parking lot nurseries that spring up at the local big box stores; more and more of them (at least here) seem to be vending trees and plants from local growers and suppliers making them much more appropriate for the area. And at a much lesser cost.

  • vetivert8
    15 years ago

    What do you love to eat fresh? What do you want to have in the freezer to draw on over the winter? How much time have you to pick, prepare and put up produce? Have you got friends who could help you? What grew very well last year - and is expensive to buy - and you like to eat?(Don't want to know - just points for your use.)

    If you are a fan for corn, for example, that does best planted in a block (properly spaced) so the wind can move the pollen around. And you've filled an area. Apart from keeping the weeds down corn is not too labour-intensive and it's at its best when very fresh.

    Potatoes can be hard work and time intensive - particularly if you're not used to heavy manual work. Learning to use tools so you don't cause yourself strain and pain is well worth doing, BTW.

    If your family likes fruit then using one of your plots for 'soft fruit' might be an option: you said you had raspberries and strawberries. If you like them and the soil is suitable - blueberries, gooseberries, boysenberries could be useful additions. Dwarf apple trees, too, both for cooking and dessert. And you could have grass/wildflowers under which will encourage the bees to visit.

    And grass of the not too posh sort could be the basis of a place for the kids to play, or put up a tent or sun sail for entertaining.

    (If you bought the property from a single working mom - she probably had someone else to do the garden. That kind of production is not achievable by toiling under the light of the moon. Be nice to you and start small to learn the basics. You'll be glad you did.)

Sponsored
Pierre Jean-Baptiste Interiors
Average rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars76 Reviews
DC Area's Award-Winning Interior Designer | 12x Best of Houzz