...I saw some cuke starters that are meant for growing them the size for pickles that you would get from a jar. Now I'm curious.
I live in Iowa....just up the bluff from the Mississippi.....in a 100+ year old farm house. The town grew around us. Part of my garden is in what used to be an old gravel drive way. Pretty much all we did was add some potting soil, homemade compost, leaves, and ash from the fire pit. Ran the tiller through to create a good loam and planted. The first year was weak but that was expected. It was an experiment. Then we expanded year after year until where we are now. Still doing pretty much the same thing every spring and fall with the tilling, compost, and ash. My wife is totally against using anything "non organic" around the plants, so I abide. The past few years, as the soil has absorbed the various elements, we continue to see better and better yields (combined with crop rotations).
Nice story! My story is slightly different. Moved into my apartment in early August 2016 and quickly noted the backyard area where a garden might be was covered with lilies of the valley and various weeds. My buddy used a pickaxe to excavate the ground cover, and I put in a 5-½' x 8' (2" x 6") garden frame. Filed it with topsoil and potting soil. Then, later that autumn, topped it with composted bark mulch, about 4" thick. (Composted translates to less nitrogen being pulled from the soil as the wood decomposes).
The bark mulch has sat a year along with added kitchen compost (veggie peelings, moldy bread and eggshells only), charcoal ash, raked autumn leaves, and a batch of red worms from a website called Uncle Jim's Worm Farm...(variety of composting materials available)...
As you put more composted mulch and kitchen compost back into the soil, the yields will improve even more so. For evidence of this, feel free to view the video below "Back to Eden" that describes how one man learned nature's way of how soil was enriched and how his crop yields improved over time. For 'Back to Eden' debunkers, their videos mention that your garden will NOT be weed-free, though with the bark mulch method, weeding is much easier to manage.
I honestly have no idea how I can grow bell peppers here especially in the light they get after the trees grow in in. They range from baseball to softball size and we have to pick them otherwise the plant falls over. Typically get 4-5 mature ones per plant a week. Corn is going to be interesting again this year. We have several large coons in the neighborhood that might investigate. We shall see. As for melons, man, they take up a LOT of space and water. Melons and gourds of any type. They spread out and will take over the garden. But we have had great luck with them over the years. Two years ago we produced several watermelons weighing in at over 11 pounds each. Last year, we decided against the watermelons and my wife bought pumpkin seeds. Well, she bought the seeds for the little decorative ones. Had 50-60 of those useless things......gave them away to kids at Halloween along with candy.
For tomatoes, I don't eat them often. Had an incident when I was younger and I really have no interest in them. But my kids love cherry tomatoes and my wife likes to makes sauces and salsa. Again, I abide. They do take a lot of watering and twice a day attention. I need to run out for those stakes, so I'm going to see if Home Depot or Lowes have the Sungolds in stock yet. I'll give them a shot and see how they fair. How long until they start producing?
Congrats re: the peppers! I've not tried peppers at my apartment just because they didn't do well at my former house previous to 2015. Maybe the soil was too acidic, I dunno. The pickling cukes are perfect for smaller areas where you don't want them taking up a lot of space. Burpee Seeds packages something called Pickling Bush cukes. High yield, small surrounding grow area.
The Sungolds (try Home Depot with established seedlings with flower buds, if possible) begin producing about a month after planting...normally, from seed (don't try this, the seedlings almost always grow too spindly and weak) it takes 45 to 52 days to fruit. From established seedling (a $5 to $7 4-6 inch plastic pot) will produce in about a month's time. So, if perhaps you plant Sungolds 1st or 2nd week of May, 2nd/3rd week of June, later you plant mid to late May, until October when frost arrives.
Sungolds grow tall and spread over like a large tree with boughs overreaching, so be sure to use tomato cages, fencing, or something similar to help support these veggies during their lifetime.
Several years ago I used the hay bale method with 4 bales & 8 metal posts, and strung wire between the posts and tied the growing Sungolds to the horizontal wire. That was a lot of work and I'd not recommend that.
Just find some tall tomato cages and drive 6' to 8' tall plastic/metal posts into the ground inside the cages to help strengthen the cages so they don't tip over when the Sungolds grow tall. Or drive metal or wood posts into the ground and use flexible wire fasteners to attach the growing Sungolds to the posts. The cages allow expansion, the metal posts may cause stem breakage as the plant grows top-heavy...The 6' to 8' tall metal/plastic thin posts supports inside the tomato cages, perhaps 3 to a cage. That'll give my tomatoes the support they need to grow tall and firm.