For those of you with larger vegetable gardens....

pointdog33

At this point in time, without already having an area prepped and ready, I would not worry about a summer garden since it is getting a bit late to plant some of the things you'd likely want in it.

Once the full brunt of summer heat gets here, my garden usually starts dying off. Tomato plants are pretty much done by late June, cucumbers slow way down, as do my green beans.

Things like okra, peppers and squash do OK in the heat, but require almost daily watering to keep them alive and thriving.

Full sun is a good thing for a garden, but first you should at least do a soil test in the area you plan on using for your garden. Take soil samples from several areas in the spot you want to use and send it off to get analyzed to see if there's things your soil needs as far as nutrients and PH level.

As for equipment, I have a small 5 HP walk behind tiller that I got after I lost my 8 HP Troy Bilt Horse tiller from Katrina in 05. It's sufficient for my backyard garden of five 50 ft. rows, a few trellises and one 48 sq. ft. raised bed-----but I miss the power and ease of operation of the Troy Bilt.

I've never had issues with birds and tomatoes, but they love to destroy my figs and made me stop planting strawberries due to loss.

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I think what cgrand is eluding to is Raised Beds.

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Raised beds are great, but if he's wanting to plant a large area, that is cost prohibitive and he'll be upside down for a few years in material and garden soil alone.

With todays lumber prices, I'd not want to build a bunch of raised beds.

Raised beds, (google hugelkulture) is the way to go. I have 7 - 12 * 4 raised beds and 10 25 foot rows. If doing it over, I would change the raised beds to 3' width. It's a pain trying to reach the middle when on your knees. I have a mantis electric I use in the raised beds. A 6.5 rear tine tiller for the rows. I agree it's too late for summer but we can plant so much stuff in the fall. The fall garden is so much easier than the spring. With 1 1/2 acres you can look into fruit trees and bushes. I have satsuma, figs, lemon, blueberry, peach, apple, thornless blackberry (buy 1 as they are ridiculously easy to propogate), grapes and muscadines.

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The fall garden is so much easier than the spring.

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Totally agree with this. I grow year round and my fall garden is by far my favorite.

In it, I'll grow beets, collard greens, Swiss Chard, lots of different varieties of leaf lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Kale, cauliflower, onions and garlic.

It requires much less maintenance, watering, weeding and the added benefit of working in it in cool weather.

After dealing with the summertime heat, it's a godsend to plant in the fall. If you plant by late August/early September, you can also get in a crop of tomatoes and some more green beans before the cold weather takes them out-------if we even get cold weather.

We made a raised bed garden. Think a rectangle 16 ft by 8 ft with the center 4 feet empty and a two foot entrance on one side. This rectangle section is 2 ft deep.

Along the two long sides, we have 1 ft deep, 1 ft wide second tier of beds.

We have tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, eggplant, Tabasco peppers, bell peppers, watermelons and flowers.

The 2ft bed is fenced in up to 6ft with chicken wire. I just put up trellis net over the zucchini and squash. Their leaves a flipping huge right now.

I also think my tomatoes are doing great, however I’m worried that the branches off the main stalks, especially at the base are resulting in stealing energy/nutrients from the fruiting part, but they may grow flowers yet.