I'm in the Chicago suburbs and just joined, the biggest planter is 3.75×3.75 feet, and the middle one is about 3.75×2.5 feet. I already know what I'm planting in the small one but I'm just trying to figure out how much I can fit in the other 2. Thanks in advance!
by afrandsen
24 Comments
You could fit 2 plants in each one. You could try more but it would take aggressive pruning to make that work. And with squash varieties 1 will take up the whole bed.
You’ve room for one of each. You could trellis the cucumbers and zucchini and get more in, but remember you’re cramping their roots too doing that so give them extra food.
Is there plastic under the soil? If so, that looks too shallow for cucurbits.
I’m more worried about how you’re going to fit in between those beds. Also fill em to the brim. It’s going to settle.
4′ square
You can put tomatoes in the narrow one, the cucumbers can go in the square one in the back but you’ll need to trellis them if not then it won’t be enough space for cucumbers. And zucchini is going to be the biggest plant. It can easily take up any of those beds by itself. You can try doing it vertically too but it’s going to get a bit tricky because it’ll get too heavy since it’ll look kinda like a tree. But I’d recommend taking the plastic out of the ground. Something organic or at least something that will break down after a while that will stop the weeds from coming up but won’t leave harmful residues.
You might try these plants vertical (although zucchini depends on the variety) but the cukes and indeterminate tomatoes will climb nicely and not take up as much space.
This is the YT channel of another Chicago area resident and although he isn’t really making new content his videos have been super helpful for me when I considered myself new to gardening. Look for the ones where he talks about his trellises and vertical gardening:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLApXYvbprElyc5ckCRd7wv3n96-CPq_WE&feature=shared
The plastic under the beds depends what kind it is. I put a bunch of layers of cardboard in mine (2 thick layers) and the weeds and grass stay out nicely.
Thanks everyone, sorry for snapping but I was just mad because I spent so long today prepping the bed, I just went back and pulled all the plastic out since the dirt was still loose. I feel like every time I do a garden I make at least one mistake. 😒
I’d don’t think you have enough room between the side by side beds to give you enough room to maneuver. I’d think three feet at minimum. I have four
One zucchini plant takes up about 4 square feet so one in your biggest bed on the south side of the bed with cucumbers growing up a trellis on the north side. Could probably fit 3 determinate tomato varieties in the mid sized bed.
On the skinny bed add a net trellis to isolate it into 3 sections and you can plant 3 cucumbers in there. You can do the same to the square bed to make 4 sections for 4 zucchinis to force them to grow up instead of out. In the largest bed you can add 6-8 (hard to tell) cages for 1 tomato each. Anything that grows out can be grown up with enough effort.
The skinny one can take 10 cucumbers. I plant 8 plants in a 3ft section. Just remember it’s stems not pots. By that I mean it is usual for cucumbers you buy at the store to have multiple stems, because they are multiple plants. So just check those.
This advice is unsolicited and I’m only mentioning this in case it saves you time and headaches later.
If you get any gophers or moles in your garden I’d recommend putting 1/4 inch hardware cloth underneath the bed and attach using U shaped fence staples.
If you do end up doing that and have to empty the beds then I’d recommend moving them away from the house, so it’s easy to do work on the siding, gutters, etc and leave 2 feet between each bed to easily move around.
This is all from my own experience. I did not have enough room to move my beds further from the house and it is a pain when maintenance is required.
Good luck and happy gardening!!
Put the Zucchini in a 5 gallon planter somewhere it can sprawl out. Put a trellis in the far bed and you can grow a lot of cucumbers. You could fit 6-8 tomatoes in the rectangle beds.
Put the zukes straight into the ground, they take up a lot of real estate and will grow in your native soil just fine.
Check out square foot gardening. And consider testing your soil for heavy metals.
You can do 3 tomatoes or 3 zucchini. But not both
The first thing I noticed is that maybe you should’ve spaced those boxes far enough apart so that you could run the lawn mower in between them? You don’t want the weed whacker to hurt your veggie plants. I usually plant my tomatoes a good 2 feet apart, but mine grow tall and branch out pretty big. Let me see … pickles can be raised up on fences made of tall garden stakes, string, and small screws to wrap the string on.
https://preview.redd.it/63k443mm0cxc1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49fb0180712bdd5808e9f498f87816fc0b8e29b9
Just plant one zucchini you will get a ton of fruit.
Just an fyi, toms can root down as far as 50”. They need more depth than that.
Just an fyi, toms can root down as far as 50”. They need more depth than that.
I am new to gardening. If I were to get a wood gardening bed like that. Would I have to cut the grass underneath? Can I just lay it it on top as you do did over what looks like a trash bag. Also why the trash bag?
They’re really close together. I’d want to be able to walk and kneel in between them. But as for what would fit, I’d put in 2 tomato plants in the one on the right, 2 zucchini in the back, and you could fit 2 or 3 cucumber plants in the one on the left if you trellis them.
Others mentioned how shallow the soil is, and the plastic, and I think they covered that topic. Buuut it’s not like your plants will refuse to grow or produce and just die if everything isn’t *perfect*.
I’ve been asking AI these questions. It literally knows everything. It’s insane