Gardening - Cincinnati,OH

It's not too late. It's actually still too early for most things!! Here in Indiana the good rule of thumb for gardeners is to not plant until after Mother's Day. The official frost date is April 20 (or 23rd or something like that). I planted my cool weather crops (lettuce, spinach, radish, peas, potatoes, etc) a couple weeks ago. However, I'm waiting until I see no temps less than 40 at night in the 7 day forecast before planting my other stuff (tomatoes, beans, squash, peppers, etc etc).

It is not too late to begin a garden in Cincinnati. We used to live there---it's quite warm now and your danger of frost has passed.
Try the catalog Gardner's Supply Company at www.gardeners.com for lots of good ideas, tips, and products (like to keep rabbits out.)

There are a lot of websites out there to help too. It's neat that you want involve your son.

Good luck.

Get this book: "The Square Foot Garden". It's great, and will help you with all your questions.

I'm not much of a vegetable gardener myself but here's a few things I do know.

First of all, depending on what you want to grow, it's not too late to start a garden. The general rule is after there is no danger of frost. You need an area that gets lots of sunlight. Since this is your first attempt, I recommend starting with small plants rather than seeds.

If you go to an independent garden center, they can give you some great advise to get you started. They can also recommend what to do about those rabbits. I've heard that planting hot peppers will help to keep away some animals.

Good luck.

hey, no its not too late! From what I've heard from gardening experts is to wait to plant veggies until after Mother's day. I have not planted my veggies outside yet, but will this week. What I would to though, is that if your garden is not dug out and tilled, I would start your seedlings inside (depending on the veggie). Tomatoes, green beans, peppers are good ones to start inside. Otherwise, you can always buy the plants started. Try liquid fence, maybe, for the rabbits, otherwise just ask at the store you buy your veggies from what they reccomend.

Gardening is so fun! good for you for giving it a try. Its only my third year with a garden and each year I learn so much. The first year, some things turned out great and some not so great!

Good luck!
A. V.

You can go to your local county extension office. They have all kinds of info on all kinds of things. They even have recipe booklets, etc.

No it's not to late to state a garden this year. If you want to start you seeds inside you still can, but you can also go to a local greenhouse, home improvement store, or some stores (like Wal-mart or K-mart) & buy starter plants to plant. Here we plant our garden around Mother's Day, eventhough my dad always told me Memorial Day weekend is when you plant. But I haven't had issues with frost after Mother's Day & if there is a chance I just put a blanket over my plants to protect them.

Years ago I removed bushes from an area & my tomatoes did really well there! It was in a front flower bed of the rental we were living at... the cherry tomatoe plants actually grew up to the pourch roof & were loaded w/ little tomatoes.

As to keeping the critters out - you can find "chicken" wire or small holed garden fence and metal poles at most home improvement stores. If you are worried about rabbits, try to dig a trench & put about 6-12 in of the fence underground since they like to dig to get into things. They also sell repelant chemicals you can spray on your plants, but personnaly I'm not sure about putting chemicals on my plants that produce my food.

We are currently trying to figure out where we are going to put a small garden this year, so actually you are one step ahead of me this year - you know where you want to put it.

Also, my kids love helping w/ the garden & picking their dinner. It is cool to teach them, but I don't force them to help like my parents did us... if they don't want to do it - oh well, maybe tomorrow.

Good luck!

It's not too late if you buy small plants, seeds should have already been sprouted and ready to be planted in the ground by this time. It sounds like you will have some work to do to get the area ready, so skipping the seed step might be better anyways, and you'll have veggies sooner. There is always next year to get every step in. You can always seed a couple of things if you want to so your son gets the idea. Also, I'm sure you remember vegetable plants need lots of sunlight! I'm not sure what will keep the rabbits out, except chicken wire. I think it's a great idea to have your son involved! Have fun and good luck!

I don't have a green thumb either, but I'm a fairly successful gardener. We started our first garden a few years ago. I sprayed the area where I wanted the garden with round up. Once the grass was dead, I tilled up the area. I would have watered the heck out of it to get rid of any remaining round up, but it rained like crazy the day we tilled :) After the ground dried out some, we tilled it again. I borrowed a tiller from my dad, but you can do it with a spade too. Just spade up the area and chop up any big dirt clods. You may have to do it a few times to get the ground properly ready. We plant tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, zucchini and cabbage from plants. The only thing I plant as a seed are green beans, and that's just because someone gave me seeds. You could still plant from seeds if you wanted, but I prefer the plants. When you plant your garden, you want to make sure that your taller plants don't overshadow the smaller plants. To keep things like rabbits out, sprinkle human hair around the edge of your garden. (Just have your hairdresser save yours next time you get a trim.) You might have to do it several times through out the year, but it's the only thing I've found that works. Other than that, just make sure you keep the garden watered and free of weeds. They're really inexpensive and the vegetables you get are well worth the work!

Technically it's never too late because there are 3 growing seasons for different vegies - spring, summer and fall. You can plant at all 3 times for different things usually. I would suggest you look into the Square Foot Gardening method. Get the book from your local library - it's a great method for beginners especially and takes out most of the hard work involved in row gardening so it's good for people who don't have a green thumb. :) You can have even better vegies then other people with half the work and half the space! Google it for more info.

No its not too late (well maybe for some crops but not for others and that depends on where you live). Before you start tearing things up, I would suggest that you look at a book - "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholemew. It really works great if you have limited space. Plus you use raised beds which are easier to enclose, great for kids to get involved with and really easy to setup for first time gardeners. Plus if you use his soil mixture you do not have to worry about alot of pests or using too much fertilizer. The method also allows you to rotate crops and depending on what you plant you can harvest 3 different crops per square foot per year. Last year we did peas, sugar snap pea, grean beans(bush) 4 different kinds of peppers, roma tomatos, carrots, grape tomatos, lettuce, zuccini, cucumbers, corn and garlic. All of this with in one 4 X 8 foot bed. We are planning the same this year with some additional herbs. I would suggest starting with a 4x3 or 3x3 bed. With the bed being 4 foot wide it makes harvesting some things tricky. We will be adding 2 3x3 beds this year. One just for corn and a second for tomatos and peppers. But you can still be starter plants from a garden center and somethings like carrots, corn and melons should be planted straight from seed outdoors. I plant two - 3 feet with carrots and rotate them. So I may plant one this week, another one 3 weeks from now and the third when I start to harvest the lettuce or peas in about 4 weeks. We are adding onion, brocolli fennel, several melons and one pumpkin. The kids love it and certain crops like pea we can watch grow everyday. Good Luck. Our kids love it and help us pick out what to plant.

You do not want to plant a garden until after the last frost of the year. You are about 3 hours south of me so I do not know if that makes much of a difference. Some people begin their seeds inside and then transfer outdoors. We do both. My garden is quite large so we (my dad) use a tractor to work up the ground. We typically get everything out within the first couple of weeks of May. I have three young girls and the two older ones help from planting to picking to eating. I think it is something wonderful to do with your children. Have fun! Go to your local greenhouse that sells veggies. They will tell you what you can do as well. Good luck!!

Don't know how to keep the rabbits away, but you just need to know how much sunlight is needed. Buy planting soil and start digging. You can use the seed centers of your tomato's or peppers and plant that. As for growing carrots I would have to buy a seed unless you can plant the carrot tops. I can imagine how the rabbit would love that! Start them inside and transfer them outside. A bit late, but worth a shot!

It depends on where you live. I live in SW Ohio. We can start cool weather crops (lettuce, asparagus, broccoli) as early as March. As for flowers and summer vegetables, it's best to wait until after Mother's Day to plant your seedlings. We grow peas, beans, tomatoes, bell peppers (in different colors) at out community garden, but we can start lettuce from seedlings in our yard because we have a nice spot that isn't beaten by the sun all day.

No you should at least wait until after Mother's Day due to a chance of frost. You can start the seeds now in your house and when they start to grow then you can plant them with ready.