Vegetable Gardening: Planning, Planting, Preparing and Harvesting

It has often been said if everyone – that is blessed with a small yard behind the house – planted a productive vegetable garden, the world would have a major overproduction of food. Think about it. How many folks do you know who have extra zucchini to give away to the neighborhood?

However, when you’re knee deep in snow – or even when the spring rains are making life in the garden difficult – hardly seems an appropriate time to be even thinking about a vegetable garden. But, maybe there is a lot that can be done – as well as just dreaming. A good vegetable garden, like any other good garden, needs a considerable amount of planning. So let’s make sure that when we plant a vegetable garden the correct thought has been put in to insure success. Most failure can be attributed to lack of good planning.

Like site selection for example. Where do you or should you grow your vegetables? Vegetable gardens need sun. Lots of it. Then following closely on the wish list of any self respecting veggie garden would be good drainage. Good organic soil would be a bonus. But anyway, even if it isn’t great soil a lot can be done to change it (especially between crops – of course).

Winter is the best time (although it is never too late) to set up a good plan that will include all the areas of the garden – drawn out to scale (on a piece of graph paper, for convenience). This should include: how large of a space do you need, which way should the garden be laid out and whether you want to plant into raised beds. You may also be restricted to a balcony or roof top garden. So work with the space available. Remember, the entire space you select need not be planted immediately.

For a family of four about 400 square feet would be great (remember you need to include some room for pathways). The rows or raised beds should be laid out in a north south orientation. This will ensure that static shadow is reduced to a minimum. Taller plants and plants that are staked should be planted at the north side of the garden patch to minimize shading to shorter plants.

Raised beds can be constructed easily with the use of standard landscape ties. These timbers are readily available at most building or garden supply retailers. They are usually a convenient size of 8 feet long and about 4 inches square. So, a 12 inch bed that is 4 feet by 8 feet can be made by cutting three timbers into 4 foot lengths and spiking them to 6 – 8 footers (three per side). This will create a convenient garden bed that is strong and long lasting as the ties are treated against decay. They can be arranged with 24 inch pathways to provide for ease of access. Raised beds are not only easy to work around but they increase drainage and cause the soil to warm up earlier in the Spring.

Beds can also be raised simply be excavating the pathways and crowning the soil up over a 4 foot bed. This will be less expensive but reduces the effectiveness of the bed for adaptability to shelter structures.

Also, when contemplating raised beds another useful consideration would the method and style of planting. That is, should the plants be put in rows or seeded in blocks with no rows. The raised bed lends itself nicely to the concept of block planting as with a 4 foot bed all plants will be easy to reach. Block planting allows for greater intensity and coverage. The small plants will need to be thinned but many of them are very tasty and quite edible when young – so there need to no waste.

Which One to Grow

Then the next important step is to decide on the vegetable basket and what should be in it. To keep it simple, no more than perhaps a dozen species should be chosen. The best way to choose is to ask the family what they like. It is no value if you spend all season growing some great turnips and find out later that the kids won’t eat them. Eat a lot of salads? Then, lettuce and tomatoes may be at the top of the list. If you eat a lot of hamburgers, onions would be a must. For variety, select some leaf vegetables and some root crops.

Another useful way of deciding what vegetables to plant is to consider the overall purpose in a larger sense. Here are four different gardens by purpose.

The salad garden. This may be small, planted near the kitchen and include fresh greens, radishes, onions, baby carrots, perhaps beets and a tomato plant or two.

The summer garden may be another choice. This would be designed to provide the family’s fresh vegetable needs throughout the summer with no surplus for storage or processing. This can be maximized through successive plantings that will provide several harvests. Your choices here would be limited only by what your family likes to eat.

The storage and processing garden may also include extending the time of the plantings by providing some shelter structures to the garden. Also, there are many root crops that will survive even our northern climate that will provide some good eating all winter.

The herb garden may be another consideration and will be dealt with in future articles.

Three further considerations when selecting may include the size and growth habit of the vegetable, the disease resistance or tolerance and the time to maturity. The size of the species needs to be matched with your garden size. A small space should not be planted with sprawling vines such as pumpkins or larger vegetables that require staking and tying. Small spaces should be planted with dwarf species and non-staking varieties. Plant breeders have come a long way in developing plants that are hardy and have considerable disease tolerance. Check with your supplier for further information here.

Finally, all vegetables have a time to maturity. This is the length of time that the plant will take in normal growing conditions to mature and be ready for harvest. This information should be available on the seed package or from your local garden supplier. If you are planning succession planting, the maturity time will be very important information.

Remember too that most vegetables are sold as either ‘cool season’ or ‘warm season’. This classification is based on their temperature requirements for seed germination and growth to maturity above ground. Most cool season vegetables are grown for their root or leaf parts. Most warm season vegetables are grown primarily for their fruit and require a longer growing time if grown in northern climates. They may also be better grown with some protection and should be planted as transplants and not seeded directly.

While you are contemplating the important issue of species selection it may be useful to consider whether you want to seed them directly into the garden or speed the season up a bit by purchasing transplants from your local garden retailer. If you want the fun of seeding, checking out a good mail order house should be on your list (there are many now on the Web).

We have chosen twelve vegetables to plant. The progress of this typical garden will be tracked throughout the seasons. Here are our top choices. Oh, the tomato is not a vegetable so we will cheat a little and add it to our garden to make thirteen.

Planning

When planning a vegetable garden there are several things to remember. First, most vegetables require 6-8 hours of direct sun light each day. Therefore, locate your vegetable garden where it can get adequate sun and where it won’t be cast in shadows from trees. Second, don’t make your garden larger than you need it. A 10′ x 15′ garden will give you ample space to grow a large variety of vegetables. Also, plan to plant your vegetables after the last spring frost as it is damaging to most types of vegetables.

Preparing

When you choose a location for your garden you’ll need to prepare the soil. You can do this by tilling or spading the soil removing existing weeds in the process. You should also mix in some compost or natural fertilizer. The amount needed depends on the size of your garden and the type of compost or fertilizer you use. If your soil is primarily clay you may want to add some sand to improve drainage.

Planting

When you are ready to plant your vegetables, make sure to orient your rows of crops so that the rows run east to west, and keep the tallest plants on the north end of the garden. This will give all of your vegetables the best access to the sun. When planting seeds, depth is very important. As a general rule, plant the seeds about twice as deep as the seed is wide. For example, smaller seeds such as carrots and spinach should be planted only about 1/4 to 1/2 inch below the surface. Larger seeds such as beans should be planted 1 to 2 inches deep depending on the brand.

Maintaining

After planting your seeds it is important to keep them moist. Use a sprinkler or similar device to keep the seeds and soils moist. This will keep the seed’s shell soft allowing the sprout to break through. Weeding is another very important part of maintaining your garden. Weeding your garden on a consistent basis will keep your garden healthy and looking neat, and also prevents long weeding sessions as the weeds build up. Put the weeds in a separate container. This will help prevent weeds or their seeds from getting back into your garden.

Harvesting

Harvesting your vegetables is the most rewarding part of the experience. Some vegetables are best when picked before they are completely ripe. This includes peas, beans, cucumbers and squash. Other vegetables such as carrots, tomatoes, and peppers are best harvested when completely ripe. Pick your vegetables from the plants and place them in a mesh bag . This will keep your hands free to properly pick your vegetables and also allows you to wash your vegetables off while they are still in the bag.

Many Enjoy Vegetable Gardening as a Hobby

There was a time when vegetable gardening could reduce the cost of a families grocery bills. Before that it was a necessary part of life if you wanted healthy food all year around. Veggie gardening and preservation of the crops was a part of daily life. Today, it can be argued that there is little savings in growing your own vegetables.

The cost of garden accessories and the time that must be committed to take a crop from seed to yield may well make buying vegetables the best economic choice. The availability of fresh vegetables in stores makes preserving them for winter hardly necessary any more. Yet, people continue to garden and work the soil in even the tiniest spaces. There must be another reason for gardeners continued interest.

Many people enjoy gardening vegetables as a hobby because it soothes their nerves and calms their life. There really is no way to garden in a rush and cultivate a happy garden. The whole process is slow and gradual and results in the best crop when tended with love. The gardener builds up his personal selection of tools and garden accessories. Each year and each new garden he grows helps him to understand how to better encourage the best out of each vegetable seed he sows.

You may not be able to be convinced on economic grounds that vegetable gardening is worth your time investment. Gardeners at heart though, will tell you that they pay a very small price for the pleasure and peace of mind they get from the simple task of tilling the soil.

January 6, 2011 · admin · No Comments
Posted in: Vegetable Gardening