This spring has come quickly and with widely varying temperatures. Yesterday it got up to 80 degrees, today it was raining and cool at 50 degrees.
With this in mind, it's finally time to start planting!
This week we will go into how to install and plant your vegetable garden.
In the last few posts I went over how to start seedlings inside. I'm going to assume that you had some success with the seedlings and are ready to plant them. If they all ended up dried and shriveled up, do not despair! It's probably warm enough to plant the seeds directly in the ground OR you can head out to a locally owned garden center to purchase nice sized plants in a few weeks.
Regardless of how they start in your garden, vegetables are easy to grow and are very rewarding when they are ready to be harvested. The most important requirements are sunshine and watering. Beyond that all you need is soil, some fertilizer, a bit of weeding and a container if you choose to do a container garden. If you have an area in your yard that gets sunshine most of the day (6-8 hours) then you can have a vegetable garden, even if it is mostly concrete. Your first year requires the most amount of work, but don’t get discouraged, the work you do in the beginning does not have to be done again each year. I recommend that you start slow. Do you really need a 30'x30' garden? Can you start small and expand next year?
If you are starting a container garden, please make sure it's large enough for the mature plant! A tomato will die if you put it into a 3 gallon sized container, it's just not big enough. Aside from the container, you need soil. Unless you are a chemist and enjoy balancing the pH of your soil, head out to a local garden center and purchase GOOD quality garden soil (make sure you ask someone at the gardening center if you are unsure about whether the soil is appropriate for your vegetables. bring the soil home, add the appropriate amount of fertilizer and mix it together. Plant your seedlings and you are DONE! Congratulations, go make yourself a cosmo and relax.
If you are planting your garden in the traditional way,before you plant, do yourself a favor and create a planting plan making sure you allow enough room for the plants at their mature size. All you need is a pencil, paper and maybe a ruler (if you like straight lines) to draw the garden plan out. Be aware of where the sun rises, sets and hangs in the midday sky so the tallest plants do not shade the shorter ones. Plants generally get larger then most gardeners realize! READ YOUR PACKETS! THEY AREN'T LYING! When you purchased your seeds, the packet had information on how much room they will need when fully grown, if you are purchasing plants, the tag should give you this information. When it says plant every 18" and you are looking a teeny tiny little seedling, you may be tempted to plant them every 8", DON'T DO IT! Your little seedling will grow and quickly. If they don't have enough sun and air circulation they get stressed (very much like humans) and they won't produce quality vegetables, and that's why you are doing this right? So allow enough space for each one.
Next, readying the planting area: Some gardeners believe that the ground that the plants will grow in needs to be loosened up so that the roots of the tender vegetable plants can grow into your soil and make strong, healthy plants. The argument is that the roots are the only way the plant takes up water and nutrients so you want to make their job easy. I disagree. I believe that it disturbs the environment that has already been developed! If you kill the weeds by smothering them with soil or compost, not only do you eliminate most of the work involved with starting a garden, but you add compost automatically! All you need to do is cover the area with cardboard or layers of wet newspaper (anything that will decompose quickly), followed by several inches of grass clippings, shredded leaves or weed-free hay, straw or compost. Add fertilizer now and amend in the top 4-6" of soil. Use a hand trowel to pull back the mulch, cut away sod, and open up planting holes for your seedlings! Pop in your seedling, plant or seeds (if you are ABSOLUTELY confident that the chance of frost has passed). You should water gently after planting until the soil is moist at 1" below the surface. Water again when the soil appears dry on the top.
Make sure you have enough compost down and that will help retain some of the moisture. If the summer comes and rain is plentiful, don't worry about watering all the time. If it doesn't rain for three days, make sure you go out to check on everything. I've seen some beautiful gardens that have died due to lack of water.
Now, brush off your hands and go inside for a tall glass of water. After all of that work you may need to rehydrate yourself!
Next week: Shrub and perennial planting
