Vegetable Gardening Page 5
Extended harvest season: A certain variety of corn, for example, may ripen early or late in the season. By planting varieties that ripen at different times, you can start harvesting as early as 60 days after seeding and continue for 5 or 6 weeks. Seed catalogs and packages often describe varieties as early season, midseason, or late season in relationship to other varieties of the same vegetable.
Pest resistance: Many vegetable varieties are resistant to specific diseases or pests — a very important trait in many areas. Some tomato varieties, in particular, have outstanding disease resistance. See Chapter 17 for more on pest control. You also can read about specific pest-resistant varieties of individual vegetables in Part II.
Plant size: The trend in vegetable breeding is to go small. Tomato, cucumber, and even winter squash varieties are available in dwarf sizes. These varieties are perfect for container growing or small-space gardens.
Taste: Pick a flavor and you can find a vegetable that stars in it. You can grow fruity tomatoes, super-sweet varieties of corn, bitter melons, and spicy peppers. You'll discover flavors for every taste bud.
To realize the scope of your vegetable variety possibilities, see the individual vegetable descriptions in Part II. It's also important to note that you can categorize a variety as a hybrid, an open-pollinated, or an heirloom variety. Here's what these terms mean:
Hybrid: Hybrid seeds (also known as F-1 hybrids) are the result of a cross of selected groups of plants of the same kind, called inbred lines. (A cross is when pollen from one flower fertilizes a flower from another similar plant, resulting in seed.) Hybrid seeds generally are more expensive than open-pollinated seeds, and they can't be saved and planted the next year because the offspring won't have the same characteristics as the parents. If you did plant them next year, you'd get a mix of characteristics — some desirable and some not. The plants are uniform, but they often lack a diversity of shapes, colors, sizes, and flavors. However, hybrid plants are more vigorous, productive, and widely adapted than other varieties.
Open-pollinated: Open-pollinated varieties basically are inbred lines allowed to pollinate each other in open fields. They produce offspring that are similar to their parents. Before the arrival of hybrids, all vegetable varieties were open-pollinated. Some gardeners like these varieties for their flavor, their diversity, and the fact that they can save the seeds each year to replant. The resulting offspring are pretty predictable, but they don't provide the consistency of hybrids.
Heirloom: Any open-pollinated variety that's at least 50 years old is generallyconsidered an heirloom. Heirlooms are enjoying quite a revival because of the variety of colors, tastes, and forms that are available. They're worth trying, but keep in mind that some varieties may not have the disease resistance and wide adaptability that hybrids generally have.
One category generally available only to commercial farmers is that of the genetically modified variety. This kind of plant has a gene from a completely unrelated species inserted into it so that it exhibits a certain trait. For example, geneticists have inserted a gene of the biological pesticide Bt (see Chapter 17) into potatoes so that when the Colorado potato beetle (their biggest enemy) eats a potato's leaves, it also eats the pesticide and dies. Many questions exist about the long-term health risks and environmental safety of manipulating the gene pool so dramatically and quickly. For this reason, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) aren't allowed in organic gardening.
Timing Your Planting Wisely
As my dad used to say, "Timing is everything." This axiom is especially important for vegetable gardening, so file it where you can't forget it. Remembering it will save you lots of heartache and disappointment. For example, if you plant tomatoes too early, the plants will sit there like bumps on a log, not growing and possibly rotting in cold, wet soil or turning mushy and black after they've been zapped by frost. Plant lettuce too late, and it'll produce more flowers than leaves, and the leaves you harvest will be tough and bitter. I can give you examples like this for every vegetable, but I'll spare you the monotony. Just know that planting at the wrong time of year is a recipe for disaster.
If you follow the rhythms of nature and plant when conditions are perfect for proper growth, growing vegetables is a breeze. But how are you supposed to know about these rhythms? Start tapping your foot, because the following sections will have you moving like Fred Astaire.
Some like it cool, some like it hot
Vegetables can be divided into the following two categories based on the temperature conditions in which they grow best:
Cool-season vegetables: These vegetables, such as lettuce, spinach, peas, potatoes, broccoli, and cabbage, grow best in the cool weather of spring and fall. As vegetables go, they're fairly hardy and survive despite freezing temperatures. In most areas, cool-season vegetables are usually planted in early spring so they mature before the onset of hot weather, or in late summer to early fall for maturation in the cool months of fall or early winter. However, in areas where summers are very cool and winters are mild, such as in coastal areas of the western United States and the far north, cool season vegetables can be grown year-round and may be the only vegetables that can thrive in this climate.
What happens if you plant a cool-season vegetable when it's too warm? Not a lot of good. Lettuce will bolt, meaning it starts to flower before you get a chance to harvest it. In other words, instead of producing tender, crisp leaves, lettuce will send out a tall flower spike. Any leaves that are left on the plant will be bitter-tasting and tough. Broccoli will form loose clusters of yellow flowers instead of forming nice tight heads. And peas won't properly fill their pods with sweet, succulent peas. You get the idea!
Warm-season vegetables: These vegetables, such as beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, squash, okra, and corn, like it hot and grow best in the warm months of summer. They need warm soil and air temperatures to grow their best; if they're planted while the weather is still too cool, they'll suffer and not grow. Because freezing temperatures kill these vegetables, they're usually planted after the threat of frost in spring. In warm areas, they also can be planted in late summer for a fall harvest.
To push along warm-season veggies, wait until the soil and air are the proper temperature. Or consider using season extenders to trap heat around the plants. Season extenders also help in cool summer climates such as the Pacific Northwest, where the weather rarely gets warm enough even in summer to ripen heat-loving vegetables like melons. (Chapter 21 has more ideas on season-extending techniques.)
Frost dates and the length of the growing season
You should know two very important weather dates for your area if you want to grow vegetables successfully:
The average date of the last frost in spring
The average date of the first frost in fall
These frost dates tell you several important things:
When to plant: Cool-season vegetables are generally planted 4 to 6 weeks before the last spring frost. Fall planting of cool-season vegetables is less dependent on frost dates, but it's usually done 8 to 12 weeks before the first fall frost. Warm-season vegetables are planted after the last spring frost or in late summer in warm areas for a fall harvest.
When to protect warm-season vegetables: Frosts kill warm-season vege-tables. So the closer you plant to the last frost of spring, the more important it is to protect plants. And as the fall frost gets closer, so does the end of your summer vegetable season — unless, of course, you protect your plants. I show you how to provide frost protection in Chapter 21.
The length of your growing season: Your growing season is the number of days between the average date of the last frost in spring and the average date of the first frost in fall. The length of the growing season can range from less than 100 days in northern or cold winter climates to 365 days in frost-free southern climes. Many warm-season vegetables need long, warm growing seasons to properly mature, so they're difficult, if not impossible, to grow where growing seasons are short.
How are you to know whether your growing season is long enough? If you check mail-order seed catalogs or even individual seed packets, each variety will have the number of days to harvest or days to maturity (usually posted in parentheses next to the variety name). This number tells you how many days it takes for that vegetable to grow from seed (or transplant) to harvest. If your growing season is only 100 days long and you want to grow a melon or other warm-season vegetable that takes 120 frost-free days to mature, you have a problem. The plant will probably be killed by frost before the fruit is mature. In areas with short growing seasons, it's usually best to go with early ripening varieties (which have the shortest number of days to harvest).
However, you also can find many effective ways to extend your growing season, such as starting seeds indoors or planting under floating row covers (blanketlike materials that drape over plants, creating warm, greenhouselike conditions underneath). Various methods of extending growing seasons are covered in Chapter 21.
There you have it; now you know why frost dates are so important. But how do you find out dates for your area? Easy. Ask a local nursery worker or contact your local Cooperative Extension office (look in the phone book under county government). You also can look in the appendix of this book, which lists frost dates for major cities around the country.
Frost dates are important, but you also have to take them with a grain of salt. After all, these dates are averages, meaning that half the time the frost will actually come earlier than the average date and half the time it will occur later. You also should know that frost dates are usually given for large areas, such as your city or county. If you live in a cold spot in the bottom of a valley, frosts may come days earlier in fall and days later in spring. Similarly, if you live in a warm spot or you garden in a microclimate, your frost may come later in fall and stop earlier in spring. You're sure to find out all about your area as you become a more seasoned vegetable gardener and unearth the nuances of your own yard. One thing you'll discover for sure is that you can't predict the weather.
Listening to your evening weather forecast is one of the best ways to find out whether frosts are expected in your area. But you also can do a little predicting yourself by going outside late in the evening and checking conditions. If the fall or early spring sky is clear and full of stars, and the wind is still, conditions are right for a frost. If you need to protect plants, do so at that time. Frost-protection techniques are covered in Chapter 21.
Designing Your Garden
After you've found the best spot for your plot, selected a few veggie varieties, and figured out when you need to plant those varieties, it's time to map out your garden. Designing a vegetable garden is a little bit of art and a little bit of science. Practically speaking, plants must be spaced properly so they have room to grow and arranged so taller vegetables don't shade lower-growing types. Different planting techniques fit the growth habits of different kinds of vegetables. You also should think about the paths between rows and plants. Will you have enough room to harvest, weed, and water, for example?
On the other hand, having fun with your vegetable garden design is important too. Many vegetables are good looking on their own, but you also can get creative with combinations of vegetables with different flowers and herbs.
In the following sections, I give you the basics so you can start to sketch out a garden plan. I also provide some sample designs to get your juices flowing. If you stick with your plan, you'll be a vegetable gardening wizard in no time.
These sections give you the nuts and bolts information you need to create a final vegetable garden design. Don't stop here though. The descriptions of individual vegetables in Part II suggest ways to grow various types of vegetables — information that will probably influence your design. And the information on planting times earlier in this chapter, the scoop on succession planting in Chapter 16, and the lowdown on watering techniques in Chapter 15 can influence the way you arrange and plant your garden.
Deciding on hills, rows, or raised beds
Before you sketch a plan, you need to decide how to arrange the plants in your garden. You can use three basic planting arrangements:
In rows: Planting vegetables in rows is the typical farmer technique. Any vegetable can be planted in straight rows, but this arrangement works best with types that need quite a bit of room, such as tomatoes, beans, cabbages, corn, potatoes, peppers, and summer squash.
In hills: Hills are typically used for vining crops such as cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and winter squash. You can create a 1-foot-wide, flat-topped mound for heavy soil, or you can create a circle at ground level for sandy soil. You then surround the soil with a moatlike ring for watering. Two or three evenly spaced plants are grown on each hill. Space your hills the recommended distance used for rows of that vegetable.
In raised beds: Raised beds, which are my favorite, are kind of like wide, flat-topped rows. They're usually at least 2 feet wide and raised at least 6 inches high, but any planting area that's raised above the surrounding ground level is a raised bed. Almost any vegetable can benefit from being grown on a raised bed, but smaller vegetables and root crops, such as lettuce, beets, carrots, onions, spinach, and radishes, really thrive with this type planting. On top of the raised bed you can grow plants in rows or with broadcast seeding (see Chapter 13 for more on seeding techniques).
A raised bed can be a normal bed with the soil piled 5 or 6 inches high. I call this a temporary raised bed. Or you can build a permanent raised bed with wood, stone, or masonry sides, as shown in Figure 3-2.
Figure 3-2: Raised beds can be made with soil alone, or with wood, stone, or masonry sides.
Raised beds have several advantages, including the following:
They rise above soil problems. If you have bad soil or poor drainage, raised beds are for you. You can amend the garden soil in the raised bed with compost or the same sterile potting soil you use for containers (see Chapter 18). And because you don't step on the beds as you work, the soil is more likely to stay light and fluffy, providing the perfect conditions for root growth — especially for root crops such as carrots and beets.
They warm up quickly. Because more of the soil in raised beds is exposed to the sun, the soil warms early and dries out faster, allowing for early planting and extended harvest seasons.
If you're in a hot climate and have sandy soil, raised beds may not be for you, because they'll dry out and heat up too much.
They reduce your work. By growing your vegetables in raised beds, you can maximize your fertilizing and watering so that more nutrients and water are actually used by the plants rather than wasted in the pathways.
They're easy on your back and knees. If you design the beds properly (about 18 to 24 inches high and no wider than 4 feet), raised beds can make vegetable gardening a lot more comfortable. You can sit on the edge and easily reach into the bed to weed or harvest. You can even cap the edge to make it more benchlike.
They're attractive. You can make raised beds in almost any shape you like — rectangle, square, triangle, circle. Your garden can take on a whimsical design with a little creativity. Just keep the width less than 4 feet so you can easily reach the center of the bed without stepping on the soil.
Wooden raised beds should be made of rot-resistant woods, such as redwood or cedar, or recycled plastic timbers. I like to use two 2-x-10 boards for the sides, and then I anchor them with lag screws at the corners with short 4-x-4 posts buried a foot deep. (You don't necessarily need the posts, however.) If you plant several raised beds, leave at least 3-foot-wide paths between them for access. (I discuss garden paths in more detail later in this chapter.)
Some gardeners use pressure-treated wood or creosote-treated railroad ties to construct raised beds; check with your local lumberyard for these materials. I prefer not to use woods treated with chemicals. They'll last a long time, but research has shown that some of these chemicals leach into the soil and can adversely affect your plants.
The one downside of permanent raised beds is turning the soil. Lifting a tiller onto the bed can be difficult, so they're best turned by hand with an iron fork. (I like to "fluff" my beds each spring with an iron fork.) You also can use a minitiller, which I discuss in Chapter 20.
In dry areas such as the desert Southwest, the traditional bed isn't raised — it's sunken. These waffle beds are created by digging into the soil about 6 inches deep and making a small wall of soil around the outside edge of the bed. This design allows the bed to catch any summer rains, protects young plants from the drying winds, and concentrates water where the vegetables grow.
Spacing your plantings properly
After you know what you're planting and how to arrange the plants, it's time to talk spacing. Make a list of the different types of vegetables that you want to grow, and then pay attention to these columns in Table A-1 in the appendix:
Plants/Seeds per 100 ft. of Row: This column tells you how many plants/how much seed you need to purchase.
Spacing between Rows/Beds (Inches): This column includes the ideal distance you should leave between rows or beds of different vegetables. This is usually a little more than the distance you should leave between plants.
Spacing between Plants (Inches): In this column, you find the ideal distance to allow between individual vegetable plants within a row or planting bed.
Average Yield per 10 ft. of Row: This column shows you how much you can expect to harvest.
The vegetable spacing information that I provide in Table A-1 in the appendix is more like guidelines than hard-and-fast rules. If you're growing on raised beds or growing dwarf varieties (see Part II for examples of these types of varieties), you can plant a little closer together, because you'll be concentrating the fertilizer and water in a smaller space.