Successful vegetable gardening requires thoughtful site selection and soil preparation as well as attention to plant health and insect pests. Furthermore, maintaining and harvesting vegetables regularly are also key ingredients of success.
At lunchtime, imagine walking across your backyard and cutting into a giant, fat Cherokee Purple tomato for a traditional tomato sandwich – this summer and beyond! With proper planning, fresh, nutritious veggies could become part of your regular meal rotation!
Spring
Springtime is an ideal time for starting a vegetable garden, as temperatures warm, trees leaf out, and the ground thaws out. But planting too early could mean frostbite; planting too late might mean your crops won’t thrive. To ensure success in your region’s optimal planting window use a planting calendar and last frost date calculator to plan.
As spring begins to unfold, cool season vegetables such as brussels sprouts, peas, kale and lettuce should be the first ones planted into the ground. As these plants thrive in cool soil conditions but become stressed by high summer temperatures they should be planted early to give them time to establish themselves before summer arrives.
These vegetables can be started indoors in a seedling tray before being transplanted outdoors; or many gardeners opt for sowing seeds directly into the ground when spring comes around, according to gardening expert Leigh Clapp. When is best depends heavily upon region and soil type.
Warmer regions or those with sandy beds may begin outdoor sowing as early as March; for the rest of us it may not happen until April.
Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers should be planted in your garden during mid-to-late May through June when frost risk has passed. To help ensure success of your crops, add plenty of organic matter to the soil as well as mulch them if desired.
Other fast-maturing leafy vegetables to sow in the garden beyond kale and spinach include radishes, turnips, and beets. To ensure an even harvest year-round, stagger plantings every three weeks. Honeydew melons should be planted late spring after the ground has warmed; to do this create planting hills (moat-like circles) within your garden before scattering four to six seeds across each one – this will form vines quickly that you can then trellis over something like fence or trellis structure set up in your backyard.
Summer
Summer brings with it warmer temperatures and longer days that give vegetable plants an incredible boost. Timing is key when it comes to reaping a bountiful harvest of fresh produce from these efforts.
Start off the season right by amending the soil with organic matter like compost, and watering well to get it ready for planting. Make sure the spot you select for your garden has good drainage and plenty of sunlight for full, even growth; any fertilizers should only be applied sparingly as excessive doses could damage delicate seedlings.
Many warm-season vegetables can be planted into midsummer if protected from frost with cloches, row covers, cold frames or hotbeds. Seedlings grown under protection should gradually adapt to outdoor conditions over several days prior to transplanting them out into their final location.
Successful sowings of fast-maturing vegetables can be done throughout the summer for an uninterrupted supply. Radish, spring onions and spinach all benefit from being sowed regularly at the same location; sowing again in July gives an abundance of harvest until autumn arrives!
If the weather hasn’t been ideal and you haven’t managed any sowing yet, don’t fret – planting into early summer still allows for success when using cool-season crops like carrots, lettuce, kale, parsley, fennel and sage as crops to plant.
Keep an eye on the average dates for last frost in spring and first frost in fall to make sure that you don’t miss your planting window. A soil thermometer is also useful in monitoring ground temperatures so you can sow seeds or transplant transplants when conditions are optimal for working conditions. If rain or hail threatens, indoor sowing can be done using a propagator and then transplanted outdoors when weather improves; this can save both time and energy! Adding cover crops like oats or alfalfa can help suppress weeds while enriching soil with organic matter.
Fall
After summer gardens come to an end in late July or August, gardeners may be tempted to put them to bed until spring. But fall is actually an excellent time to start sowing vegetables for harvest in November and December in temperate areas (USDA zones four to eight). And it’s easier than growing in the heat of summer: less annual weed pressure exists, pest insects have finished their lifecycles and cool temperatures minimize stress on plants by slowing their growth.
Before sowing, prepare the soil by clearing away any remaining plant material and loosening your bed to an approximate depth of six to eight inches. Add one to two pounds of complete fertilizers like 10-10-10 for every 100 square feet of bed space you own and work it into the soil. If you were gardening in this same location previously, crop rotation might help avoid pest problems eating into your fall harvests.
Establish a variety of cool-weather vegetables that thrive in autumn weather, including leafy greens, root veggies and cruciferous veggies such as cabbage, broccoli and kale. Early varieties of carrots, radishes and beets can also be harvested early for harvesting into tasty fall soups and stews. Also keep in mind to plant fast-growing runners like arugula mustard spinach that are ready in 40 days or less for salad bars!
Plan your plantings around your local first frost date, which you can figure out with an online calculator by entering your zip code. However, bear in mind that cooler weather and shorter days slow growth, so add several weeks onto the calculated harvest days for your region. And don’t forget to sidedress fall-maturing crops with nitrogen just like you did for spring-maturing ones; this will allow them to reach maturity before frost sets in, adding flavorful touches. Insulating materials such as row covers or cold frames may provide protection if temperatures turn really cold!
Winter
At the end of summer to early fall, sowing vegetable seeds that will provide fresh produce throughout winter is essential. Hardy leafy veggies such as mustard greens, kale and chard can survive frost and still produce for months when harvested carefully; while root crops such as carrots, parsnips and radishes should be left in the ground with a protective covering in case temperatures dip too low.
These plants thrive in cool temperatures but dislike sudden shifts in temperature or soil moisture levels which can cause rapid rotting. Therefore, it’s wise to use cloches or other techniques for season extension on any vegetables you want to extend into winter.
Sowing these crops from seed in late summer and autumn is highly recommended, or purchasing young plants from nurseries. Placing module or seed trays near each seedling allows for easier germination and protection from pests during their early days of life. Also beneficial is adding top dressings of compost rich in humus and nitrogen to improve soil microbial activity as well as improve fertility levels in planting beds.
Winter vegetables that can be grown from seeds require regular irrigation; however, when purchased as transplants or directly sowing into the ground this watering requirement becomes much less of an issue. However, in late autumn it can be beneficial to add a layer of hay or straw over beds containing root vegetables to protect their roots from surface frosts that could potentially damage them. Watering your garden should be done around each plant rather than applying a blanket layer – this will help inhibit weed growth. Add high-nitrogen fertilizers such as blood meal, cottonseed meal or bone meal to the soil to provide vegetables with all of the nutrition they require to thrive in cooler environments and reduce crop protection costs. A bit of mulch during spring can also help the soil retain its moisture.