| Pg
13 | |||
| Landscape
& Garden | |||
|
Vegetables grow best if they get lots of sun and lots of water, so no matter what
you plant make sure you're planting in the sunniest part of your yard and within
easy reach of your garden hose.
We've laid this page out chronologically under the following topics, and you can
link to any one of them directly or scroll through them in order.
Planting Cool Season Vegetables
They are the least susceptible to sudden frosts and can actually go in a few weeks
before the date of the average last frost in your area (which a local nursery
can give you). Some Common Cool Season Vegetables:
Planting Warm Season Vegetables
For these vegetables, plan on leaving space in the garden and planting these later in the spring. Some Common Warm Season Vegetables:
By the way if you plant all your sweet corn at once, you'll end up having to harvest much more than you can eat all at once. So if you're planting 3 rows of corn, try planting them 1 row at a time with a week in between each planting to stretch the harvest out.
Just monitor the growth of your first crop and harvest that as soon as its mature. Remove
the debris from that planting and then re-plant new seeds in the same area, watering
as needed.
But to keep the soil relatively moist and cool and to keep down weeds, we mulched
between our plant rows with a layer of newspaper (which decomposes) covered with
grass clippings to hold the paper down. That also keeps you from churning up mud
when you work in the garden. Certain vegetables will grow better with a little boost of fertilizer during the summer:
And here's a tip we picked up: Give your tomato plants a gentle shake once the flowers appear to help the pollination process that leads to juicy tomatoes.
It's not a bad idea at planting time to set up an expected harvest schedule based
on each vegetable's predicted harvest date (found on the seed package).
Then make it a point to get into the garden at the proper times and remove the
ripe vegetables. Otherwise, they can rot pretty quickly in the summer heat. And don't be surprised if you're bringing out a basketful of fresh vegetables every day for 2 or 3 months.
| |||
|
| |||
| For
More How-To Information: | |||
Random Sowing: With leafy vegetables like lettuce, you can simply sprinkle
the seeds over the soil and then sprinkle enough soil over the seeds to cover
them up. Water carefully, though, with a sprayer or small watering can because
too much moisture will flood them out of the bed.
Furrow
Planting: Usually, growers will use a hoe to create a straight furrow in the
soil, plant a couple of seeds every couple of inches along the furrow and then
use the hoe to re-cover the furrow with soil. Plants are easier to weed and to
thin out when they're in a straight line, assuming you leave a couple feet between
the rows to walk. 
Seed
Strips You can buy the tiny seeds of certain vegetables like radishes and
carrots on paper seed strips. Then you stretch the tape out, lay it in the furrow
and cover it up. That's a lot faster than dealing with the tiny seeds. The paper
will decompose as the seeds sprout.
Transplants,
Starts, Seedlings These are vegetables started from seed indoors, separated
into small containers and then brought outside for planting in the garden. They're
most commonly used in colder climates with shorter growing seasons, and they're
planted by removing them from their containers, setting them in a small hole and
covering their rootballs with soil.
The planting season begins with the heartiest seeds and transplants, known as
the cool season vegetables.
Many vegetables are susceptible to the cold, and these warm season vegetables
shouldn't go in till after the date of the average last frost.
With certain fast-growing vegetables (like lettuce, radishes and broccoli), you
can squeeze two or more crops out of the same part of your vegetable garden by
succession planting.
If your garden gets enough sun, then about all you really need to do is make sure
your veggies get about an inch of water every week, supplementing rainfall with
watering as needed.
Tomatoes benefit from a low-nitrogen mix high in potassium and phosphorus
to promote flower and fruit growth. Just work a small amount into the soil around
the plant's roots. Corn will grow faster with a couple feedings of a high-nitrogen
fertilizer, once at about a foot high and then at about 2 feet high. 
Harvesting a large garden can actually get to be a nightmare if you don't monitor
it fairly carefully, especially in a really successful growing season.
After
a summer of work in the garden, it's tempting to let any garden cleanup go till
spring. But the following steps can save you work in the long run: