As the price of groceries skyrockets, many backyard gardeners have decided that growing their own produce makes sense.
Vegetables are easy to grow but require work to establish a good crop. Planting a few seeds sounds pretty simple but like all aspects of horticulture, simplicity is not always the case.
A good dose of personal reflection should take place before any planning. A vegetable garden is a six-month long project. It takes a commitment that lasts all season long.
Beginning gardeners should not start with a large vegetable patch. For the first year, small is best.
Better to take individual successes and add onto them in future years. Nothing is more disheartening to see a weed infested plot that has grown too big for the individual gardener.
All weeds must be uprooted on a regular basis. Garden plants do not need competition. Individually, they require all the available space, moisture and soil nutrients to grow the best produce.
Beginning vegetable gardeners must consider all the variables. A good book, website or mentor can be a great help.
Make a list of vegetables that the family enjoys eating. It is so tempting to do the initial planning in front of seed racks. “I’ll have some of those and two of this,” certainly adds up to an unforeseen dilemma, work and lots of it.
A family garden is by far the best one. Try to keep a first garden fairly simple by not planting too many different vegetables.
Once the size of a garden has been determined, cordon it off with stakes and string. That will give a general idea of whether the size will be manageable.
All sod (grass) must be dug up and placed in a compost bin or area. The remaining soil will be the most important element of the new garden.
A pH test (available at a garden centre) will evaluate the acidity of the soil. Just follow the instructions. Add amendments (lime or sulfur) to the soil to bring it up to 6.5.
Sprinkle 5 to 8cm of rich compost across the top of the plot and till it into the soil. New gardeners may have to purchase compost until their pile gets under way. Local communities may have a facility where bulk compost is made of collected organic materials and made available to residents.
Once tilling has thoroughly loosened up the soil, begin to rake to a level surface. Using two stakes and a string as a guide, draw a line in the soil. Begin to plant seeds in straight rows.
Wide row planting: Planting in wide rows is recommended for peas and beans as they do not need staking. The vines grow up in a cluster and can support themselves. Leave enough space between the rows so that a rototiller can assist in the weeding. These rows grow 2 to 3 times the amount of vegetables that regular single rows do.
Plants, as they grow larger, will create their own living mulch, which will keep soil cool and moist, conserving water by slowing the moisture-evaporation rate on hot summer days.
Cultivating is also reduced as plants grow larger and crowd out smaller weeds.
Raised beds Early spring soil temperatures are very cool. Raising a bed could conceivably make it warmer and much more conducive to seed germination. Those beds are always warmer than soil at ground level. They drain and dry out faster too. That is good because then one can plant crops such as peas, onions and salad greens earlier in the season and not have to wait for the soil to warm up.
Planting, weeding, and harvesting will be at kneeling level, which is much easier than working on the ground.
Single row planting Some vegetables should only be planted using that conventional method. Tomatoes, potatoes, corn, squashes, and cucumbers are best planted this way.
Gardens that are short on space may find cucumbers, pole beans, peas, and some melons can be grown on a trellis. That makes good use of room above the soil instead of using more square metres of the garden.
Soil preparation is an essential yearly task. Soil is a mix of different minerals, nutrients and organic materials. All plants have similar but individually different needs to grow successfully. Knowledgeable gardeners know that healthy plants are the product of good soil that has been well prepared.
Ron Stevenson is a member of the Fergus Horticultural Society
