Planning This Year’s Vegetable Garden

“Fresh produce, economic savings, exercise, mental therapy, and control over the use of pesticides are just a few benefits and rewards of growing vegetables in the home garden. To gain the benefits of vegetable gardening, careful planning, care, and knowledge of site conditions and plant preferences will help ensure success,” Colorado State University Extension urges. If you’re starting your first vegetable garden, or need a refresher, consider the following.

First, evaluate your growing area. Most vegetables need eight hours of sunshine daily. How much space can you designate for your garden? If your answer is “not much,” consider growing vegetables in containers. Dwarf and bush vegetable varieties are compact choices, or consider growing some vine vegetables on trellis or wall-like structures, or mix vegetables with flowerbed plantings. Be aware of different plants water needs as you plan; there are no xeric vegetables!

Second, consider the layout of your garden. Compact design reduces weeding and is ideal for raised bed gardening.

Soil typically found in Front Range gardens will need amending, as most native soils have a high percentage of clay that easily compacts, reducing oxygen available to the roots.

After mixing your chosen amendment(s) into your existing garden soil, you are ready to seed the earliest vegetables right into the ground. New gardeners may wonder why they can plant some vegetables now, but not others. This timing is based on soil temperatures, as well as the local frost-free date: May 15. In April, consider planting broccoli, cabbage, peas, kale, beets, certain lettuce varieties, spinach, radish and onion sets. After mid-April, consider carrots, chard, turnips, and potato sets. These “hardy” vegetables grow with daytime temperatures as low as 40 degrees F and may survive a frosty nip.

“Semi-hardy” is a term for vegetables that grow with minimum temperatures of 40 to 50 degrees F, but are less tolerant of a frosty night. These crops may be planted as early as two weeks before the date of the average last spring frost. Warm season vegetables require daytime temperatures above 60. They prefer summer-like weather with temperatures between 70 and 95 and are sensitive to cool spring winds. Beans, corn, summer squashes and cucumbers are examples of warm season crops. Peppers, melons, tomatoes and winter squash are the tenderest of choices. They are intolerant of temperatures under 55.

Newcomers to Colorado are prone to disbelieve tales “veteran” gardeners recount of May snowstorms. Does anyone remember the hailstorm in the middle of May last year? In such cases we shake our heads, replant, and take the weather in stride!

Watering your vegetable garden is best done with a drip system or drip hose. Hoses with holes punched along their length are an easy answer, available in many area stores. Besides proper plant spacing overhead watering of plants is a prevalent cause of powdery mildew. As the disease progresses, leaves, buds and stems are distorted, leaves drop prematurely and flower buds fail to open. Vegetable gardens with poor air circulation and abundant shade are prone to infection. Dense plantings create microclimates with sufficient humidity to support mildew populations.

Fertilizing vegetables takes a light hand. Applying unneeded nutrients can actually cause problems. We all know friends who had lush, leafy tomato and squash plants but no fruit! Similarly, root crops such as turnips, carrots and parsnips may end up with many leaves but small roots.

Planting small quantities of different vegetables a few weeks apart, known as “succession planting,” will ensure a steady stream of variety for you to harvest and enjoy all summer. The local food movement is alive and well — it doesn’t get more local than your own!