Planning your vegetable garden

I want to add more information to a recent vegetable gardening column. Vegetable gardening can reward you with wholesome, tasty, low-cost food. You can even plant enough to provide a little extra for the neighbors or a food pantry.

You can donate though a program called Plant a Row for the Hungry. It is a public service campaign of the Garden Writers Association of America. It is helped by Home and Garden Television, Master Gardeners and many other companies and organizations. Since 1995, more than 14 million pounds of produce providing about 50 million meals have been donated by American gardeners. All this has been achieved without government subsidy or bureaucratic red tape, just people helping people.

The right "thyme" to plan your herb and vegetable garden is before you start digging. Proper planning combines all good gardening practices to produce a healthy vegetable garden. These include proper site selection; proper plant selection; soil management; appropriate cultural practices; biological, mechanical and chemical control of pests; and proper sanitation techniques.

Vegetables should receive at least six hours of direct sun every day, but should not be in the hottest part of the yard. The garden should not be next to trees and shrubs that compete for moisture, but it should be part of the overall landscape plan. It should be near the house, so you will work at it easily, and it should be near a source of water. It must be in an area that has good drainage and not flood with every little rain. Remember to move each crop to a different garden space at least every two years. Insect and disease organisms often remain in the soil over winter, so moving the plants helps reduce the need for pesticides.

Select crops based on the following five points. By deciding what to plant before you go to the store, you will be less tempted to go on an impulse buying binge.


• First, what vegetables does your family like to eat? There is no point in growing what no one wants to eat. You should plant extras of the favorites. Each person in the family can subsist off of five bean plants, 25 carrots, 20 corn and two pepper or tomato plants. If you want to can or freeze the produce or provide for the less fortunate, you will need to plant more plants.


• Second, plant crops that are expensive at the grocery store. If you will eat them, planting specialty crops may be better than planting commonly available vegetables.


• Third, does it taste noticeably better when fresh from the garden? Try eating these vegetables fresh picked and you will notice the difference: asparagus, green beans, sweet corn, herbs, lettuce, melons, onions, peas, spinach, squash and tomatoes.


• Fourth, how much garden space is available? Some crops have newer dwarf varieties and still yield full-sized vegetables. Others yield miniature portions that can be used in salads and Asian dishes.


• Fifth, one of the best ways to cut down on the use of pesticides in the garden is to use varieties of plants that are resistant to insects and disease. Each year, new varieties are released, so check the label for information. Plant varieties that have won an All-America selection award should do well. They have had to do well at test sites all across the continent to win. Another good designation on the label to look for is "F1 Hybrid." This signifies a cross that is usually very vigorous and produces the most flowers or fruit.

To get the most production from the garden space, you can plant early cool-season crops, and when they are done, pull them out to plant warm-season crops and finally, when those are done, replant cool-season crops in the fall.

The best way to get the vegetable variety you want may be to buy it from seed. Most stores carry a very limited selection of already growing vegetables and flowers. Many of these same stores sell a wider variety of vegetable seeds than they carry in plants. There are seed catalogs that sell hundreds of varieties and there are some that sell heirloom varieties that are impossible to get otherwise.

Indoor planting allows a head start on varieties that are slow to mature or germinate inconsistently in the garden. Indoors, most vegetables and annual flowers take a month or two from planting to grow to a transplantable size.

Plant seeds in shallow pots with good drainage. Aluminum roasting trays work well, as do many other pots. One tray can have the soil and some drainage holes. Set a few rocks in another tray and put the first tray on top. You now have good drainage and a saucer to catch the excess water.

Most seeds are planted only as deep into the soil as a couple of times the seed's diameter. The germinating pot's soil must be very light. In other words, no clay or garden soil. Straight peat moss, perlite or vermiculite will work fine as a germinating soil.

Keep the soil warm, from 70 to 80 degrees, but the air around the soil can be 10 degrees cooler. Thermostatically controlled heating mats are beneficial. Cool soil will cause the seeds to sprout and grow slowly. Window ledges provide good light, but are often too cool in northern climates.

The soil must stay damp but not waterlogged. Covevr the pot with plastic wrap to keep the moisture in until the seeds sprout. As the seeds begin to grow, let the soil dry out enough to keep fungus from growing on the surface. Do not over-fertilize; it is a quick way to kill small plants. Use a liquid fertilizer at half the normal dosage.

If the pots cannot be in full sun, use a fluorescent light just a few inches above the top of the plants for 18 hours per day. An adjustable shelf or light hanger is a must. Tall thin plants that bend over are not getting enough light.

Before planting them outdoors, it is best to harden them a bit. Place the pots outside in a shady protected location during the day. Bring them back inside for the night for the first week; after that, leave them outside for a few days before planting. Be sure to water them as necessary.

Keep a garden diary to track how well you do with growing the vegetables from seed. Next year, the process will be easier with the help of the notes.