Posted October 1, 2009
Planting a vegetable plot and keeping it productive is easy when you start small, keep the basics in mind and plant reliable varieties.
This month is the ideal time to put in your cool-season crops, like spinach, onions, collards, garlic and kale.
Use these step-by-step tips to guide you toward a harvest of fresh vegetables that bring you good nutrition and a lower food bill:
Locate it properly. A sunny, well-drained spot close to a water faucet is ideal. Leafy greens tolerate some shade, but other crops want eight hours of sun daily.
Grow what you need. Avoid the urge to tear up your entire back yard for a vegetable garden; you may end up with more weeds than vegetables because you don’t have the time to maintain it. Instead, consider a 10-by-10-foot garden. In many families, five to six crops is all that’s needed. You can always expand next year.
Make it simple. Forget tilling and shoveling soil. The easiest vegetable garden is an above-ground design made with composite lumber-type boards; build the frames to hold soil 12 to 18 inches deep. Once the boards are installed, get a truckload of good topsoil delivered and fill it to the top of the boards. Water and allow soil to settle before planting. Vegetables are easy to harvest and weeding is minimal in this style vegetable gardening.
Amend your soil. Adding organic matter makes gardening so much easier because it improves everything, nutrients, moisture and results.
Grow what you will eat. Crops like mesclun, arugula and radishes give you instant salads for the dinner table. Greens like spinach can be sauteed and used as a pizza or pasta topping. Garlic adds gusto to lots of dishes.
No space for a ground garden? Large pots of compact vegetables easily get you enough for two.
Grow a little for someone else. Contact your local food bank or church to see if you can donate a few extra vegetables for people in need.
TRY THESE
-Winterbor kale. This nutritious leafy green is a vigorous producer that endures winter easily, even in very cold climates. Cut the outer leaves so that the center continues growing. Space transplants about 12 inches apart
-Georgia collards. Another leafy green similar to kale, collards offer a larger, stronger, sweet cabbage-like flavor. Leaves taste best when young. Space transplants 36 inches apart.
-Romaine lettuce. Rich in fiber, vitamin C, and beta-carotene, romaine is an especially good vegetable for overall health. Space transplants 18 inches apart.
-Early Dividend broccoli. Popular, productive and easy to grow, this broccoli is high in fiber and calcium. Set transplants 18 inches apart
-Mustard greens. Offering spicy hot leaves, this is a very fast-growing, nutritious vegetable. Mustard greens always taste sweeter when nipped by frost. Space plants 12 inches apart
-Bonnie Hybrid cabbage. Grows large, round, blue-green heads. Cabbage is especially high in beta-carotene, vitamin C, K and fiber.
-Arugula. These fast-growing leafy greens are great for salads or gourmet recipes. This peppery-tasting green is a superfood for your bones. The leaves are “nutrient dense” and low in calories. They are especially high in vitamins A, C, and K.
Sources: Local garden centers, as well as Lowe’s and Home Depot where Bonnie Plants and Burpee Home Gardens garden-ready plants are sold
—
FALL CROPS
Arugula
Beets
Cabbage
Collards
Garlic
Kale
Mesclun
Mustard greens
Onions
Pak choi
Parsley
Radishes
Romaine lettuce
Spinach
Date: Sept 30, 2009