I ripped this image from the pages of January's Better Homes and Gardens - it inspires & EXCITES me! Its time to get organized and make plans for this year’s VEGETABLE GARDEN!
Whether you already have a vegetable garden or will be building from scratch this year, here are a few tips to get you planning:
List - Think back to last year. What did well? What failed? What did you wish there was more of, and what were you begging the neighbors to take off your hands?
Once you have a list of veggies you can start to separate the cold season vegetables (leafy greens, brassica's, peas) from the warm season (tomatoes, beans, corn). You can also decide what you would like to start from seed, directly sow or buy as seedlings. If this is your first year for a garden, having a list will help you identify how large your garden needs to be. It is often less overwhelming to start small and add more garden in following years.
Plot - Having a drawn plan will help to ensure the best use of your garden space. It will help you plan where cool season plants rotate out and warm season veggies get planted, help with crop rotation by keeping your drawn plan for a reference in following years, and to help ensure plants will receive the ample amount of sunshine they need by making sure tall plants are not planted in front of shorter plants - blocking the sun. I also like to know what I will be growing vertically up trellises, which helps to utilize garden space.
Schedule - It is helpful to start a schedule now for this years garden so you know when to attend to such things as: starting seeds which requires a lot of scheduling as different seeds require different amounts of time to be mature enough plants for transplanting. For instance; tomatoes take 6-8 weeks to grow into strong transplantable seedlings so starting your tomato seeds by the end of February/early March will allow for plenty of time. Each plant has a different time table. Information about how long it takes a seed to be transplantable can be found on the back of your seed packet or check out this link.
Starting seeds can take a bit of room and time, but is so rewarding as well as great winter therapy.
Also, having a schedule to know when to get your cold season vegetables in the ground and then when it will be time to plant warm season veggies is helpful. This link is a list of recommended vegetables for Utah and their planting dates.
Additional resources; USU Extension Square foot Gardening
Need help with your garden plan?
Jessica Hadfield
diglandscape AT gmail DOT com
dig-landscape.com
@digdesign on twitter