Vegetable Gardening Basics

Vegetable Gardening Basics

It is important to research, plan and prepare for your garden in advance. Use these tips to get started!

Plan and put your garden on paper first and record any planting changes.

• If this is not the first time gardening in this spot, use last years’ garden plan as a guide to place this year’s crops.
• To break disease and insect cycles, if space permits, don’t put crops of the same family (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and eggplant are all in the Solanaceous/Nightshade family) in the same spot more then once in three years.
• Place seed orders early if ordering from a catalog—typically the fall before.

Learn all about the crops you are growing.

• Read garden plant/seed catalogs, books, Extension publications, websites
• Find out the space requirement for individual crops.
• Find out which crops are grown best as direct seeding (can put the seeds directly in the garden) or must be started indoors then transplanted out into garden rows.

Construct raised beds

• Use cypress or cedar wood, concrete blocks or bricks
• Fill with soil high in organic matter that drains well or simply mound the soil to raise the beds and improve drainage.

Prepare the Seedbed/Soil

Preparation:

• Do not work the soil if it is too wet, if it sticks to your shoes... too wet.

• if it rolls into a snake - too wet.

To test:

press a small amount of soil in your palm, if it crumbles and breaks into small clumps, it has the right moisture. Till the garden soil with a rotary tiller (for larger sites) or shovel or pitchfork (for smaller sites); be sure to break up the shovel slices and large clumps. If installing raised beds, do the same and then mound, or fill constructs with good soil.

• Remove sticks and stones and rake the planting area to create a smooth, level, seed bed.

• Don't walk excessively over the garden; it will compact your soil.

• Incorporate organic material and soil amendments according to soil sample results (if possible two - six months before planting). You can purchase soil tests at your local Extension offices.

Start the Garden:

• Plan and put your garden on paper first and record any planting changes.

• Find out the space requirement for individual crops.

• To break disease and insect cycles, if space permits, don't put crops of the same family (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and eggplant are all in the Solanaceous/Nightshade family) in the same spot more than once in three years.

• If this is not the first time gardening in this spot, use last years' garden plan as a guide to place this year's crops.

• Find out which crops are grown best as direct seeding (can put the seeds directly in the garden) or must be started indoors then transplanted out into garden rows.

• Read garden plant/seed catalogs, books, Extension publi-cations, internet sites to know all about the crops you are growing.

Place seed orders early if ordering from a catalog-typically the fall before.

• Construct raised beds (cypress or cedar wood, concrete blocks or bricks) and fill with soil high in organic matter that drains well. Or simply mound the soil to raise the beds and improve drainage.

Plant the Garden:

• Warm season crops should be planted after the last frost; approximately May 10th in Delaware.

• Stake and make your rows straight with a planting line (two sticks with twine stretched between them).

• Purchase disease-free, healthy looking plants and seeds from reliable plant catalogs or garden supply stores.

• Use a hoe or shovel handle to make a furrow the appropriate depth for seed sizes, (read seed labels for correct seed planting depth - typically 2 and 3 times deep, the size of the seed width) in the planting line.

• When planting seeds, place and cover the seeds with the appropriate level of soil or vermiculite so you can see where you seeded (according to label directions); gently pat the soil over the seeds.

• Transplants should be planted in the garden soil on cloudy days or late afternoon with little to no wind to reduce water loss.

• Make sure the hole is big enough to just hold the root ball of the transplant. Plant high rather than too low.

• To help the young plants get established, pour about one cup of water around the roots immediately before filling in the hole with soil. Firm the soil, but don't pack it around the plant.

Control Weeds:

This garden chore should be thought about and discussed, before the first soil is turned over and garden plants and seeds are put in the soil.

• Organic mulches such as grass clippings (un-treated), pine bark, leaf mold, aged sawdust, straw and newspapers (black and white print only, no color, shiny advertisement pages) are great mulches to prevent weeds from growing.

• Inorganic mulches are plastics (come in black, red, silver or clear colored) and weed barrier fabrics.

• The other option is physical control such as hoeing, hand pulling, or rotary tilling. For example, using rotary tilling is great between rows and pathways, but can damage roots or destroy plants if done too closely to the crops

Try using a combination of newspapers (6 - 8 layers of black and white print only), then put straw or grass clippings on top of the newspapers (so they don't blow to your neighbors) Hoe regularly (careful not to destroy plant roots and turning over too much soil with new weed seeds to germinate) and/or hand-pull weeds between plants.

Watering

Watering is crucial during establishment (in this case the first few weeks) of plants, flowering and drought periods:

• The ideal method is with a soaker or trickle hose; both of these direct water to the root area of your garden crops.

• Oscillating sprinklers apply water more evenly and can be adjusted to reach every plant.

• Overhead sprinklers have irregular watering patterns and may miss some of your garden plants.

• Oscillating and overhead sprinklers also water unplanted areas where weeds may grow and wetting the foliage may increase disease problems and wastewater.

• Plants need 1 inch of water each week.

Other great gardening tips:

• Vertical gardening is training plants to grow upward on cages or on a trellis. Cucumbers and other small fruited vine crops grow great and take less room in the garden

• Tomatoes should be staked or put in a cage to reduce disease (fungi living on the soil) problems on the fruit.

• If using an oscillating or overhead sprinkler, place an empty coffee can in the spraying area in order to measure the amount of water you have applied.

Or purchase a rain gauge and place it in the garden area being watered.

• When planting seeds be sure to mark your rows.

• Plant a row or two of flowers and buckwheat to encourage pollinators and beneficial insects.

• Keep your garden plot plan up-to-date and make notes on each crop during the growing season.

This will help you make decisions for next year's garden.

• Be brave, take a chance; grow a few plants of a crop you aren't sure if you or your family likes.

Who knows, it may be the best vegetable you've

ever eaten.

° Share your garden successes! Be a hit with your family members and neighbors, and a hero to all that add your extra produce to their meals.

Common Plant Families:

Crops in Plant Families should not be planted year after year in the same spot in the garden. Rotate crops from different plant families each year.

Example of a good crop rotation: Year 1: peas - Year 2- sweet corn; Year 3-cucumber 

Example of a poor crop rotation*: Year 1- squash, Year 2- watermelon, Year 3 - peas

* Watermelon and squash are in the same plant family and susceptible to many of the same plant diseases and insect pests.

Feed your plants:

• Growing productive, healthy plants involves paying attention to cultural details.

• Fertilizers are not a cure-all to garden plant production problems. Soils high in organic matter will help with drainage, soil structure, soil pH and provide good positive results in the garden.

• Remember a great organic matter is compost. Recycle garden plant debris and add to your compost pile to use in your garden when finished.

• Most vegetable plants should be given a starter dose of fertilizer and then side dressed (placed about six inches from the plants' stem) at least once; other crops will require additional feedings. A 5-10-10 (N-P-K) commercial fertilizer is a good choice for feeding your plants that bear fruit (tomatoes, squashes, peppers, egg plant, radishes, carrots, etc.). Leafy crops (lettuces, cabbages, kales, collards, etc.) should get a 10-5-5- or 10-10-10 formulation depending on soil sample analysis.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM):

IPM is the practice of using a combination of strategies to keep pests from reducing your harvest and ultimately destroying your crops. It includes cultural, mechanical, biological, non-chemical control methods and good sanitation practices (keep over-ripe, damaged and infected plants out of the garden area). It is a method that helps keep pest populations low, well below a level of high injury. You should understand and accept that plants can tolerate a certain amount of pest damage and fruit does not have to look perfect. The components of practicing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) have been simplified below:

• Scouting - is the first step in IPM. It involves examining enough plants to know what kind, how many and how much damage a pest has caused on each separate crop. Regular scouting is required.

• Cultural Control - includes crop rotation to interfere with disease and insect life cycles. Keep plants healthy and not stressed by planting resistant varieties, maintaining proper fertility levels, and water during droughts.

• Biological controls - are naturally occurring organ-isms, beneficial insects and parasites that attack pests, like lady beetles (adult and larvae) that feed on aphid pests. To encourage local beneficials, grow herbs and flowers such as dill and alyssum.

• Chemical controls are a last resort and applied when pest thresholds are at a high level and causing great damage. Protecting beneficials should be the first consideration when applying any pesticide. Read and re-read the label before purchasing and using.

• You may have to construct a fence to keep larger pests (groundhogs, dogs, cats, deer, rabbits and squirrels) out of the garden

Contact your local Cooperative Extension Office to help answer your gardening questions and concerns. Whether it's pest questions, recipes, how to preserve your harvested produce, purchase soil tests, or plant a row; 

New Castle County 302-831-8862; 

Kent County 302-730-4000 or 302-857-6426 

Sussex County 302- 856-2585 ext. 535.

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