Hello Gardeners - - - Here are some helpful hints to plan your cool season garden - - - 1. On our website under the resource section, you will find a wonderful website called the no-digg garden. Here is the link for our website. If you want to go directly to the no-digg garden website, it is listed below. The no-digg site has a link to Sowing Guides on the left hand side. Within the Sowing Guides section, click on Northern Hemisphere Temperate Climate for a list of months that various veggies should be planted. http://sites.google.com/site/incrediblecommunitygarden www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com Always read the seed packet or ask the nursery for advice if you are not familiar with a veggie. The internet is a great source as well. Keep a Garden Journal for the date you plant the seeds, their location, how deep to plant (some are just on the surface), spacing, thinning, time to germination, and time to harvest. Since we are sharing seed packets, we should keep the empty seed packets in the shed for reference. 2. For Sept/Oct these are the best veggies to plant from seed or seedling. We have seed packets in the shed for the ones with an asterisk ** . In addition, Lowe's was successful is getting Colorama to donate two flats of seedlings for a variety of veggies and herbs which I will pick up within the next 5 to 14 days. Artichokes **Beets Broad Beans (e.g. Fava Beans) **Winter Beans (bush beans i.e. no trellis needed) **Broccoli Brussel Sprouts Cabbage **Carrots Cauliflower Leeks **Lettuces e.g. spinach, swiss chard, bibb, endive, romaine, etc. **Onions (winter onions) Parsnips **Peas (Note: we plan to plant peas along the fence for everyone to pick) Potatoes **Radishes **Winter Squash (Note: 4 to 6 seeds are planted together to ensure fertilization. This constitutes a "hill". Male and female seeds are needed to produce the squash. If you plant 3 hills each 4 feet apart, this will eventually take up about 25-30% of your garden space). But oh so good ! Turnips 3. For root veggies i.e. radishes, carrots, beets, onions, potatoes - - - you may want to do succession plantingi.e. plant 1/3 now, 1/3 in two weeks and 1/3 in 4 weeks. Once you pick these, that's it. With succession planting you will have a continuous crop. Of course you can always plant throughout the cool season. 4. For lettuces, beans, broccoli, peas - - - the more you pick the more your plant will produce :-) 5. Look on the "no-digg" website for Companion Planting Guide. Some plants do not like to be next to other plants. 6. Keep a log of what you plant and its location. You don't want to plant the same crop in the same place for about 3 years. Crop rotation keeps the soil free of disease and ensures healthy crops. 7. Some veggies i.e. peas and beans, take nitrogen from the air and enrich the soil. These don't have to be fertilized much and the soil left after the harvest is enriched. Other veggies i.e. tomatoes and eggplant suck the nutrients out of the soil. These need to be fertilized often and the soil left after the harvest is usually drained of nutrients. 8. For veggies that need a trellis i.e. peas and vining beans (not bush beans), and tomatoes (in the spring), start your trellis o support structure early before the crops get too big to handle. 9. For squash, you might want to save some flat stones to lay under the squashes while they mature to keep them off the ground and warm. Not really necessary, but it can help. Most garden critters and birds don't care for squashes or cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower) so they are usually not disturbed, pecked at, or eaten. Isn't this exciting? And we have each other for sharing advice, information, and having fun. Mary |
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Helpful hints to plan your cool season gardenposted Sep 14, 2009 4:00 PM by Rob Perhamus |