Planting Vegetables

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Documentation page for planting Spring 2018

Vegetable Garden spring prep

Plants Vegetables - I have a 20x40' fenced area where I do most of my vegetable crops. The fence is 6' high and a very productive growing area for peas and beans. Each spring I turn the area to be planted . When growing vegetable gardens I find that small is better than big. A small plot well maintained will provide more than a large garden. My garden is a fenced in area 20x40 and I often think about making it smaller. Some crops, like tomatoes, do not need to be fenced as the animals do not usually bother them. Scallions and herbs I grow in my perennial gardens. After all they are perennials.

Seed Planting

It is now planting season and I am getting ready. During this process I decided to keep some notes this year.

I very seldom buy seed from the seed racks in stores. My main problem with these packages is that they cost several dollars and do not even have enough seed to make a flat. Some seed companies also sell by pk. with .pk containing very little seed. I only placed one order with "Johhny's" a was very disappointed with the quantity of seed per .pk.

Planting from seed requires preorder from internet sources from wholesalers I usually order in 1/4lb quantities which keeps well for many years. Packaged seed in retail packages are prohibitively expensive here is a list of suppliers I use:

Seed Sources with wholesale packaging

I place orders with these suppliers every year. I try to limit the number of suppliers I use, but I find I have to place three or four orders each year to get what I need. I like to have 1oz reserve of each type for survival purposes. I also create 1lb mixed lettuce seed for weekly plantings during the season. I use lettuce a lot as a ground cover in perennial beds.

The following tasks are in chronological order:

Still got time 2018.04.15 spring is late this year.

Peas - as soon as the ground will accept a shovel - March!?

2018 we had a real warm spell in late February and I decided to plant peas. The following weeks we had three major snow storms so it still remains to be seen if I might have to replant.

Wed 04.18 Still have no germination on peas yet. Been cold 30 at night.

My garden is fenced in to prevent the intrusion of animals. These fences provide an ideal place to grow peas. I try to plant peas as soon as I can after St. Patrick’s day. I like to grow the climbing varieties as they are so much easier to pick for an old man. Peas are not very cooperative at climbing so I put the fiber glass covers over the emerging crop forcing them to grow through my wire fencing. I grow the edible pod variety “Sugar Snap” which provides a larger harvest and less work as they do not have to be “shucked”. This pea is as sweet as apples and I always look forward to June and early July when I eat peas every day. It is interesting to note that each year some of the peas get by me and I let them mature and dry on the vine. I harvest these and they can be used in soups and stews. Also these dried peas can be used for the next years planting. I have now planted from my own seed for twenty seven generations. About the tenth of June I push bean seeds in the ground between the pea plants and this provides a fall harvest getting two crops from one piece of ground.

Spinach - April - and two more plantings 3 weeks apart

I pick most of my spinach while juvenile therefor I plant quite thick with a lot of seed. In order to do this you need a bulk seed supplier like MainStreet Seed which sells a 1/4lb for less than $4.

Lettuce - April - Every 3 weeks until Aug 15

I use a lot of lettuce seed and I find "Everwilde" has a good selection with reasonable 1/4 lb prices. I usually mix "Black Seeded Simpson", "Ruby", "Prize Head" and "oakLeaf" varieties. I plant about every 3 weeks until August 15 as lettuce does not grow good in the fall. Again I pick juvenile growth. I bought "Prizehead" and "Ruby" from Everwild Seed but the current listing only has "Prizehead".

Vermont Bean - Lettuce limited selection

EverwildeSeed - Lettuce complete selection at $15 /4oz - Nice packaging

MainStreetSeed has lettuce very reasonable but the varieties "Prize Head" and "Ruby" are not available from there. I tried the red variety they sell two years ago with poor results. It has a more compact growth and is very slow to germinate so it does not work well in a mix.

I am still looking for a price competative 1/4lb supplier for these varieties. - MainStreet order below - 1/2 lb for $15 is very good.

Winter Squash (150/oz) - Seed to pots 05.15 - for setting out in June

I have difficulty starting squash as chipmunks eat my seed. I now start them in flats of 18-4" pots put them on a table with screen over the top. I plant 3 plants to a hill at various odd locations . Quite often I use squash in an area I want to cultivate at seasons end.

Winter squash is one of my favorites. Delicious as a vegetable or made into pies it can be stored and used all winter. I have had stored winter squash that I had to use up as the new crop was ready for picking. I start winter squash plants from seed planted in the later part of May. I usually plant 3-5 plants per hill with hills at least 6' apart.

VermotBeanSeed - Winter squash very limited no Hubbard

EverwildeSeed -

There are many types of winter squash some of the common varieties are:

Hubbard – Large fruit, keeps well, nutty flavor, vines 20' + long, This plant requires a lot of room.

MainStreetSeed - Hubbard seed reasonable 700 seeds = $10

Acorn – Small fruit, must be consumed early does not keep well

Butternut – Good flavor, keeps well, good for pie

Butter Cup – Keeps well, nice for stuffing with apples and raisins, one of my favorites.

When harvesting winter squash I use a set of brush nippers and harvest a piece of the stem with each fruit. This seems to allow them to keep better. I store these in a cool dry location that is frost free. Winter Squash is real survivor food. I have stored these in a dry location for over one year

Shell Beans.

A bean tower is a fun and interesting way to grow shell beans. Shell beans are those varieties that are grown to maturity and allowed to dry on the vine. They are then shelled and stored for winter use. Growing beans on a tower is not recommended for snap beans like “Kentucky Wonder” as it is difficult to pick them from inside the wire.

Building a bean tower:

I start by creating a roll of wire 6-8’ high that is the diameter of the hole in the tire. I fill the tire two thirds of the way with soil and insert the wire. I then almost fill the tire with more soil by tossing it through the wire and when I almost reach the top I toss in my seeds around the edge and add 2” more soil. Just to make sure that the wind will not blow over my creation I insert a couple of stakes through the wire and inside the tire rim.

I recommend “Scarlet Runner Beans” and “Cranberry Beans” for this method as they are two good shell varieties.

Scarlet Runner Shell Beans - Seed June

Seed source

This is a line bred bean that you can harvest your own seed for planting from year to year. In fact this is the bean that was raised and eaten by the American Indians. It has very pretty scarlet red flowers and grows on a trellis to height of 6’. Dried and shelled it makes a nice addition to stews and soups. They are both nutritious and delicious in soups and stews. Remember to save some seed for next years planting, as these are line-bred varieties that you can grow from your own seed from year to year. Also some of the young beans can be eaten green.

Cranberry Shell Beans - Seed June

Seed source

This is another vegetable that is food for survivors. The seed is a line bred variety and therefore you can harvest seed each year for next years planting. The young pods are a good vegetable but the primary use of this bean is for shelling and drying. Makes excellent chili and baked beans or can just be stewed with some pork. It is a climbing variety and therefore requires a 6’ trellis to grow on.

Pole Beans - Seed June

Seed sources

Pole Beans

Kentucky Wonder was a favorite of mine for many years but they require string removal and there are new varieties now that are stringless like "BlueLake". Saves a lot of work when canning and freezing. For these varieties a trellis 6' high is necessary with access to both sides for picking. I am trying some new varieties this year.

https://www.vermontbean.com/P/01166/Monte+Gusto+Pole+Bean

https://www.vermontbean.com/P/01154/Blauhilde+Pole+Bean

Tomatoes - May - buy plants

Tomatoes are a problem in our area due to the short growing season. I find it is worth the extra effort to grow as many tomatoes as I can because the price of tomatoes in recent years has been astronomical. I start by buying plants early in May. To put plants in the ground at that time would be a disaster as we have many hard freezes in May. There is another factor with tomatoes that must be understood and that is soil temperature. Tomatoes will not set blossoms until the soil temperature becomes quite warm. For this reason putting plants in the ground even if you could protect them from frost yields little advantage. For this reason I take my newly purchased plants and repot them in 6” pots. I grow them on in these pots until well into June when the soil becomes warmer and they have already set blossoms. I encourage blossom growth by placing pots on flag stones to increase ground temperature. Some people I know use heating cables and report good results. I am good at growing things in pots. The advantage of being able to feed with 20-20-20 fertilizer I can have substantial plants when they go in the ground. I like the variety Jet Star as it produces relatively early a well shaped fruit of medium size and it does this over a long season unlike Early Girls for example and has good flavor. When Labor day comes around I must think about protecting my tomatoes on nights when there is frost. I cover with blankets or plastic and can extend my growing season usually well into October. When the season is coming to a close I pick all the green tomatoes wrap them in newspaper and store in a box in a cool dry location. Many years I served tomatoes in the salad for Christmas dinner.

Here you can see my tomatoes trained to a single leader over 9' tall.

Onions - Sets in June

Last Sept. or Oct. our local super market was trying to get rid of some of their seasonal stock. They had these onion sets for sale for 50 cents a box and I couldn’t resist. I stored them under my bed, which gets quite cold but never freezes and is very dry. Apparently this works well because as you can see they are spouting quite nicely April 20.

Broccoli (7000/oz)- Plant Seed 7-15 8-1

Last year I noticed Shauls farm was setting out broccoli plants in the last week of August. I have known for some time that late plantings of broccoli produce better crops and I always time my broccoli for fall maturity but this seemed very late. One of the main problems with broccoli is imported cabbage worm but if broccoli matures after first frost the problem is eliminated. Last year I started plants in 4" pots on July15. I had some early cabbage worm problems which I was able to control with BT and set out 8" tall plants on aug 25 and here you can see heads ready for harvest Nov 10. Snow does not bother broccoli I have dug heads out of the snow after Christmas as fresh as can be.

I am particular about varieties as some have nice tight heads and better flavor. I find "Calabrese" and "Waltam" do not form good heads. I have had good results with

"Prize Head" nice compact heads best flavor

"Arcadia" good side shoots in fall

"Premium Crop" a producer with secondary sprouting

This year I am trying Vermont Bean Seed - Green Magic which makes claim to good flavor.

Buying seed from a seed rack is not possible for most good varieties and they must be ordered over the Internet . There are some sources that sell seed by the oz at very reasonable prices. I have saved seed for 8-10 years and was not able to see any differnce in germination rate. We seed flats using 36 seeds per flat (two seeds per pot). Broc Seeds are about 7000/oz so a 1/4oz will last for many years if stored properly.