Planning Your Vegetable Garden

Check back often as we add more to our Veggie Planning Page. Got questions? Visit our garden forum. Grow more, consume less!

• Proper planning and placement will make your vegetable garden a success:
•  Your vegetable garden needs sunlight. All vegetables require some sunlight and most require
  about 8 hours of direct exposure.
• Consider the availability of water. Make sure you can easily deliver water to your vegetables, as they will require regular watering.
• Select a well-drained garden site to prevent damping off and other problems associated with we soil. Raised beds also help with drainage.
• Properly spaced plants also make insect and disease control easier.  The size of mature vegetables dictates distance between plantings. For example, larger vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplant, cantaloupe, okra, squash and tomato require 12 to 24 inches or more between plants.

TOMATOES!

• Plant 2 crops of Tomatoes!
  Round 1: Early Summer Tomatoes: seed tomatoes indoors mid to late January, then plant outside mid to late March. Or, purchase tomato transplants mid-March for planting directly into the garden. 
  Round 2: Fall Tomatoes: Start seeds indoors or outdoors mid-May. Or, plant transplants outdoors mid-July. You'll enjoy tomatoes through fall!
  Delicious tomato tips: Full sun location is a must. At least 6-hours of direct sun!
  - Consistent moisture is key to fruit production.
  - Keep plants evenly watered, especially in summer.
  - Mulch, mulch, mulch!
  - Feed at planting time, then again once fruits reach ½ mature size, then every 2 weeks thereafter.
  - Liquid Seaweed is a good foliar feed and pest repellent. Do not use horticultural oils on Tomatoes.

PEPPERS

• - Pepper transplants can be planted outdoors mid-March through mid-Summer.
  - Peppers prefer warm temps, so sometimes a later start is better. A full sun location is a must. Amend beds with organic compost.
  - Plants will produce until first hard frost. One of the easiest veggies to grow in our area and very drought tolerant.

Eggplant

• - Eggplant likes warm temps, so don’t set out transplants until mid-April.
  - Like peppers, you won’t get a spurt in growth or fruit production until summer when temps warm up.
  - Eggplant and tomatoes are in the same family, and thus like similar conditions. Full sun and consistent moisture are key to success.
  - Eggplants make striking plants in the garden! They are gorgeous as well as delicious & healthy. They also grow great in containers.

Squash & Zucchini

• - Squash and Zucchini can be grown by direct seeding into the garden, or started with young transplants. Seed outdoors in March and June.
  - Grow upright on trellises or teepees to maximize your space. Full sun, keep evenly watered.
  - Squash bug eggs, found on undersides of leaves, should be removed if found for best control.

FALL GARDENS

• Timing is very important for a successful fall garden. Heat tolerant/cold sensitive crops need to be planted in time to mature before cold weather slows and stops growth, while cool season/heat sensitive crops are planted late enough to avoid the heat, but early enough to take the first frosts of winter
• Grow fast maturing tomato varieties for the fall harvest. Look for varieties with less than 75 days to maturity. Tomatoes such as 'Merced', 'Bingo', 'Celebrity', 'Whirlaway', and 'Carnival'. 'Surefire' is a smaller, processing tomato variety (with thicker skin), which sets and matures all of its tomatoes very quickly, giving you a "surefire" harvest that beats the first freeze. Most cherry tomatoes will bear fruit within 65 days of transplanting.
• Now is the time to put out lettuce seeds! Lettuce seed requires light to germinate, so do not cover with soil, but rather pat down into soil surface. This is a great project for kids! It's easy to grown and germinates quickly. Looks great planted with other cool season color.