Welcome to the vegetable garden guide, your one stop place for discovering great tips and tricks for growing a healthy vegetable garden.
Experienced gardeners often approach the task with a casualness gained over time. Beginning gardeners also need not worry. A few types of vegetables grow almost effortlessly in every garden. Basically, vegetable preferences and time investments influence most garden decisions. Salad popularity, for example, provides incentives for many back yard gardeners to think back yard salad gardens consisting of lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and onions.
Garden investment time also varies from gardener to gardener. Some consider gardening as an experiential second thought, more akin to a task completed in a less than orderly manner. Other gardeners consider it a day to day, getting up at the crack of dawn activity.
The vegetable garden guide provides growing tips for a variety of vegetables suited for most climates.
Because they are cool season vegetables, cole crops fit perfectly into most vegetable garden plans regardless of geography.
In the south, winters are sufficiently warm to insure good seasonal growth. In the north, cole crops provide gardeners with early spring starters and late fall the vegetables.
Cole crops, or the many varieties of the mustard family’s Brassica oleracea, stand out for their popular, cold hard vegetables such as broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and kohlrabi. Nutrition and taste partially account for their popularity. They are also fairly easy to grow.
Once the vegetable choices are made, gardeners need to consider soil nutrient conditions. Cool weather vegetables adapt to cool soil conditions because of their shallow roots. Two general growing tips related to nutrition and water apply to all shallow root vegetables.
First, shallow roots means that a plant may or may not reach buried nutrients, such as phosphorus, which tends to settle into the soil. Therefore, gardeners need to consistently check soil nutrient levels to insure plant nutritional needs.
Second, shallow root systems also mean that most cole crops need an above ground water source. The one inch of water/week rule of thumb works for most cole crop gardens.
Seed generation starts the process and generally all cole crop seeds can germinate in soil temperature as low as 40o F. Along with most garden vegetables, a soil in a pH between range 6.0 – 6.8 suits them perfectly.
Their ability to withstand light frost, along with their and short life cycles (with the exception of brussels sprouts, vegetables ready for the table less than three months after planting), make them highly adapted to many North American gardens.
Have you seen the butterfly in the picture? It’s a cabbage white butterfly. Their presence in the yard and garden assures the presence of their caterpillars. They feed on most plants in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), including their name sake, cabbage. More often than not, cabbage worms represent the biggest insect pest for all cole crop gardens. Look for velvety green caterpillars about an inch in length.
In most circumstances, cole crop pest management is fairy easy, because their planting seasons come at a time when insect populations are low. Proper garden planning also reduces the possibility of insect infestations. Practice crop rotation and avoid planting any cole crops in the same area year after year. It breaks the insect pest life cycle. Keeping the garden area weed free often serves as a good pest management strategy. Pest free garden also helps during harvest. Many freshly harvested, pest free cole crops (cauliflower being an exception) stored in a cool, humid setting such as a root cellar, maintain their freshness for four to six weeks, depending on the vegetable.
Additional, organic remedies such as the use of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and garlic juice extracts, easily deal with some of the most problematic pests such as cabbageworms, cabbage loopers and aphids. Flea beetles are common garden pests and for Brassicaceae plants, the culprit is normally the Crucifer flea beetle. It’s a general feeder and can be found on stems, leaves and flowers.
Cauliflower, like the other more common brassica species, is characterized as large stalk plants with flowering heads or florets. Unlike broccoli and cabbage, cauliflower usually does not rank among the easiest growing vegetables.
Most gardeners report getting the hang of it over time. Starting with soil, cauliflower grows best in sunny, well-drained soil with a pH level between 6 and 7.5. Adding compost to the soil helps promote healthy growth.
Most varieties take a bit over two months to begin fruiting, so planning to keep the plants in the ground while the day time temperature hover around the 60o F range is critical for success.
The applications of organic phosphorus and potassium nutrients, following the plant’s early vegetative phase, helps optimize the plant’s final yield.
Large variations in temperature and moisture during the growing season tend to upset the growing cycle. Make sure that the plant receives consistent water over time.
When the white heads of the plant begin to show, it’s time to wrap the leaves around the heads to protect them. Harvest time is chosen when the heads reach a desired size.
Cucumber popularity makes it a favored warm-weather garden vegetable.
Cucumbers need little help growing, and they grow in a fairly wide range of soils, from 6.8–5.5 pH levels. They also grow and fruit very quickly, a double bonus. Both pickle and fresh varieties can go from seed to table in under two months. That ease of growth explains why cucumbers, along with tomatoes and lettuce, rank as the most popular greenhouse grown vegetables.
Garden space might be the most important consideration. Like all vine crops, cucumbers need at least a 5 by 5-foot
ground area. Fortunately, cucumbers adapt to vertical gardening easy, and they can be trained to grow up trellises.
Plants flourish in a sunny garden patch with highly enriched soil, when soil temperature reaches 700F. Consumers can choose from multiple salad and pickle seed varieties. Each variety provides its own optimal seed germination recommendations, but generally, as warm weather crops, cucumber seeds thrive in warmer environments than most cool weather crop seeds. Some suggested seed germination temperatures for warm climate gardens range between 85oF – 90oF.
Organic Tip: Encouraging large green leaf growth and thick vine development requires a high phosphate and potassium regime. Therefore, an organic fertilizer with a relatively lower N to PK ratio such as 5-10-10, provides ideal nutrition for flowering plants.
Warm weather vegetables, including cucumbers, tend to be more susceptible to more garden pests than the average salad vegetable. Insects thrive in warm weather. Like most vine growing vegetables, cucumbers are subject to attacks by aphids, cucumber beetles, leafhoppers and mites.
Keeping the growing area weed free often provides a first good, organic pest control management strategy. Mulching or placing black plastic around the plants keeps the soil warm and relatively weed free. Over the counter organic remedies, for cucumber beetles, common pests of many Cucurbitaceae, can be purchased in many local stores.
Large leaves mean they are also susceptible to fungus such as powdery mildew. In areas where powdery mildew is common, cucumber varieties designed with resistance are recommended.
Over the past thirty years kitchens across the country began paying attention to different types of lettuce. Where iceberg once occupied most of the space in produce departments, dividing their lettuce attention between the traditional iceberg or head lettuce, leafy lettuces, such as romaine and butterhead lettuces.
Nutritionists often recommend the leafy varieties due to their higher nutrient content. The dozens of lettuce varieties available for purchase today means everyone’s favorite salad starter, lettuce, can be grown in everyone’s garden.
Attention to types of lettuce translated into attention to growing lettuce. How easy is it to grow lettuce? Well, first consider the fact that native lettuce plants such as Miner’s Lettuce grow year after year without human aid. Starting from there, it’s easy to understand that most, if not all domesticated lettuce varieties also practically grow themselves.
All things being equal, the most difficult decision in the lettuce growing enterprise may very well be choosing among the many varieties. Both casual gardeners and commercial farmers choose from the following list of salad greens: arugula (Eruca sativa), cilantro (Coriandrum sativium), cress (Lepidium sativum), kale (Brassica oleracea and Brassica napus pabularia) and collards (Brassica oleracea). In a plus for organic gardeners, more than a handful of lettuce varieties are available as certified organic seeds.
Soil Conditions: As a leafy green salad starter, most of the lettuce varieties on the market are cold weather plants that grow well in healthy soil in the 6.0 to 7.0 pH range. Nitrogen rich soil aids leaf growth.
Planting Tips: Start spring lettuce indoors and transplant it to the garden when the plants have a handful of leaves blooming.
Indoor Seed Germination Tip: Like most leafy green vegetables, lettuce gets included in the cool weather vegetable category. Suggested indoor seed germination temperatures vary according to a few general rules such as seed strain choice and climactic conditions. Seed germination temperature range: 70oF – 80oF. Many varieties germinate in less than a week’s time.
Spacing: Most family gardens can do well by planting two rows of lettuce and spinach combined, with each row measuring about four feet long. The lettuce plants are placed in the ground with the starter leaver showing, and space about three to four inches apart.
Plant Care: Slugs and snails enjoy consuming lettuce as much as people enjoy consuming it. Keeping the garden weed free helps reduce the slug and snail population.
Organic Fertilizer Tip: As a general rule of thumb, lettuce varieties thrive on nitrogen rich soil. They require little additional phosphorus or potassium soil amendments. Their minimal growth requirements, including the need for only artificial, vegetative promoting, blue light in the 3000k to 6500k range, makes them ideal candidates for research into small, medium and large indoor organic food production practices.
Harvesting Tips: Average growing time for lettuce to go from seed to salad bowl is approximately fifty days. Staggering the planting time in two week intervals means fresh salad greens are available throughout the season.
Spinach lure runs deep in most parts of the world where it grows both wild and cultivated. To Americans, spinach and Popeye now blend almost seamlessly together to produce the “spinach is good for you” narrative so common in households across the country.
Narrative aside, the dark green leaves of many common spinach varieties, attract the eyes of many back yard gardeners looking for the perfect home grown spinach salad ingredients. Variations on the general spinach salad exist. Here’s one basic recipe anyone can add to.
- bunch of cleaned fresh spinach
- sliced egg
- thinly sliced red onion
- Raspberry Vinaigrette
No wonder it’s a salad lovers delight. Spinach gets marketed as the leafy green chock filled with vitamin A, foliate, vitamin K, potassium and iron. Recent research suggests that like many vegetables, spinach loses its nutritional value when stored in a refrigerator for as little as a week. Eating fresh picked spinach from the garden ideally solves the nutrition problem.
Fortunately spinach is also one of the easy to grow cool weather crops that generally follow the same rules for growing other leafy greens. With proper planning and some garden luck, spinach grows almost effortlessly during the spring and fall.
New spinach varieties continue to be developed, each with their own variety specific growing tips.
Once considered special occasion vegetables, peppers now occupy as visible a spot in the average American mainstream diet as growing peppers occupies a visible spot in the vegetable garden.
Southwest cooking continues to influence American culinary habits, far beyond the influence of the meal time taco or burrito. The chili, for example is one of New Mexico’s official state vegetables.
Speaking of New Mexico chiles, a small southern town called Hatch is situated less than an hour’s drive north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. It bills itself as the chili Capital of the United States.
While you are in Las Cruces, check out the Big Chili Inn and the world’s largest chili pepper, a forth seven foot masterpiece created with two and one half tons of concrete. The entire area is great for growing New Mexico chilies. Researchers at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces have been developing quality chili varieties for over one hundred years.
The term chili pepper collectively refers to all the hot peppers in the capsicum genus. Since capsaicin, a natural pain reliever, is the active ingredient in chili peppers, one can only wonder how many headaches have thus far been averted because of a country’s changing culinary habits.
Partially due to their culinary popularity, including chili pepper plants in the back yard garden plan continues to interest gardeners beyond the Southwest. Seed choice depends on geography with some seeds better suited to growth in the arid Southwest while others better suited to growth in the more humid Southeast
Gardeners generally choose between two types of peppers, sweet and hot.
Most American palates are accustomed to the sweet peppers because of the long time popularity of green bell peppers. Additional sweet pepper varieties with names such as Sweet Banana, Gypsy, Golden Summer, Chocolate Beauty, Purple Beauty, and numerous varieties with the name ‘Bell’ attached to them are common back yard garden choices.
Hot peppers such as Cayenne, Habanero and Jalapeno continue to grab the attention of pepper enthusiasts across the country.
Indoor Seed Germination Tip: Recommended indoor seed germination temperatures vary according to a few general rules such as seed strain choice and climactic conditions. Suggested seed germination temperatures often presented in a range between 70oF and 80oF.
Chile varieties normally get characterized as small shrubs, and they can be grown as perennials in warmer climates. Multiple branching on the plants provides ample space for fruiting. In colder climates, night time temperatures need to be over 65o F in order for flowering (and subsequent fruiting) to occur.
Organic Tip: Like many other branching garden plants, such as tomatoes, applications of organic fertilizer for chili plants follows a general, three part rule of thumb coinciding with the plant’s three stages of development, vegetation, stem and branch development, flowering and fruiting.
A nitrogen rich nutrient environment promotes vigorous growth in vegetating chili plants. Additions of phosphorus helps stem and branch development. Upon flowering, a potassium rich nutrient aides fruit development.
Rule of thumb organic chili pepper pest management follows a basic two step process consisting of pre-planting and post-planting practices.
Soil issues drive pre-planting plans. Normally, small scale chili gardeners need not worry about one common soil problem, nematode attacks. In areas with nematodes problems, many experts recommend soil solarization. as a preventative garden soil management strategy for many vegetables, including chili peppers.
Insect pests and viruses need to be watched during the growing species. For example, a few aphid species are drawn to peppers including green peach aphids and melon aphids. Although European corn moths strongly prefer corn for egg-laying sites, they will also lay eggs on leaves in peppers, and larva bore into the fruit under the calyx.
Symptoms such as leaf mottling, puckering, or curling; stem and petiole streaking; rough, deformed, or spotted fruit; stunted plants; and leaf, blossom, and fruit drop are indicative of viruses. When possible, plant cultivars that have resistance to diseases of concern.
Many cultivars are resistant to tomato mosaic virus (TMV), the most important virus, spread by contaminated hands or tools that rub against leaves. A few cultivars are resistant to potato virus Y (PVY) and/or tobacco etch virus (TEV),which are spread by aphids and rubbing leaves. Many are resistant to some strains of the bacterial spot pathogen, which affects both leaves and fruit.
Natural pest management generally consists of introducing the beneficial insects into the garden appropriate for dealing with the identified insect pest..
Squash, a general term that applies to a variety of fruits in the Cucurbitaceae family, gets defined in multiple ways. For many people, pumpkins define squash. Others define squash seasonally, dividing them into summer and winter varieties. The terms loosely apply to the vegetable growing and shipping seasons. Summer squash, for example, refers to most of the thin skinned squash varieties such as zucchini. All summer squash need to be planted after the season’s final frost. Their seeds germinate best in temperatures between 65o and 85o F, the warmer the better.
Winter squashes, best defined as thicker skin varieties, are exemplified by pumpkins, acorn squash and butternut squash.
Most squash varieties thrive in sunny areas with well-drained, sandy soils. Summer squash likes the soil’s pH content between 6.0 and 6.5. Winter squash might be a bit more loose in this requirement. Starting from seed, if multiple plants are planned, the rows between the plants should be spaced about three feet. Thinning the plants along a row can be done after growth has been established.
Because of soil related diseases, when master gardeners think squash, they think crop rotation. Experts recommend using a plot of ground that has not been used for squash related growing over the past three years. Depending on the variety planted, plan for summer squash to mature more quickly, less than two months on average. Winter squash takes longer to grow and fruit, normally three months or longer.
Zucchini squash, one of the few no brainer summer garden vegetables often gets recognize as the cucumber equivalent of the squash world.
It is a thin skinned summer squash, and its mild taste and texture blends in well with most dinner plans. The optimal zucchini growing environment starts by using clean soil mixed with compost. After that, the zucchini growing season depends on geography and taste.
As long as seeds get planted after the last frost, chances are the seed will germinate, vegetate and produce a flowering vine. Speed in transplanting is another zucchini plus. Whereas some vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers might need up to eight weeks indoors prior to being transplanted, usually squash seeds can be germinated indoors, with the plants ready for the garden in a 2–3 week time range.
Vine crops have male flowers and female flowers (small fruit behind the flower). Male flowers develop first, and generally predominate. Young fruits that are not pollinated stop growing. Zucchini flowers have their own special cache. They are also edible and many people enjoy stuffing them with a light cheese to make a fresh season appetizer.
The zucchini’s shallow root system require a weekly watering.
During bloom and fruiting time, many gardener’s might choose to add an organic nutrient in the 0-10=10 range every second or third watering.
Zucchini fruit grows quickly, so keeping a daily view of growth progress helps with the harvest decisions. Small to medium sized zucchinis generally taste better than larger zucchinis.
Depending on the variety, the entire growing process might take anywhere from two to three months.
Planning a multiple zucchini plant garden means little more than provide each plant with about a two foot growing area.
Next to lettuce, tomatoes rank at the top of the American fresh vegetable preference list. Hardly a sandwich or salad gets served without the ubiquitous tomato slice.
Most backyard gardens are tomato friendly for seed and seedling started plants. Purchasing tomato starter plants saves the average gardener about two weeks worth of germination time and effort.
The large number of tomato varieties lend themselves to only a few general growing tips. Basically, tomatoes are warm weather, sun dependent plants that require proper water and nutrition to reach their fruiting stage. Most gardeners start their tomato selection process by choosing between either determinate or indeterminate tomato varieties.
Determinate tomato varieties grow as small bushes. Indeterminate varieties are large vine plants that require a physical support system, such as a cage or trellis, to keep the vines secure and steady throughout their growth.
Plant growth stops only after the first frost or, unfortunately when the plant succumbs to a fatal disease. Otherwise, it continues to flower and fruit almost indeterminately. Many of the popular slicing tomatoes like beefsteak are indeterminate vine tomatoes.
Once the tomato variety is selected, plan on a two stage, indoor and outdoor, growing season.
Depending on tomato variety, the indoor growing season takes anywhere from four to six weeks. It consists of prepping the plants for outdoor growth. Healthy young tomato plants thrive on consistent temperature, nutrient, water and lighting conditions.
Tomato outdoor growing season starts with transplanting the tomatoes into their designated garden spot. Again, depending on variety, plants need an appropriate support system during stem and branch development. Flowering and fruiting behavior becomes noticeable approximately two weeks following their transition from indoor seedling to outdoor garden plant.
Indeterminate varieties need a bit more attention after flowering. As the season progresses, moving the growing tomatoes to a place on the support structure allows for continued tomato growth. The total time from flowering to, fruiting and harvesting generally falls in a three to six week range. Managing all the vines during the flowering and fruiting season extends the harvesting season from summer through fall.
Finally, extreme low or high temperatures tend to disrupt flowering in many tomato varieties. Plants often exhibit signs of stunted growth after flowering during atypical weather patterns. Along with pest infestations, poor weather conditions tend to shorten the growing season.
Managing tomato pests starts with basic preventive steps. Disease resistant tomato varieties sell well. Often the label on the seed pack will contain the letters letters V, F, N, T, or A to inform the consumer of the resistance types. Local garden store staff can also inform consumers of the disease resistance varieties built into their seedlings.
Tomato pest management starts with clean soil. Maintaining a weed free environment throughout the outdoor growing season also contributes to healthy plant growth. During the growing season pest management tips are dependent on individual garden factors such as weather and climate. For example, tomatoes are the typical warm weather vegetable, however in instances of an extended heat wave (over 95oF), or over watering, the fruits can literally begin to crack. Experts also warn against planting tomatoes near a black walnut tree because the tree produces chemicals that can kill off tomato plants.
In the real world garden, tomato plants face many challenges. The following outline of common tomato fungus, viruses and insect pests provides a first step for potentially diagnosing the most common tomato problems confronting gardeners.
- Early Blight: Look for brown and black spots on mature leaves.
- Late Blight: Water soaked spots on leaves that turn them brown.
- Fusarium and Vericillium Wilt: Look for mature leaves turning yellow.
- Tobacco Mosaic Virus: Look for multicolored leaves, i.e., dark and light green and yellow leaves.
- Cucumber Mosaic Virus: Look for smaller, thin, yellow leaves.
- Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus: Look for dark spots on light green or yellowing leaves.
- Aphids: Look for a large group of very small insects along the stems.
- Flea Beetles: Look for small jumping insects around the leaves and ground.
- Hornworms: Look for caterpillars like the one pictured.
Fast food continues to define the age. Get in, get the food, get out as quickly as possible remains the tacit motto of many consumers and restauranteurs.
Contrast the garden culture with the fast food culture. Gardening commonly gets labeled as a year long enterprise consisting of planning, planting and harvesting seasons. Gardeners often wait long days until the so called fruits of their efforts are ready for the table.
The long wait for fresh food need not extend to months. There are more than a handful of vegetables that can go from seed to plate in less than two months. Here’s a list of the top ten fastest growing vegetables for gardeners in a hurry.
- Bush and Snap Beans: 50 to 60 days from seed to harvest. Harvest them as soon as the pods are visible and soft.
- Cucumbers: 50 to 65 days from seed to harvest. Cucumbers can be harvested during most development stages. The longer they grow, the larger they grow.
- Greens: (arugala, mizuna, tatsoi, pak choy) 35 to 45 days from seed to harvest.
- Kohlrabi: 45 to 55 days from seed to harvest.
- Lettuces: 45 to 85 days from seed to harvest. Harvest can occur for leaf lettuces as soon as outer leaves are 4–6 inches long.
- Onions: 40 to 55 days from sets to harvest.
- Radishes: 25 to 30 days from seed to harvest. Without a doubt, the fastest growing vegetable. Don’t forget them, they remain in prime condition only a short time.
- Spinach: 40 to 45 days from seed to harvest. Spinach is harvested by cutting off the entire plant at the soil line anytime after the plant has 6–8 leaves.
- Summer Squash: 40 to 55 days from seed to harvest.
- Turnips: 30 to 55 days from seed to harvest.
In a hurry to harvest tomatoes? No need to worry. Tomatoes usually fruit anywhere from three to six weeks after they flower. Purchasing mature, flowering tomato plants allows the gardener sufficient time to transplant them into the garden.
Impress your friends and family by timing the quick harvest with the rest of the salad vegetables listed here.
In terms of popularity, fresh onions rank at the top of the American fresh vegetable preference list. Along with tomatoes and lettuce, onions fresh onions top many an American sandwich or salad. While a small portion of the annual onion harvest goes to market in a dehydrated form, fresh onions remain the market’s most popular product.
Onion popularity also extends to many back yard gardens because the Allium genus provides a variety of edible plants. Chives, garlic, leeks, onions and shallots all call the genus home. Attentive gardeners often experiment with onion color, bulb size and taste.
Types of onion choices available vary from place to place. Generally onions get categorized in terms of their adaptation to daylight. From that starting point, four types of onions are commercially available to gardeners:
- short-day
- intermediate
- long-day
- day-neutral
Geographical considerations also play a part in onion seed choices. Short-day varieties adapt well to southern gardens with less daylight and long-day varieties adapt well to northern gardens with more daylight.
Onions adapt to many types of soil in the 6.0-6.5 pH level range, as long as the soil receives good moisture that drains easily. They can be planted from seeds, sets or bulbs. Seeds are the least expensive alternative and they can be planted indoors and transplanted, or sown directly into the soil after the final frost. If the onions have been grown from seed, thinning the row of young plants in three to four inches of space between them allows for maximum bulb development.
The most common insect problems are onion thrips and onion maggots. Signs of onion thrips include leaves with silver
streaks early, eventually turning the leaves yellow and brown.
The most common disease problem is white rot. Signs of white rot include white, fuzzy growth on leaves and the bulbs are soft and watery.
Cultivated by world gardeners throughout history, radish appeal to many American gardeners since colonial days needs little explication.
While one might argue that radishes fit into a niche vegetable market, their easy growing nature and peppery taste makes them excellent vegetable garden choices. Their less than mass market appeal means many people come to associate radishes with particular occasions and/or people. The people of Mexico City, for example, celebrate radishes every December 23 during the Fiesta De Los Rabanos, with special carving contests, food and music.
Radishes grow well in most types of healthy soils with a pH level around 6.0. Like other root vegetables, they require a deeper than average soil preparation of about six inches. In the garden they can be planted next to carrots. Suggested indoor seed germination temperatures vary according to a few general rules such as seed strain choice and climactic conditions. Optimal seed germination temperature ranges fall between 70oF and 80oF.
Germination takes place within a few days and in a week or two, the plants can be thinned to encourage root growth.
Because so many mild radish varieties grow small and quickly, keeping the soil weed free and moist during the growing cycle normally produces a great crop. Staggering the radish planting schedule allows for fresh radish harvests throughout the growing season.
Harvesting: Depending on the variety planted, spring radishes are ready for harvest anywhere from 20 to 40 days after germination. Harvesting any radish plant at an early stage of its maturity decreases its culinary bite and increases its moisture content.