Planting a Vegetable Garden
Having a house in the country offers you a great opportunity for a vegetable garden. I can assure you, that after having tasted a tomato that has grown in your own garden, you realize that the reddish dry wedge you get in a restaurant is a tomato in name only. The tomatoes from my garden are sweet and are almost sinful.
Our garden is near the house, so you can visit the young plants everyday and do a little weeding. Before you decide on the size of your garden, I have to warn you. In a good year, your garden may produce more tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers than you can eat. You are overwhelmed and give most of your harvest away. Your neighbors will be grateful. In a bad year however, you are delighted if you get anything.
Having a house in the country offers you a great opportunity for a vegetable garden. I can assure you, that after having tasted a tomato that has grown in your own garden, you realize that the reddish dry wedge you get in a restaurant is a tomato in name only. The tomatoes from my garden are sweet and are almost sinful.
Our garden is near the house, so you can visit the young plants everyday and do a little weeding. Before you decide on the size of your garden, I have to warn you. In a good year, your garden may produce more tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers than you can eat. You are overwhelmed and give most of your harvest away. Your neighbors will be grateful. In a bad year however, you are delighted if you get anything.
think you should start small and expand, if you need to. Our garden is about 6 feet by 24 feet. In the last thirty years, we have experimented with planting different vegetables. We have settled on peas, onions, cucumbers and 12 tomato plants. We like cherry tomatoes, Big Boy, Early Girl and Beefsteak. The sweet snap peas never make it to the dinner table! They are so sweet we eat them right in the garden. Shallots and Stuttgart onions are our choices of onions. They last us through the year until the new harvest is there.
We eat our tomatoes as salads, snacks and on sandwiches. The ones we do not eat, I wash and freeze I will use them when I make a roast, chicken or even hamburgers. They enrich each dish with the right flavor.
We eat our tomatoes as salads, snacks and on sandwiches. The ones we do not eat, I wash and freeze I will use them when I make a roast, chicken or even hamburgers. They enrich each dish with the right flavor.
Thirty years ago, when we had our first garden, we never thought of fencing it in. Deer were scarce enough that it wasn't a worry. Now things have changed. Deer, which are nocturnal, we would only see at dusk and dawn. They were leery enough of people that they would bound away, their bright white tails ‘flagging’ in alarm from side to side, as soon as they saw movement. The garden was close enough to the house, that they gave it a wide berth.
The deer population has exploded in the last couple decades. We have learned now that we need a fence, otherwise deer will eat the delicate small plants Whether it is due to the decline in hunters or the popular trend in planting ornamental landscaping and edible gardens providing an endless smorgasbord, it is common to see deer roaming about at all hours of the day. So we grudgingly surrendered to the inconvenience of erecting a fence each year. But first we prepare the garden.
After preparing the soil with composted cow manure and amending it with peat moss or old hay, it all gets tilled into the soil. Amending the soil (adding organic matter) each spring will tremendously improve even the worst soil, turning it into a black, fluffy, well aerated bed. All of these can be found at a garden center, or locally sourced. Since our farm previously had a commercial chicken operation, we have tons of old, dry chicken manure at hand. Many of the old, small operations such as ours was, have long since been driven out of business by large corporate operations. But you may see the old coops still standing and derelict in your area. They look like windowless airplane hangers. If you approach the owners, they may be more than happy to let you remove all the old manure you can handle! It is a powerful fertilizer, rich in nitrogen and calcium, but be careful, too much can burn the young plants- use moderation.
The deer population has exploded in the last couple decades. We have learned now that we need a fence, otherwise deer will eat the delicate small plants Whether it is due to the decline in hunters or the popular trend in planting ornamental landscaping and edible gardens providing an endless smorgasbord, it is common to see deer roaming about at all hours of the day. So we grudgingly surrendered to the inconvenience of erecting a fence each year. But first we prepare the garden.
After preparing the soil with composted cow manure and amending it with peat moss or old hay, it all gets tilled into the soil. Amending the soil (adding organic matter) each spring will tremendously improve even the worst soil, turning it into a black, fluffy, well aerated bed. All of these can be found at a garden center, or locally sourced. Since our farm previously had a commercial chicken operation, we have tons of old, dry chicken manure at hand. Many of the old, small operations such as ours was, have long since been driven out of business by large corporate operations. But you may see the old coops still standing and derelict in your area. They look like windowless airplane hangers. If you approach the owners, they may be more than happy to let you remove all the old manure you can handle! It is a powerful fertilizer, rich in nitrogen and calcium, but be careful, too much can burn the young plants- use moderation.
We cover the soil with a layer of straw and finish with garden fabric to keep the weeds down. The layer of straw or hay will slowly decompose into the soil, further amending it and promoting earthworms-’the tillers of the earth’. When we do the planting, we make a small opening in the fabric by cutting an ‘X’, put the plant in and fold the flaps back to the stem. Only then, do we put the soaking hose near the plants. We used to put the soaker hoses down after amending the soil, and layer the straw/hay and fabric on top. We found though that a small rock placed on the fabric on top of the fluff of the straw, created a small depression that funneled rain water and the soaker water toward the plant’s roots.
Then it is time to erect the fence. Our garden is long and narrow, with the narrow ends to the north and south. This was partially dictated by the topography, but also tended to give more exposure to the plants as the sun traversed from east to west. It also made the garden easier to tend. At only 6-7 feet wide, it was easy to weed and work from the surrounding lawn on each side- everything within arms length.
We use 5 foot steel posts from the garden center and 4 foot wire fencing. While you are at it, pick up a spool of light utility wire as well. Snipped into 6 inch pieces, a couple turns make securing and removing the fence from the posts a breeze. A heavy post pounder will make driving them into the ground easier- especially if you have rocky soil. It is a steel tube, open at one end with handles on each side. You slide the post inside and pound it up and down- easy to do by yourself. It is much safer than a swinging a sledgehammer. With a sledge, you’ll be tempted to draft the nearest warm body to hold the stake while you wield the hammer. Let’s face it, if you are only doing this once a year, your aim might not be good enough to avoid breaking your assistant’s arms or your legs! So pick one up when you get the fencing- cheaper than a hospital visit.
Then it is time to erect the fence. Our garden is long and narrow, with the narrow ends to the north and south. This was partially dictated by the topography, but also tended to give more exposure to the plants as the sun traversed from east to west. It also made the garden easier to tend. At only 6-7 feet wide, it was easy to weed and work from the surrounding lawn on each side- everything within arms length.
We use 5 foot steel posts from the garden center and 4 foot wire fencing. While you are at it, pick up a spool of light utility wire as well. Snipped into 6 inch pieces, a couple turns make securing and removing the fence from the posts a breeze. A heavy post pounder will make driving them into the ground easier- especially if you have rocky soil. It is a steel tube, open at one end with handles on each side. You slide the post inside and pound it up and down- easy to do by yourself. It is much safer than a swinging a sledgehammer. With a sledge, you’ll be tempted to draft the nearest warm body to hold the stake while you wield the hammer. Let’s face it, if you are only doing this once a year, your aim might not be good enough to avoid breaking your assistant’s arms or your legs! So pick one up when you get the fencing- cheaper than a hospital visit.
We start our garden every year after May 15. I still remember the woman in the plant store, when she did not want to sell me the plants I had selected, because there was a frost warning for the next day. I had to promise her not to plant immediately. In the fall, you have to pay attention to the weather. If there is a frost warning, pick your tomatoes. If you do not they will lie on the ground the next morning. They’ll be soft and watery and should not be eaten anymore. The still green tomatoes I put in a big brown paper bag on the refrigerator. After a week or two some of the green tomatoes have turned red and taste great. The others I leave in. In due time my “green” harvest will be red and ready for consumption.
Commercial growers pick their tomatoes when they are still green, making them more durable for transport. Nitrogen gas is then used to speed their ripening. By enclosing them in a brown paper bag, you are effectively mimicking the process, trapping the tomatoes out-gasing of nitrogen around the tomatoes.
Here is a tip from my mother: If there are leaves coming out of the branch fork of the tomato plant at the stem, pinch them off. It takes away from energy to produce tomatoes. Along the same lines, remove the “flower” of onion stalks or fold them back, as the energy should go into the onions.
There is a special piece about how to connect a garden soaker hose to your water supply in another section of the web page.
Commercial growers pick their tomatoes when they are still green, making them more durable for transport. Nitrogen gas is then used to speed their ripening. By enclosing them in a brown paper bag, you are effectively mimicking the process, trapping the tomatoes out-gasing of nitrogen around the tomatoes.
Here is a tip from my mother: If there are leaves coming out of the branch fork of the tomato plant at the stem, pinch them off. It takes away from energy to produce tomatoes. Along the same lines, remove the “flower” of onion stalks or fold them back, as the energy should go into the onions.
There is a special piece about how to connect a garden soaker hose to your water supply in another section of the web page.