Planting in the Vegetable Garden
The beds in my vegetable garden are filling up quickly.
My gardeners and outdoor grounds crew have been very busy in the vegetable garden down by my chicken coops. After making all the beds and spreading salt hay on the main footpath, they planted a number of crops. Many seeds were planted directly into the soil - seeds for carrots, turnips, parsnips, radishes, beets and more. Others were started from seed in the greenhouse, such as the brassicas - kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage - I love these vegetables and always plant enough to share with my family and friends. Soon the entire garden will be filled with rows of wonderful and nutritious produce.
Enjoy these photos.
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- When it comes to creating and maintaining a healthy garden, proper soil preparation is crucial. This garden has already been cleaned of debris and old root systems. Several weeks ago, the area was tilled and amended with nutrient-rich compost. This year, I also decided to build raised, well-aerated square beds on one side instead of just long rows. This will make better use of the space and allow us to plant more.
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- Each bed is about six feet square, with some that are a little larger to fill up the entire length of the garden. The deep, organically rich soil will encourage and support the growth of healthy root systems.
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- My granddaughter, Jude, planted the first beds of the season – lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, radishes, etc. She and I worked very hard – she loves to garden and is an excellent gardener.
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- Jude’s radishes were already sprouting a few days later.
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- Ryan uses this bed preparation rake also from Johnny’s Selected Seeds to create furrows in the soil. Hard plastic tubes slide onto selected teeth of the rake to mark the rows.
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- It’s a cleverly designed tool for making multiple straight rows in one pass. The depth of the furrows depends on the amount of pressure placed on the rake as it moves through the soil.
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- Ryan labels wooden markers for all our crops. Here he is marking all the other beds for seeds for easy identification through the season.
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- Most of our seeds come from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Johnny’s has been farming organically for more than 40-years and offers hundreds of varieties of vegetable, herb, flower, and fruit seeds for the garden. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
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- Ryan sprinkles the seeds in the furrows and then gently backfills the rows with soil. On this day, he planted seeds for carrots, turnips, parsnips, radishes, beets, herbs, and more.
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- Then he goes over the bed with the back of a rake to ensure all the seeds are covered and the beds are tidy.
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- I am very fortunate to have the room to plant so many different and delicious vegetable varieties. The other side of the garden was designated for long rows. Each of the markers is where each row begins.
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- Phurba measures the beds multiple times during the process to ensure every bed is straight and equal in width.
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- The first bed will serve as a basis for all the other beds along this side of the garden – it must be perfect.
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- Phurba also ties twine from one side of the beds to the other – the twine will help mark the length of the beds as Phurba forms them.
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- The raised beds are raked until they are perfectly level. Raised beds warm more quickly in springtime and maintain better aeration and drainage.
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- Each bed is raised about four to six inches off the ground and about three feet wide. If building a new vegetable garden, test the soil to gain more knowledge of its pH, phosphorus, lime, potassium, soluble salts, and soil texture. Soil testing kits are available at garden centers, or through a local cooperative extension.
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- After three days of shaping and careful raking, all the beds are complete – they look fantastic.
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- Next, Ryan plants the brassicas. Brassica is a genus of plants in the mustard family. Members are informally known as cruciferous vegetables, cabbages, or mustard plants. They are also sometimes called cole crops. Here are pots of cabbage, broccoli, kale, and cauliflower – all started from seed in the greenhouse.
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- Ryan measures each square bed to assess how many rows of each vegetable can be planted in the space. He takes into consideration the number of plants and the size of the vegetables when mature.
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- Ryan places as many as he can in the bed without compromising the needs of each plant.
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- As each group of plants is positioned, Zoe follows behind to plant. She uses a right-angle trowel from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Designed for transplanting, it is made of stainless steel, with a five-inch by three-inch blade and a five-inch handle. It’s great for reducing strain on the wrists.
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- Zoe digs a hole so that the plant goes deeply into the ground – about half the stem should be buried.
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- We always rotate our crops every year. Rotating crops gives various nutrients to the soil and improves soil stability by alternating between crops with deep roots and those with shallow roots. Pests are also deterred by eliminating their food source on a regular basis.
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- Here is the cabbage square. The planting season for cabbage is quite long. Early cabbage should be transplanted as soon as possible so that it can mature before the summertime heat. Red, or purple, cabbage is often used raw for salads and coleslaw. It contains 10-times more vitamin-A and twice as much iron as green cabbage. For cabbage, seeding to harvest takes 60 to 100 days, depending on the variety.
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- Broccoli is one of the healthiest vegetables and is high in vitamin-C and fiber.
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- Cauliflower plants grow best in cool daytime temperatures of 70 to 80-degrees Fahrenheit with lots of sun and moist soil conditions high in organic matter.
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- Kale or leaf cabbage has purple or green leaves, in which the central leaves do not form a head. Cold-hardy and resilient, kale is easy to grow. They can be transplanted early in spring – they will grow steadily for months until the weather gets too warm.
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- We still have lots of room to plant more in the coming weeks. I am already looking forward to the first harvest.
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