Home Garden Vegetables

Part II

Planning Your Vegetable Garden Plots, Pyramids, and Planters

by George and Katy Abraham.

George and Katy Abraham of Naples, N.Y., do a column, The Green Thumb, for 126 newspapers. They also broadcast regularly over TV and radio, and have written seven books on horticultural topics.

If you are fortunate enough to have plenty of space for a garden, you can have a traditional type with enough space between rows to run a garden tractor.

Before you plant your garden, do some planning. Most people make their garden too big and by late summer it may be a weed patch. For the conventional garden with ample space to use a garden tractor, a plot of 50 feet by 50 feet is enough for a family of 4. With 5 or more members in households who plan on doing freezing and canning, a space of 50 feet by 100 feet is not unreasonable.

However, if you plan to use muscle power, a hand cultivator and a hoe, plus some plastic mulch to keep weeds down, you can put rows only half as far apart and make your garden half the size. With this much space you not only can grow lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, beets, carrots, onions, snap beans and chard, but you also can raise bush squash (both summer and winter) and some corn as well.

Corn needs to be planted so that you have at least two rows side by side (varieties must mature at the same time) for cross pollination. It is actually preferable to plant four rows together. The rows do not need to be long ones but can be arranged in blocks to aid cross pollination. Remember it is the seed which you eat if there is no pollination you get no corn.

If space is limited, it is best to cut out corn, squash and pumpkins, although a few bush squash do very well in small spaces and even in containers.

Mini Gardening Is Easy

As the United States moves into its third century, we find the American gardener is no longer limited to conventional straight rows and regulated distances in which to raise vegetables. Indeed, the method of culture is limited only by the imagination. This makes it possible for the urban gardener like his country cousin to have the satisfaction of raising juicy tomatoes, snappy green beans and pungent radishes.

What's wrong with a window box or a balcony planter with a few flowers in front for show, and beans, carrots, onions, lettuce or radishes in back for food? Many gardeners are doing just that. An incredible amount of vegetables can be grown in small spaces with a little extra plant food and a good supply of ingenuity. Tomatoes, eggplants and vine crops add color to foundation plantings.

Cucumbers and melons can be trained up railings, trellises and fences. One cucumber vine will do very well in one cubic foot of soil if it is fed once every two weeks with a liquid plant food, or if a slow release plant food is added at the time of planting.

Even though the gardener has no patch of ground he should not be deterred. Container-grown vegetables are just as tasty. Some containers that make good mini-gardens are waste paper cans, half barrels, square boxes, cement blocks (set so openings face the sky), and pails.

We have tried galvanized water tanks, cut in half, an eave trough, bushel baskets and beverage boxes. You can make or buy tower gardens (called vertical gardens) made of 2-inch by 4-inch mesh wire fencing rolled in a circle and lined with sisal craft paper, into which has been poured one of the soilless mixes. Openings are cut in the paper, and seeds or plants inserted at appropriate intervals. You can also buy or construct pyramid gardens using metal, wood or plastic. If you have a sloping piece of property, you can build a terrace garden using the same principle.

Top, bags, baskets, and buckets can become mini-gardens. Above, limited space for a garden poses no real problem. The authors made this "vertical" garden by lining a wire mesh tower with sisal craft paper and filling it with soil. Growing are squash, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and lettuce, besides some flowers.

Vegetables grow faster in the warmth reflected from walks, drives and concrete pads. If plants are growing in containers, drainage holes provide places for evaporation and you will have to water the containers more often when they are setting on concrete or blacktop.

Even though drainage holes aid in evaporation, containers must be well drained. Heavy rains can cause water to stand around roots. No vegetables do well in waterlogged soil. It is better to have a well drained container that must be watered oftener than one that holds water and shuts out air to the roots.

Fresh vegetable lovers who have patches of ground available with hard packed cement-like soil can grow their produce in raised beds framed With 1-inch by 6-inch boards. They then can make their own soil mix to fill the beds. The raised beds can be any size, but the most convenient are those easily reached from all sides. A 4-foot square is one we find handy.

Used car tires make dandy small circular beds. In fact, when you have a slope the tires can be pegged in place with stakes, filled with soil and used to grow any number of small crops.

If the sun touches any of your garden spots for only a short time during the day, there's a solution. The trick is to resort to aluminum foil or chrome reflectors or mirrors. White houses reflect light, as do white gravel mulches. An equivalent of six hours of sun a day (whether reflected or direct) is adequate to grow most crops if the light intensity remains high. Vegetable beds should not be shaded by tall trees or high buildings. We've had peppers, tomatoes and lettuce produce with only three hours of sun and good reflected light the rest of the day. You can also put your containers on wheels and move them with the sun.