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They come in the darkest days of
winter, when we are most
susceptible to their siren song: the seed catalogues.
An hour with a seed book, and even the most inexperienced gardener is inspired. It's easy for first time gardeners to get enthusiastic. It’s easy, too, when confronted w ith planting tables, vegetable varieties, soil preparation and pest control, to get discouraged.
You can grow vegetables, but you need a plan. And when planning that first garden, follow' the SOS rule to vegetable nirvana: Start Out Small.
A well-planned 6-foot-bv-8-foot garden space can provide you with a summer s worth of vegetables. Successive plantings make use of the entire growing season, and intensive spacing gets big results from little spaces. Thislittlc garden will produce lettuce, Swiss Chard (a sw'eet, leafy green), green beans, peas, squash, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
Start this month by staking off a 6foot-by-8-foot area. Try, try, try to get your garden turned with a tilling machine. Hand-digging even a small space is no fun. A tiller will also cultivate deeply, and aerate the soil, both needed for full productivity. The addition of construction sand, peat moss, composted leas es, or manure helps improve soil quality and fertility.
Different vegetables grow best at different temperatures. In this garden, you’ll plant the lettuce, spring broccoli Sets, and peas in early spring. After their harvest, in late May dr earlv June, plant summer crops in the same beds.
After tilling, mark o(Tthe beds. Between beds, create walkways by removing shovelsful of dirt, and dumping the soil on the new beds. This delineates planting and walking space, and gives a raised seedbed where the soil will stay light and loose.
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