Garden Time Part Two: Vegetables

By: Emily Clark

Part Two of Three

Bed Of Roses

I would have liked to have posted this a week or two ago, but the weather has been so wet and windy that vegetable gardeners have had to replace a lot of their plants. Now I hear that it’s supposed to be rainy again this weekend, but we’re getting to the point that if vegetable gardening doesn’t get done soon, it’ll be hard to get it done before it’s too cold to harvest anything edible. So, let's risk it.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme 

If you’re a beginner with vegetable gardening remember to start small. Pick two or three things that you’d really like to grow, for instance tomatoes, peppers, and squash (which bear all season long), then do a variety of each. 

 

Then, let’s say you picked Celebrity, Roma, and Cherokee Purple Heirloom as your variety of tomatoes for the year, you’ll watch for the best performer. At the end of the season whichever of the three choices did the best, or whichever you liked the best, will be the one you will plant again next year. This leaves you with space to try two other varieties.

The key is to set yourself up to succeed. Become an expert at a few things and slowly add others to the list.

Forget-Me-Nots:

1.      You’ll need perfect soil. Here’s how to get it:

a)      Water your soil until you have thoroughly soaked an area.

b)      Wait 24 hours.

c)      Take a hand full of dirt and clench it in your fist.

d)     If water drips out of the dirt add compost to the soil.

e)      Open fist and look at soil. If it stays in a hard ball or has a sandy texture and falls apart too easily add organic matter.

f)       If the soil crumbles like a piece of cake congratulations, you have the perfect soil. 

2.      Vegetables need full sun. Full sun is six to eight hours of sun. Mostly afternoon and evening sun. Meaning you’ll want to plant your vegetables in a western facing spot for best results.

3.      Vegetables need a lot of water. Plant them near a hose.

4.      If you are planning on planting seeds you’ll want to get them in now. As in right now—immediately. If you are doing starts, get them in as soon as possible. No longer than a week preferably, but you might be okay for another couple weeks. Remember a lot of vegetables, like most tomatoes, take up to three months to produce.

5.      If you are curious about when you should plant check out this website: www.ufseeds.com. However, if there is something on the list that you wanted to plant, but it says you should’ve started it a month ago, don’t let it discourage you from giving it a try now anyway. But do it from a start and not a seed.

Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Maintenance)

Vegetable gardens do take a bit of work. But there are some tricks you can use to make it easier:

1.      They need a lot of water and consistent watering will provide you with the best results. If you have a large garden, setting up a sprinkling system is probably going to be the best method you can use. If it’s smaller you might want to consider getting a soaker hose that you can weave throughout your garden. Soaker hoses are fantastic options, because they help keep water from getting on the leaves of your vegetables, which can lead to molding and/or disease. After that you just need to remember to be consistent. I recommend watering in the morning before you head off to work. Set your alarm on your phone to remind you. You can turn it on before you get ready and turn it off when you’re heading out. 

2.      Start with watering your plants for 30 minutes on hot days and 20 minutes on cloudy days. Adjust based on your plants needs.

3.      Make sure to keep on top of weeding. If weeds get out of control, they can choke out your vegetables. We recommend weeding every day. The more you do it, the fewer weeds you’ll have and the amount of time will decrease. Doing it every day is the key.

4.      We live in Utah, and we all know that it can get unbearably hot. This is true even for plants. On especially hot days, it’s a good idea to give your veggies some shade. I’ve heard that cheesecloth makes an excellent shade. Walmart has it for $2. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Rust-Oleum-Cheesecloth/48810165?WMLSPARTNER=WLPA&SELECTEDSELLERID=0&adid=22222222227039608619&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=80426528809&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=177658241569&veh=sem

5.      Vegetables grow long and tall, so you’ll want to make sure that they have something to climb. I use an old door frame in my yard and I know someone who uses a ladder for their squash. Cages are great for tomatoes and if you have a fence you can put a wire mesh along it for cucumbers, peppers, or tomatoes. If you have a large bed then you’ll want cages for those things.

Flight of the Bumblebees (Attracts Bees)

Our last article was about perennial gardening and in it we listed flowers that attract bees. Bees are great for helping you create a beautiful garden. Here’s a link to that article: http://ekot-properties.blogspot.com/2016/04/garden-time-part-one-perennials.html?m=1

If you are a vegetable gardener, you want bees to pollinate them.

The best plants for pollinating your vegetables are:

·         Echinacea or Cone Flower (Perennial)

·         Sunflowers (Perennial)

·         Shasta Daisies (Perennial)

·         Osteopermum or African Daisy (Annual)

·         Blanket Flowers (Perennial)

·         Coreopsis (Perennial)

Coreopsis (Photo by: Emily Clark)

·         Black-eyed Susans (Perennial)

·         Cosmos (Annual)

·         Zinnia (Annual)

·         Marigolds (Annual)

·         Gerbera Daisies (Annual)

·         Gazanias (Annual)

·         Any large daisy-like flowers

Orange Blossom Special (Extras)

·         Creating a border of Marigolds around your vegetables will help keep slugs and snails away from them. 

Marigolds

·         You’ll know you’ve over watered if the soil around the plant is always wet, or if your leaves are starting to turn yellow.

·         You’re under watering if your leaves are starting to turn brown or your plants aren’t growing.

·         You can purchase a moisture meter to help you know how much to water. Home Depot has an array of them. Here's one for $20. http://www.homedepot.com/p/General-Tools-Pin-Type-Moisture-Meter-with-LED-Bar-Graph-Display-MM1E/100651810

·         Mix mulch in your soil before planting for best results.

·         Often times people are tempted to buy tiny cages for their vegetables, but remember that they’ll get much bigger and it can be a pain to detangle veggies from a smaller cage.

·         When picking out tomatoes and squash only buy ones with flowers on them if you can help it. The more flowers these plants have the more fruit they’ll bare. 

Squash Flower (Photo by: Emily Clark)

 

·         When buying starts on peppers try not to get anything smaller than two to three inches. Anything smaller than that has probably not rooted out in the container it’s in yet, and you’ll have to leave it in the container for a couple of weeks or the plants probably won’t make it.

·         Heirloom tomatoes are all the rage right now, and for good reason. Not only are they better conditioned for Utah weather, but they are also hardy and incredibly tasty. There are hundreds of different types of Heirlooms to choose from, but my favorite are: Arkansas Traveler, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Sweet 100 Cherry, Pineapple and Green Zebra.

Black Cherry Heirloom Tomato

·         If you’re a fan of non-heirloom tomatoes like Roma, Early Girl, Celebrity, Big Beef, Beefmaster, etc, remember that many nursery will sell these in four to six packs. I always plant one six pack of Early Girls because they produce in 52 to 54 days, while most other tomatoes are anywhere from 72 to 90 days. Usually closer to 90. Early Girls give me tomatoes mid-season as well.

 If you have any further questions feel free to leave a comment. 

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