VEGETABLE GARDENING


Veggie Garden Plans:

Brainstorming For Next Year

We had some major bug problems this year. Bugs that I never knew existed graced us with their presence and dined at our expense. Indignation! Japanese beetles were everywhere, of course, but we were introduced to squash vine borers and tomato hornworms (eeew!) and strange, ugly, yellow, zuccini-leaf-eating horrors. It was really yucky. I don't want these new "friends" to come back next year. So how do I turn back the despiccable horde??

For starters, I gathered all the foliage, and most of the roots, waited for a rainstorm, made a brush pile in the garden where the squash plants were, and then burned it, hoping to scorch some bugs that way. (We live in the sticks; most suburban gardeners don't have this option.)

This spring I hope to try the much-touted Bacillus Thurengensis, deadly to caterpillars of all sorts. I will have to keep it well away from all my flower gardens-- we have Monarchs and large black butterflies. However, for the squash vine borers, the cabbage worms and the tomato hornworms... 'nough said. If the BT doesn't work I've also read (at the Gardenweb) that Rotenone will get them. Again, I have to keep the stuff well away from the perennial beds. Maybe a netting over the Rotenone'd/ BT'd plants would keep the meandering Monarchs away?

The Milky Spore "disease" will be turned loose on those-- charming-- Japanese Beetles. And just in case, on the net somewhere it ways that if you attract birds to the garden with a couple of birdbaths and a feeder or two, your bugs will-- snap!-- disappear. Sounds good to me. Pepper, our canine cat, will no doubt have fun with this as well.

It is also time to get serious about crop rotation. One web page, which I can no longer find to reference here, says that you want to divide your growing space into four sections-- legumes, fruits, leaves, and roots-- and rotate your crops in that order. However, we don't grow enough root crops to justify dedicating a section to them.

Gardenweb says that you can divide your growing space into four or six groupings, and the four-grouping is this:

Cabbage family
legumes (beans & peas)
corn, carrots, beets, onions
vine crops (squash, cukes, melon, tomatoes.)

Which leads us back to the root crops (number three.) And no, we weren't planning to grow any corn, either. I wonder what happes if you just skip one section? And where do the lettuces fit in? No wonder folks call this a headache. It is.

On The Other Hand: maybe I should have a section for root crops. I keep reading/hearing about how yummy well-frosted parsnips are, and how good Leeks are. Winter crops just seem like a valiant thing to do, and winter crops are either roots, or leaves. Recently, a gardening co-worker meandered by my cube and the result was a wealth of information about leeks and parsnips. Perhaps this is something I should do... then I'd have to learn how to cook it all. Variety in the diet is a good thing. (But I have a funny feeling that all these winter vegetables are going to end up cooked in butter. How heart-healthy does that end up being?) Here are some sketches... I just have to make up my mind. Mumph.

On the other, other hand: here is another possibility that I like a little better... maybe. At least it's also worth daydreaming about. This one's from the Canberra Organic Growers' Society called What To Plant and Where.

If I use a three-plot division instead of a four-plot division, and if I combine the cabbage-family section with the root crops section then I get this:

Late Spring/Summer/Early Fall:
A. tomatoes
B2/C Broccoli, Kale, collards, & roots & salad greens; leeks
D. Zuccini & cucumber

Late Fall/Winter/Early spring:
B1. Broad Beans/Peas/Onions
B2/C Broccoli, Kale, collards, & roots & salad greens; leeks
D. Winter Rye

Then plant the tomatoes where the winter Rye was; move B2/C into last year's tomato-land; and the zukes and cukes into last year's leafy salad section.

BUT the problem with that is there's no place to grow beans in the summer... very important. I am thinking of trying a row (2 to 4 squares) of pole beans, and of course sticking with the bush beans also, because I like them...

Anyway I guess I'm back to the four-plot division:

Late Spring/Summer/Early Fall:
A. tomatoes
B1. Beans/Peas/Onions
B2/C Broccoli, Kale, collards, & roots & salad greens; leeks
D. Zuccini & cucumber

Late Fall/Winter/Early spring:
B1. Winter cover crop I guess?
B1. Beans/Peas/Onions
B2/C Broccoli, Kale, collards, & roots & salad greens; leeks
D. Winter Rye

So then I would have this:

Then plant the tomatoes where the winter Rye was; move beans & peas into last year's tomato-land; leaves & roots into beanland; and the zukes and cukes into last year's leafy salad section.

As the beans go by (in the beans/peas/onions patch) in the places where I have no peas for the fall, I can start sneaking in radishes and beets and chard for the winter, a little ahead of season. I am thinking of a light wooden frame for sheet plastic, leaning up against the north side of the garden, providing a cold-frame-ish setup and some season-extending for the cold-season crops. I could insulate the sides with mulch. Which reminds me, I need to locate some boards to lay on the paths, so I can quit walking on the soil.

Here are some of the plants that I want to try for winter gardening. They come in two categories-- those which need protection below 10 (to make it safe, I'll say 20) degrees and those that need protection basically below freezing. I am considering putting the two groups each under their own plasticked frame. (Most of our winter here in Zone 6 stays above twenty, but sometimes we do plunge.) So the list could go like this:

More sensitive to cold (protect below 30):
arugula
beets
brocks
chard
lettuce
radishes

protection only when "bitter" cold (protect below twenty degrees):
carrots
mache/corn salad
Kale
leeks
onions
parsnip
spinach

Of course, I think about this every year-- growing winter vegetables-- but I have yet to pursue it seriously. Maybe this fall. Regardless, it seems like a good thing to think about THIS winter. Perhaps the El Nino mildness we are having is encouraging all this daydreaming...

Winter cops, rotation, successive plantings. If this all smacks of "Square Foot Gardening" that is partly true; while I tend to give my plants a little more room than Mel Bartholomew recommends, I do like the concept. Friends of mine use the square foot system faithfully and love it.

As for me, I'm just trying to keep grocery bills down and nutrient contents up. Vegetable gardening is not nearly as much a part of me as flower gardening is. But when spring rolls around, I think of those lousy-tasting supermarket tomatoes and high supermarket prices, and how nutty and yummy fresh-picked, steamed beans taste, and then I start turning over the soil.

Garden Home Page
Easy Care Flowers
Fragrant Flowers
The Winter Bones of the Garden
Formal vs. Informal Design
Winter Bloom
Moon Light Garden

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