Starter Vegetable Gardens — 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens

24 No-Fail Plans for

Small Organic Gardens

BARBARA PLEASANTAUTHOR OF

THE COMPLETE COMPOST GARDENING GUIDE

STARTER VEGETABLE GARDENS

1973-StarterBLAD.indd 11973-StarterBLAD.indd 1 11/24/09 2:48:46 PM11/24/09 2:48:46 PM

CONTENTSDIGGING IN 9 How to Use This Book ......................................................................................................................... 9

DEVELOPING YOUR GARDEN PLAN:STARTING SMALL AND GROWING YEAR BY YEARChapter 1. The Easy-Care Bag Garden 14Chapter 2. A Backyard Border 33Chapter 3. The Front-Yard Food Supply 48Chapter 4. The Family Food Factory 66

ESSENTIAL TECHNIQUES AND MORE PLANTING PLANSChapter 5. Deciding What to Grow 76Chapter 6. Designing Beautiful, Big-Flavor Gardens 80Chapter 7. Working with Seeds and Seedlings 84Chapter 8. Supporting Your Plants 101Chapter 9. Water: Make Every Drop Count 107Chapter 10. The Magic of Mulch 112Chapter 11. Fertilizing Your Garden 118Chapter 12. Your Insect Friends and Foes 124Chapter 13. Preventing Dastardly Diseases 129Chapter 14. Smart Harvesting 134Chapter 15. Stretching the Seasons 139

PICK-OF-THE-CROP VEGGIE VARIETIESAPPENDIX 169

1PART

2PART

3PART


1

2

3

Designed to bring good things to eat to a city backyard or an oversized sub-urban lawn, this easy-to-install garden requires no prior experience. You can set up the fi rst-year rendition in a single weekend, and even after you expand the garden in year two and year three, it remains a doable project for a gardener working alone who also has a full-time job or takes care of young children. This garden is big enough to keep you in fresh food all summer but not so big that it will take over your life.

atives, which tend to prefer fall over

spring in most (but not all!) climates.

You will discover whether harvest-

ing and eating garden-fresh potatoes

and rutabagas rates as super-special

or just so-so in your book, and your

experiences will help you customize

your crop list for seasons to come.

When you’re ready for new ad-

ventures, experiment by fi tt ing

planting plans from part 2 such as

Strictly from Seed (page 92) and the

Good-for-You Garden (page 136) into

the footprint of your Easy-Care Bag

Garden. Browse the variety descrip-

tions in part 3 as well, and choose a

few to try. This will make your garden

more interesting with every passing

season.

1

2

3

YEAR ONEPAGE 18

YEAR TWOPAGE 24

YEAR THREEPAGE 28

THE EASY-CARE BAG GARDEN

B ag gardening couldn’t be easier. You simply set out purchased

bags of topsoil, cut open the bags,

and plant seeds and seedlings right

in the topsoil. The Easy-Care Bag

Garden is a one- person garden, and

in year one, it will take one person

only a few hours each week to keep

up with watering, weeding, planting,

and picking.

By the second year, the garden is

fully functional as a food garden for

a single person, with 15 vegetables

and 5 herbs producing steadily from

early summer to late fall. If you want

more vegetables, you can expand the

garden when you’re ready. You’re in

charge, because this is intended to

remain a one-person garden.

As the garden grows, you’ll see how

well your site and soil support popu-

lar garden plants like tomatoes and

snap beans. You will also learn the

preferred growing season for broc-

coli and its close cabbage-family rel-

3PAGE 28

C H A P T E R O N E


YEAR ONE

YEAR TWO

Large bags of planting mix defi ne space for three per-manent beds. Bags laid end to end create a narrow bed just right for a trellis. In the other beds, the bags create beds 3 feet wide (a good width for stepping over). The 2-foot-wide pathways between beds are easy to maintain with a mower.

The circular bed is a natu-ral focal point, so have fun with it! Eventually, you might decide to use it as a perma-nent home for your collec-tion of kitchen herbs or put up a trellis for heavy-bearing pole beans.

YEAR-BY-YEAR OVERVIEW THE EASY-CARE BAG GARDENCHAPTER

4

1

8'

8'

8'

12'

12'

5'

8'

2'

21'

21'

2'

8' 10'

20'

8'

3'

3'

3'

3'

3'

3'

1'

1'

compost

compost


YEAR THREE The garden triples in size over three years, from 64 to 168 square feet of bed space. But even at its maximum, this garden remains a manageable project for a food-minded gar-dener working alone.

YEAR ONE YIELDSPRING CROPS• lettuce: 2–3 lb.• snap peas: 3–4 lb.

SUMMER CROPS• snap beans: 4 lb.• tomatoes: 16–20 lb.

FALL CROPS• arugula and bok choy:

3 lb. each• kale: 4 lb.• spinach: 1 lb.

HERBS• basil and parsley: about 12

bunches each• oregano, rosemary, sage,

and thyme: a year’s supply

YEAR TWO YIELD YEAR THREE YIELDSPRING CROPS• lettuce: 7 lb.• snow peas:

3 lb.• kale: 5 lb.• kohlrabi: 6 bulbs• potatoes: 4 lb.• onions: about 50

SUMMER CROPS• pole snap beans:

20 lb.• bush snap beans:

15 lb.• tomatoes:

30–40 lb.• peppers:

5–6 lb.• summer squash:

20 lb.

FALL CROPS• arugula: 6 lb.• salad greens:

10 lb.• carrots: 12 lb.• Chinese cabbage:

12 lb.• rutabagas: 5 roots• garlic: 20 bulbs

(harvested the following season)

HERBS• basil: about 25

bunches• oregano, rosemary,

sage, and thyme: a year’s supply

SPRING CROPS• lettuce: 3–4 lb.• snap peas:

3–4 lb.• potatoes:

20 lb.• onions: about 25• beets: 8 lb.• chard: 12 lb.

SUMMER CROPS• snap beans:

16 lb.• tomatoes:

30–40 lb.• peppers:

4–6 lb.• squash: 35 lb.

FALL CROPS• salad greens:

7 lb.• broccoli: 6 lb.• mizuna or mustard:

20 lb.• carrots: 4 lb.• turnips: 10 lb.• garlic: about 45

bulbs (harvested the following season)

HERBS• basil: about 50

bunches• cilantro: about 10

bunches• dill, oregano,

rosemary, sage, and thyme: a year’s supply

5

29'

20'

1'

8'

12'

12'

5'

4'

8'

2'

8'

3'

3'

3'

3'

compost

work area (or future bed)


EARLY SPRING

1 Prepare your site. Select a site and

arrange bags as shown in the garden

plan on page 19. Before positioning

the bags in Bed 2, cover the ground

between the tomato and herb bags with

4 to 6 sheets of damp newspaper or a

single thickness of well- dampened

cardboard to deter weeds. The bags

will hold the covering in place. Set

up your composter or assemble your

composting enclosure.

After bags are set in place, use a sharp knife to prepare them for planting.

2 Do a little digging. Use the spade

or shovel and digging fork to remove

grass and weeds from the ends of Bed

1; toss all plant debris in the compost.

The same tools work well for breaking

up the stripped soil, loosening it at

least 8 inches deep. Mix two handfuls

of organic fertilizer into each end of

the bed.

A 2-inch rim of plastic on the surface of each bag prevents soil spillage and helps retain moisture.

3 Prepare bags for planting. In the

same bed, install the posts for the pea

trellis by pounding them into the

ground at the ends of the bags (see

How to Pound a Post on page 102). Use

the utility knife to cut out a large rect-

angular window on the upper surface

of each bag, leaving the sides and 2

inches of each top edge intact, like a

picture frame. Lightly dust the surface

of the soil inside the bags with organic

fertilizer and mix in with trowel. (Skip

this if the bag’s label says that fertil-

izer has been added.) Stab each bag

about a dozen times with a knife or

screwdriver to pierce drainage holes

in the bott oms. Plant roots will also

use these holes to grow down into the

soil below the bags.

4 Weave the trellis. Install the trellis

nett ing or string between the posts. If

using string, start by tying a horizontal

line between the posts, no more than

6 inches above the soil’s surface. Then

tie more horizontal lines at least 6

inches apart (so there’s room to reach

through the trellis when harvesting)

until the top string is 4 feet from the

ground. Create a trellis grid by weav-

ing more string vertically in and out

through the horizontal strings.

MIDSPRING

5 Sow peas. One month before your

last spring frost date, plant pea seeds

in the soil in the bags, sowing one

TRELLIS REINFORCEMENTSA single slender stick or bamboo rod lashed to the tops of the two end posts of a trellis adds substantial stability, which makes it easier to weave the net of strings. Another option is to use sticks in place of string for some of the trellis’ vertical lines. After you tie off the horizontal strings, weave slender sticks or bamboo rods between the strings. Push the ends of the sticks a few inches into the ground. Then go back and lash the hori-zontal strings to your vertical sticks.

THE EASY-CARE BAG GARDEN

YEAR ONE PLANTING AND CARE

THE EASY-CARE BAG GARDENCHAPTER


A fl ap of plastic helps keep the soil moist for slow-sprouting parsley seeds.

7 Sow lettuce. In Bed 3, prepare the

center bag (lett uce) as in Step 3. Let-

tuce seeds sprout faster than parsley,

so they don’t need to be covered with

a plastic fl ap. Aft er applying fertilizer

and making drainage holes, scatt er

the lett uce seeds over the soil’s surface

so that they are about 1 inch apart.

Pat them into place with your hand,

barely covering them with soil. Keep

the soil moist until the seeds ger-

minate. Two to three weeks later, fi ll

any gaps in the planting with small

pinches of seeds.

8 Plant herbs. As soon as they’re

available at garden centers, buy rose-

mary, thyme, sage, and oregano plants

for Bed 3. Prepare the end bags in

the bed as in Step 3. Keep the plants

watered until you’re ready to set them

out. Plant them at even spacing, with

each plant about 10 inches in from

the edge of the bag. Position each herb

in its planting hole so that the base

of the main stem is no deeper than it

grew in the container. Aft er fi lling in

the hole, water well and use scissors

or pruning shears to snip off any bro-

ken branches. (Note: If you purchased

parsley plants for Bed 2, plant them

now too.)

IS THERE A PERFECT TOMATO?Probably not. Cherry, plum, and saladette tomatoes are generally eas-ier to grow than large-fruited beefsteaks. Hybrids are generally more dependable and fast-maturing than heirloom varieties, though there are exceptions to every rule. Tomato varieties are discussed in detail on page 167, but keep in mind that you are always wise to diversify. Even if you’re growing only two plants, choose two different varieties to keep things interesting in your garden and on your table.

row on either side of the trellis. Poke

seeds into the soil 1 inch deep and 2 to

3 inches apart.

With the string trellis in place, you will know exactly where to plant your snap peas.

After poking pea seeds into the soil, pat the surface with the palm of your hand to fi ll in the holes.

6Sow parsley. In Bed 2, cut away the

upper surface on three sides of the

bag to be planted with parsley, leaving

the plastic att ached along one short

edge. Apply fertilizer and make drain-

age holes as you did in Step 3. Plant

about 25 parsley seeds ¼ inch deep

and ½ inch apart (fewer than half will

germinate). Pat lightly to fi rm the soil

over the seeds, then spritz with a light

spray of water until thoroughly moist.

Fold out the plastic fl ap over the

seeded area, and hold it in place with

a stone or small board. The plastic

fl ap will help keep the soil moist until

the parsley seeds germinate, which

usually takes one to two weeks. Aft er a

week or so, check daily to see whether

parsley has sprouted. As soon as seeds

germinate, you’ll need to lift and cut

away the plastic fl ap. (If you buy seed-

lings, see Step 8.)

Planting parsley seeds in rows makes it easier to track their germination.


43,000 in print!

Paper: $19.95 US / $26.95 CANISBN 978-1-58017-702-3No. 67702Hardcover: $29.95 US / $39.95 CANISBN 978-1-58017-703-0No. 67703

53,000 in print!

Illustrated Planting Plans for 24 NO-FAIL GARDENS Including:

• An Easy-Care Bag Garden• Backyard Veggie Border• Front Yard Food Supply• Family Food Factory• Paintbrush Beds• High-Value Verticals• Marinara Medley• Managed Mulch Garden• Sweet Corn & Company• Benefi cial Border• Cajun Spice• Good-for-You Garden• Six-Weeks-Sooner Salad Garden

Award-winning writer Barbara Pleasant is the coauthor of The Com-

plete Compost Gardening Guide and author of The Complete House-

plant Survival Manual. Her work has been honored by the Garden Writ-

ers Association and the American Nursery and Landscape Association,

and she is a contributing editor at Mother Earth News. She lives in

Virginia, where she grows vegetables and herbs as well as assorted ber-

ries and tree fruits. Read her blog at www.barbarapleasant.com.

Barbara Pleasant

THOUSANDS OF NEW GARDENERS, ONE NEW BOOK TO SHOW

THEM THE WAY

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STARTER VEGETABLE GARDENSPLEASAN

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From pounding posts and starting seeds to caging tomatoes and understanding when to water, author Barbara Pleasant uses simple, straightforward language and high-impact visuals to show how to start, maintain, and expand a boun-tiful vegetable garden in small, manageable spaces. Both instructive and inspiring, Starter Vegetable Gardens is an essential one-stop resource for anyone just beginning to cultivate a vegetable-gardening green thumb.


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Starter Vegetable Gardens — 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens