Starting A Vegetable Garden
Anyone who wants to grow vegetables should plant a garden. It doesn’t require a lot of space, money or talent.
However, a vegetable garden requires hands-on tending and monitoring of problems like weeds and insect pests. It also needs an area that gets at least 6-8 hours of sun a day and is not blocked by trees or other structures.
Fall is a great time for gardeners, after a hot, dry summer, if rain comes soon, especially if you like cool season vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, various greens, garlic or Swiss chard.
When planting your fall garden, the greens family — lettuce, mustard greens, turnips, collards and chard — can be direct seeded into the soil. Other cool season options like broccoli, cauliflower and Brussel sprouts are best bought or started as transplants before moving them into the garden. You can buy them locally or start your own in seed trays 5-6 weeks before planting.
Vegetable, when to plant, planting method, row spacing in inches, plant spacing in inches, seed depth, days from plant to harvest
• Broccoli, until Oct. 1, transplants, 18-30, 16-20, not applicable, 70-80
• Brussel sprouts, until Oct. 1, transplants, 10-30, 16-20, not applicable, 90-100
• Cauliflower, until Oct. 1, transplants, 18-24, 16-20, not applicable, 70-80
• Collards, until Oct. 1, seeds or transplants, 30-36, 18-24, 0.5, 75-85
• Mustard, until Sept. 30, seeds, 12-18, 2-3, 0.5, 40-50
• Swiss chard, until Sept. 30, seeds, 24-30, 2-3, 0.5, 50-60
Plant onions, garlic and shallots now for harvesting next year. Plant them in a sunny spot in well-drained soil, and place the tips 1 to 2 inches deep. Garlic is similar to onions but produces a compound bulb instead of a single bulbous stem. Space garlic plants 4 inches apart, and follow onion growing practices and fertility. Plant only firm bulbs that show no sign of disease or bruising.
Shallots are also like onions. Sometimes confused with scallions, the shallot is a perennial onion that produces a cluster of small, pointed bulbs from a single, planted bulb. Scallion generally refers to any onion pulled young, before the bulb forms. Start shallots by division rather than by seed. The bulb contains several small bulbs called cloves. To plant them, separate the clump of bulbs and set them in the soil, with the point one inch deep, 3 to 5 inches apart in the row. One pound of bulbs will plant 20 feet of row. Shallots also can be grown in pots on the patio using a good gardening soil.
Should you decide not to plant a fall garden, consider planting a cover crop instead. It helps hold the soil in place, preventing erosion, while adding both organic matter and rich nutrients back into the soil when you till it under in the spring. You can use either a single species cover crop of cereal grains such as wheat, annual rye or oats or you can mix it up with a legume like clover or winter pea. Your cover crops are easy to direct seed by broadcasting across the whole garden spot, just get it done soon. The later you plant, the less growth over the winter you’re going to get, therefore less benefit.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Brenda Jackson, the agricultural and natural resources agent at Murray County Extension, at (706) 695-3031 or bljack@uga.edu.
Source: dailycitizen.news
