Growing Wise
Home grown vegetables
By JANE MORSE
Article published on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007  |
Instead of going to a boring, smelly gym to work out on a machine and then heading to the supermarket to get your vegetables for dinner, try gardening instead.
Home gardening provides great exercise, and vegetables that are the freshest and best tasting, full of vitamins, nutrients and anti-oxidants.
The perfect garden site is all about location, location, location. The best garden spot should be close to the house and a hose for convenience sake.
It also needs to be in an area that is sunny, and well-drained (no standing water at all). Root crops, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, cucumbers and melons need as much full sunlight as possible. Leafy crops, on the other hand, can tolerate some shade.
Soil preparation comes next.
Turn the ground (dig down with a shovel and flip the soil over) about three weeks before planting when the soil is dry enough to work. Turn the soil completely over when spading (shoveling).
This is also a good time to mix in compost, topsoil, or manure. Since the best pH range for a garden is between 5.8 and 6.3, take a soil sample and have its pH tested (take two cups of soil to the Extension Service or a garden center).
You may need to adjust the soil pH depending on your result. If you find limestone, marl or shells present in the soil there is no practical way of permanently lowering the soil pH. In this case you will need to use a fertilizer that has micronutrients included.
Put your garden layout on paper. Show the location of each crop, the amount to be planted on each date, crops to follow earlier ones, and the varieties to be planted. Rows should be planted in a north, south direction with the taller varieties at the northern end, and shorter vegetables on the southern side. This will keep the taller plants from shading out the shorter ones.
To have fresh vegetables over a long period of time (not all at once), make interval plantings every 10 to 14 days. This is especially important for short “peak” crops like beans, corn and peas.
When choosing seeds or plants for the garden, look for those that have disease resistance, or tolerance to common diseases. Buy fresh seed (look at the expiration date). When buying plants from a nursery or garden center, choose healthy, disease- and insect-free plants.
If you have limited space, try gardening by the square foot. A 4-feet by 4-feet area can be broken down into 16 one-foot squares. Each 1-foot by 1-foot square will hold one type of the following plants: Small plants: 16 radish, 16 carrots, 16 onion, nine spinach, nine beets, four Swiss chard, four lettuce, four parsley or four marigolds. Large plants: one cabbage, one broccoli, one cauliflower, one pepper or one eggplant. Vertical plants: one tomato, two cucumbers or eight pole beans. In one square you may have 16 carrots and in another square two cucumbers.
Vegetables to plant starting in September include: Broccoli, cabbage, endive, kale, lettuce, mustard, onions, peas, bush beans and cucumbers.
Vegetables to plant starting in October include: Beets, brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, leek, radish, spinach, strawberry and turnips. Tomatoes can be planted from August to March.
Mulching will help to retain moisture in the soil and also keep weeds down.
Keep mulch away from the base of the plants so as not to cause rot.
Oak leaves or pine straw from the yard make a wonderful free mulch.
Water in the morning to keep disease at a minimum. Learn to recognize the common pest bugs.
Harvest your vegetables early in the morning while they are still cool. Remove all over-mature, bruised, disease- or insect-damaged vegetables.
Wash vegetables thoroughly using cool, running water. Keep them cool in the refrigerator or under crushed ice.
Information for this article came from several University of Florida publications including “Soil Preparation and Liming”, “Seeding the Garden”, “Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide”, and the book “Vegetable Gardening in Florida” by James Stephens. Call the Pinellas County Extension Service for gardening information, soil testing, or to get copies of these publications at 582-2100.
Jane Morse is an University of Florida/IFAS and Pinellas County extension agent.
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Article published on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007
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