Recipe for a Healthy Planet

Planting & Harvesting

Grow Your Own Food

What & When to Plant

What to plant

Choose what produce you want to grow carefully as it is always tempting to plant more than you need and what your garden or containers can handle. A good rule of thumb is to think about what you typically like to eat and buy at the store or farm stand, and then winnow that list down. Corn and potatoes will take up a tremendous amount of space in a small garden. Cauliflower, eggplant, onions, head lettuce, cucumbers, and melons can be a challenge to grow for some. Consider easier, less finicky items with good yields such as pole beans, bush beans, tomatoes, peas, summer squash, zucchini, and salad greens.

For those using containers, tomatoes, salad greens, and herbs are your best bet due to the limited space of your growing containers.

You will most likely plant both seedlings and seeds. In the beginning, it is advisable to simply buy seedlings at your local garden center, and as you get a bit more experienced you can start your own. Common seedlings would be tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, and various herbs. The advantage of growing your own? You can experiment with a far greater range of varieties, assure the seed and growing method is organic, and feel the joy of growing your own plants.

When to plant

You should acquire all your seeds by February if you are starting seedlings, or April 1 if you are direct sowing. Websites, catalogs, and most seed packets will have a detailed description of the variety, quantity, yield, growing length, how to plant, etc. All vegetables have an optimum planting time based upon their desire for cold or heat, frost survivability, and harvesting window. Consult a seed planting calendar for the optimum times to plant in Zones 4 and 5.

Seed sourcing

Seed resources can be found online or at larger garden centers. Here are some local (Northern New England) seed sources:

Maintenance

Myth: Plant it, and it shall come. Reality: Gardening is a hobby, and it takes a time commitment from next to nothing for containers, to perhaps a daily task if you have a larger garden. The biggest issues will be weeds and pests. Weeding can be controlled by simply plucking or using a hoe. Pests can be complicated to identify but can be easily controlled by regular handpicking or dusting with an organic product.

Weeds

One method to help suppress weeds and keep the topsoil from drying out is straw, not hay. Straw carries little to no seed, whereas hay is loaded with it and will simply seed your garden. Straw can be tricky to locate but a small garden will only need one bale. Although many sources will mention using plastic and non-woven materials to suppress weeds and for other garden uses, much of this will remain in your soil. Cardboard and newspaper, however, can suppress weeds and will break down naturally over time. Burlap is also good to use; it is organic, permeable, and will eventually break down naturally to become part of the soil.

Pests

Although it won’t happen to all gardeners, animals such as woodchucks, rabbits, and deer can devastate a garden overnight. For the first two, you may have to fence the perimeter of the garden with chicken wire. For deer, there has been proven success with simply stringing 30lb-fishing line on 6’-8’ poles around the garden perimeter, every 18”-24” up the pole. The deer apparently can’t see the fishing line and are spooked when they feel it.

A note on water

Water, water, water. Vegetables need at least ½”-1” of water per week. If you are experiencing a dry spell with no rain, you will need to supplement the water loss by hand watering or by sprinkler. Keep in mind that containers dry out very quickly in the hot sun, and new seeds must be kept moist daily until germination.

End of Season

Cleaning up is easier and quicker than you think. Pull any spent plants and add them to your compost bin. Compost can be greatly beneficial when applied to your garden and you can work this into your beds the next season or hand-dress around growing vegetables. Some exceptions will apply, as they are prone to carrying diseases and best put into the garbage: tomato, potato, and most brassica (cabbage, Brussels sprouts, etc.).

Garlic is very easy to grow, so if you want to give it a try, it needs to be planted in the fall. In Zones 4 and 5, you need to do this a few weeks before the ground freezes (late October), the same time as tulips and daffodils. Make sure you source hardneck garlic, not the Californian style sold in supermarkets.

Grew too much to eat?

If you find yourself with too much food you can preserve it by freezing, canning, or dehydrating. Also, consider donating fresh produce to a local pantry.

Biodiversity

An easy way to attract pollinators such as hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies is to add some annuals to your garden (like marigolds, nasturtium, borage, and sunflowers). You can easily find room to tuck them in and around your plants. This will help pollinate your garden plants, create a food source (pollen) for the pollinators, and add color to your garden.

Additional Resources: