1. Planning Vegetable Gardens
Chrissa Carlson
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2. College of
Agriculture and
Natural Resources

3. A vegetable garden is the highest maintenance type of garden there is!
Almost all annuals
Focus on productivity
We want to eat early and often

4. What we need here is a plan…
A garden plan includes:
Knowing your goals!
Locating and designing garden beds
Deciding what you want to grow
Creating a timeline
Laying out plantings in beds
Locating and designing garden: covered in landscape design class
Deciding what you want to grow: exercise in gastronomy (if you have a basic understanding of what can/can’t be grown here)

5. Outline Planning to meet your goals Timing Spatial layout Space x Time
Goals of community/schoolyard gardens versus home production
Relationship building
Timing
Planting calendar
Succession and Relay planting
Spatial layout
Plant layout (structural needs, height considerations, spacing (rows versus wide beds)
Companions/interplanting
Space x Time
Rotation
A word about organic gardening
FSNE gardens
This presentation will be framed in the perspective of you assisting a schoolyard/church/community gardener in planning for the season.

6. Planning to meet your goals
Yield/Production
Biointensive: timing, space efficiency
Education
Crop choice, timing
Positive experience
Attractive space, starting small, keeping it manageable
Crop choice: what can be easily grown and harvested during your programming time? What grows easiest to provide a positive experience? What can be easily prepared/used by your students?

7. Planning to meet your goals
When working with a school or community to plan a vegetable garden…
Relationships are everything!
Not just growing a garden, you are growing relationships
Learning from mistakes
Providing expertise

8. Now for the plan…

9. 1. Timing
Planting calendar! (see handout)

10. 1. Timing Planting calendar! Direct seed versus transplants
Plants with a long time to maturity (cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers)
Optional for earlier harvest (melons, squash, lettuce)
Direct seed:
Root crops
Tall skinny crops: beans, peas, corn, okra
Plants with a short season (lettuce, spinach, arugula)
Tall skinny=low yield per plant, plant close together, transplanting is inefficient

11. 1. Timing Planting calendar! Direct seed versus transplants
Identify short season versus long season
Quick!: radishes, lettuce, peas
Shortish: other leafy green things, carrots, turnips, cucumbers, beans
Long: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes

12. 1. Timing Planting calendar! Direct seed versus transplants
Identify short season versus long season
Consider planting in 2 weeks successions for continuous harvest
Cucumbers and squash: direct seed a few when you plant your transplants

13. 2. Spatial Layout: Plant characteristics
Learn about your chosen crops
Growth form: trellis tomatoes, pole beans, peas…cucumbers? Small melons?
Height: tall stuff in the north of the garden
Family: group ‘em! (more on this later)
Handout: plant characteristics like for RICA

14. 2. Spatial Layout: Designate areas for different crops
Place long season summer crops first
Place shortish/ cool season crops next –plant twice!
Place shortish/summer season crops next
Where can I tuck in quick crops?

15. 2. Spatial Layout
Place long season summer crops first (tall stuff in the north of the garden)
Place shortish/ cool season crops next –plant twice!
Place shortish/summer season crops next
Where can I tuck in quick/cool season crops?
Radishes
Toms and Peppers
Peas
Beans
Kale and Lettuce
Beets and Spinach
Carrots and Chard
Turnips
Pumpkins
Lettuce
Sweet Potatoes N

16. 2. Spatial Layout: Placement of individual plants
Row planting: Refer to seed packets for seed depth, spacing between rows, and between plants
Raised beds (also referred to as wide beds)
Ditch the space between rows!—no need for footpaths

17. 2. Spatial Layout: Typical row garden
24 plants 6”
12”

18. 2. Spatial Layout: Equidistant planting in wide bed
56 plants! 133% more food—plus soil shading 6” 6”
56 Plants in a 4 ft. by 8 ft. bed
133% more food

19. 2. Spatial Layout: Placement of individual plants
Raised beds
Transplants: plant equidistantly
Direct seed: scatter seeds or make closely spaced furrows

20. 4. Space x Time=Rotation Crops in the same family:
Need the same growing conditions
Are planted at the same time
Need the same soil nutrients
Are bothered by the same pests
Growing families repeated in the same space:
Depletes soil of specific nutrients
Allows pests and diseases to become persistent

21. 4. Space x Time=Rotation
Rotation avoids soil nutrient depletion and helps keep overwintered pest populations in check
Group plants by families!
Three rules:
Light feeders follow heavy feeders
Deep-rooted follow shallow rooted
3 years between planting the same family in the same bed

22. 4. Space x Time=Rotation If space is limited
Two separate rotations (one for tall, one for short) to keep from moving tall plants to the south side of the garden
Rotate in time rather than space
Tomatoes
Corn
Squash
Pole beans
Shorter nightshades
Brassicas
Beets
Carrots N

23. Organic gardening… Twin cornerstones:
build soil health (feeding the soil
food web and recycling nutrients)
increase biological diversity above and below ground- plants, insects, microbial life
Organic doesn’t mean simply substituting purchased organic pesticides and fertilizers for synthetic products

24. Sustainable gardening…
Sustains itself through reliance on inherent resources; mimics natural eco-system.
Needs a minimum of purchased “inputs” and relies on locally-available materials.
Does not pollute; strengthens the community eco-system.
Requires knowledge, planning, and timing.

25. Sustainable soil building
Sources of organic matter:
Composted farmyard manure
Compost
Shredded leaves and grass clippings
Organic mulches
Plant roots
Cover crops
Diverse sources=diverse nutrients
Consider how to generate fertility from local sources…
Large amounts of organic matter may be needed for several years.
Thereafter, 1 inch of compost will help maintain high yields.
Food scraps can be buried in trenches in your garden and allowed to decompose. Nutrients are then available in the rootzone. Plant roots are very important for improving soil structure. Cut plants off at ground level with pruners or loppers. Compost the tops and leave the root system to decompose in situ.
University of Conn. Research shows that continuous applications of compost builds up a reservoir of slowly available N that is sufficient to produce veg. crops w/out supplemental fertilizers (each 1% of OM = 10 lbs. of available N per acre

26. Resources Grow It! Eat It! http://www.extension.umd.edu/growit
We have all types of practical food gardening tips and information. Check out our popular blog!
Home and Garden Information Center
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27. This program was brought to you by the
Maryland Master Gardener Program
Howard County
University of Maryland Extension
Remember to put in the correct county!
Created by Jon Traunfeld, Extension Specialist, UME; 2014; revised 2/15