Planning the Vegetable Garden
One of the first steps to planning your garden for is to remember your garden from the year before. I know the drought last year wreaked havoc with our vegetable gardens but we can still gain some valuable insight for this year. Make sure you remember where you had your vegetables planted last year. It’s important to rotate your vegetable families around the garden rather than planting them in the same spot year after year. The goal should be to rotate your vegetables so there are three years between when a specific vegetable was planted in that spot. For example, if I planted tomatoes in one corner of my garden last year I should not plant any other member of the nightshade family in that spot for at least three years. Something else you should remember were any disease or insect issues that might have happened in your garden. One way to keep a record of this over several years is to create a garden journal with drawings of where things were planted and also any records of issues. It can also be helpful to keep track of what varieties did well and what didn’t to help for future planning.
The second step to planning any garden is figuring out what you want to plant. I’m love this step because this is where I get to dream and look through all the pretty catalogs at the different options. Last year our garden was relatively small and I didn’t have room to plant much but we have expanded this year so I have far more room to play with. I’m going to try to do more succession plantings which will help me utilize the space I do have more efficiently. I intend to plant some cool season crops this year in the ground then transition them to warm season crops as they mature. Be sure to pick vegetables that fit what you want to get out of your garden. This year I’m going to try a miniature cherry tomato because while I love cherry tomatoes but I cannot keep up with the larger varieties. If you are planning on starting seeds sort through what you already have and make a list of what you need. I would also do a test germination on your seeds to see if they are still viable.
If you are planning on starting seeds pay attention to the seeding dates based on your frost-free date. Those dates should also be noted in your plan so you don’t end up with too big or too small plants. (I might have been guilty of both of those in the past, oops.) A side note, January is the time to start onion seeds and toward the end of the month start cole crops. It takes 6-8 weeks for onions and cole crops to grow to a size to transplant. To figure out when you need to start your seeds first find your frost-free date, then read on the seed packet to find how many weeks before that frost-free date to start seeds. In El Dorado the last frost date is typically April 20th but be aware that we can have frosts after that depending on the year.
Gardening season truly starts well before we can actually work the ground. I don’t know yet what this winter is going to be like but summer dreaming definitely helped get me through the snow and cold before Christmas. If you are new to gardening your plan doesn’t have to be very specific but the basics will help to give you a guide when it comes time to start planting.
