Growing Vegetables - From Seed to Table

Getting Started

It is a new year! Last year's harvest is a memory. On these cold winter evenings, we are reminded of last summer's efforts when enjoying a dinner with vegetables from the garden. The onions, carrots and radishes are long gone, but we have plenty of corn, stuffed hot peppers, and tomato sauce left. The big job ahead of us is emptying the freezer before our 2021 garden starts producing fresh vegetables in June!

With two months of holidays to rest from gardening, it's time to start once again. With the lengthening days of January comes a feeling not unlike waking in the morning. It's time to get this year's garden started.

So what should the garden look like? What should we plant? Do we rotate plantings? What did well last year? What did not? What do we do better? What do we add? What do we eliminate?

The first order of business is planning what crops to plant and where we should plant them. Our acre or so of garden space is currently made of 23 plots of varying sizes. The smallest is a raised bed of about 100 sq ft. The five largest are 2000 sq ft while most of the rest are between 1000 to 1200 sq ft. Three 20' x 48' high tunnels are included.

Planning for the High Tunnels

High Tunnel 1 & 2

Two of the high tunnels are reserved for growing small fruited tomatoes of various shapes, colors and sizes. We trellis them using a "leaning and lowering" system (see video) which is labor intensive but very productive. In the third, we have been experimenting with standard sized tomatoes, both trellised and caged, trying to find a balance between labor and production. And also to find the varieties that do well in this environment. The plan is to plant a total of 240 small fruited and 94 standard varieties in the high tunnels.

High Tunnel 3

We experiment with a variety of vegetables where we have extra space in the high tunnels. In past years, we have grown radishes, beans, eggplant, okra, etc. with varying degrees of success. Our best results have been with onions and peppers. It's been interesting, but the problem is that a season's worth of premium space is being used to find out what works or not. Most of the experimenting is done is the small, side beds along the outside walls. We will likely plant 100 onions, maybe some beets, carrots and radishes, then use the leftover space for peppers or other vegetables.

Planning for the Outside Garden Plots

The remaining plots are used for other vegetables, left fallow or planted with clover, rye or wheat. The varieties we plant and the plots that are planted change from year to year.

Zucchini

Last year, with the COVID issues, we eliminated the zucchini. In doing so, we had seven plots lay fallow. Zucchini made up a significant part of our garden plan. When we plant zucchini, we plant a field every two weeks from May to August so that we have prime zucchini all summer. This requires a considerable amount of effort and space. Given the circumstances, no zucchini was a good decision. We will do the same this year.

Hot Banana Peppers

We plant hot peppers in four of our garden plots. That includes one 2000 sq ft plot and three smaller ones. Extra hot pepper plants are also planted in places that need to be "filled out" if they are a fit. Our garden usually has about 1000 hot pepper plants.

Tomatoes

Four or five plots are reserved for tomatoes. One field of cherry tomatoes is included to complement those grown in the high tunnels. They grow wild (minimal pruning) supported by a wooden trellis and cages. A beefsteak variety is planted to fill a 2000 sq ft plot or two smaller ones. They require cages with T-posts to hold them up. Lastly, we reserve a small field or two for Roma type tomatoes. All in all, we plan to plant 150 - 200 tomato plants out side the high tunnels.

Eggplant

Eggplant is another important crop in our garden. In the past, we've planted a 2000 sq ft plot with standard eggplant and a smaller plot with 2 or 3 specialty varieties. The plan this year is to use two small plots for standard and raised beds for a few specialty plants. We will need about 250 eggplant plants.

Sweet Peppers

The fourth major crop for our garden is sweet peppers planted in two small plots. They include one row of bell peppers, two rows of cubanelle, two rows of giant Marconi and three roes of red and yellow Italian bull horn peppers. About 50 - 60 plants per row are needed for a total of 200 - 250 sweet pepper plants.

Other Vegetables

It would be nice to plant some beans, for crop rotation as well as for the beans themselves. And we did so for a couple of years, that is until the deer found them. The deer just don't "nibble" on the beans, they wipe them out to the roots! The destruction is similar for sweet corn. Over the years, they pretty much ignored our garden, but with last year's dry season, we had a considerable amount of tomato damage. Because of all this, our planning must include a way to protect our tomatoes and extra plants for any damage that may occur.

Fallow Fields

The remainder of the unused or fallow plots are to be planted in clover. Hopefully it will minimize the deer problem by giving them a tasty alternative to the tomatoes. We may use a few of the plots for flowers. A field of lavender sounds like something worth doing. And flowers the attract bees would be beneficial for vegetable pollination.

Big Plans in January for 2021!!!

Making plans for our garden this time of the year is always invigorating and a little exciting. This year's garden will be perfect, yielding a bumper crop of beautiful tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and other vegetable! The deer will come to admire, but forage elsewhere. The birds, ladybugs and other beneficial insects will keep our plants healthy and whole. There will be plenty of sunshine and the just right amount of rain. The days for planting, tending and harvesting the vegetables will all be pleasant, warm and breezy.

Always a grand plan in January!!! We've got to get the seeds ordered. The planting starts next month.