It’s Garden Planting Time
Now that the weather is getting warmer, the days longer, and the planning and preparing is done - it is finally time to plant those flowers and vegetables in the southeastern U.S.! We are in the midst of blackberry winter right now but so far it hasn’t been cold enough to cause harm to most vegetation. This late in April I am willing to risk it and hopefully we are well past time for a hard frost. Right now I am more concerned about storms and tornados than frost!!
I went to my sister’s farm a few days ago and planted some vegetables. They have a beautiful place there with lots of acreage and a very big garden every year. This spring I wanted to try some of the companion planting that we have posted information about and I am very limited as to what I can do in my small backyard.
My brother-in-law, David, tilled the rows and I spread some 8-8-8 fertilizer and then planted corn, pole beans, bush beans, squash, sunflower, and peas. I planted the corn, beans, and squash together along with the sunflower on a couple of rows. Not a good plan! Yep, I made my list of corn companions, made my plans on how to plant them, and bought seeds accordingly. Unfortunately, I didn’t check to make sure that all the corn companions were also “friends” with each other! All were compatible except the sunflower. Well, that is fine because I can go and dig those out as soon as they are up high enough to determine which ones they are. I will just transplant them to another row with other veggies that are compatible. If you have never planted vegetables then I will give a little more details regarding what we did so you will know how to plant your vegetable garden.
Drop the seeds into the rows taking care to space your seeds 5 or 6 inches apart. If yours fall closer together it is no problem you can just thin the plants later after they have sprouted.
Once the seeds are in the rows, take your hoe and pull the soil toward you to cover the seeds, and then place your hoe on the other side of the row (the side closest to you) push the soil up toward the middle of the row. Lastly, gently pat or tamp down the soil in the row with the back side of your hoe. This will tuck the seeds in and get them ready to grow! Click on the pictures below to see a larger view.
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It was very warm that day and the ground was dry. Thankfully we got a good soaking rain this weekend which should help the seeds to germinate soon. I will post pictures of the seedlings as soon as they come up!
In my backyard garden I planted some English peas in March. This week I have planted several more vegetables, herbs, sunflower, marigold, nasturtium, zinnia, and moonflower. I am paying close attention to which veggies I plant as “neighbors” so not to make the same mistake as I did in my brother-in-law’s garden.
It is sometimes difficult to get it all right and I am trying to learn from season to season. So to keep track of my lessons learned this year, I started a journal that tells what I planted, when I planted it, where it’s planted, what I planted with it, and comments on the season’s progress. In addition, I am taking more pictures and filing them on my laptop so that I can go back later and review the results. I have always wanted to keep a gardener’s journal but just didn’t take the time to do it. I’m hoping this will help me know if the companion planting is working for me, if so which companions work in my garden, how long it takes the seeds to come up, if the plants like where they have been planted, and so forth.
If any readers out there keep a gardener’s journal please make some comments with pointers and tell us what you have planted this spring.
