GETTING STARTED

Growing your own homegrown, fresh vegetables can become a reality with proper planning and a commitment to the work involved. The planning stage involves such considerations as where to place the garden and what to plant. The working stage involves preparing the soil, fertilization, planting, mulching, pest control and, my favorite part, harvesting.

The site selection is critical to success. The site should receive a minimum of six hours of direct sunlight. Full or all-day sun is preferable. That doesn’t mean you can’t plant a vegetable garden in a spot that only gets 4 or 5 hours of sun. But, you must accept that vegetable plants that do not receive sufficient light will not be as productive.

The site must also be well-drained. Low-lying areas that hold water after a rain are not suitable. To improve drainage even more, we typically plant vegetables in raised rows or raised beds.

Next, decide what you want to grow. Plan to grow what you and your family like to eat. How much of a particular vegetable you plant depends on family preferences, available space and the productivity of a crop. One jalapeno pepper plant would likely produce all of the spicy peppers you will need to season dishes. One bush green bean plant, however, will just produce a few handfuls of green beans – it takes a number of plants to produce enough to have a decent harvest.

Do some research and ask questions of friends who garden. And, relax. It’s not like you expect your vegetable garden to provide all of the vegetables your family needs. The experience you gain planting your first few gardens is the best teacher.

At this point, you need to decide what kind of vegetable garden you will create. There are several basic categories, including container gardens, in traditional or wide raised rows or raised beds.

Container Gardens

If you cannot garden in the ground, you can plant your vegetable garden in large containers filled with potting mix. Most vegetables will grow well in containers and produce enough to make it worth the effort.

When gardening in containers, containers should be large enough. Recycled five gallon buckets work well, or you can purchase pots in the nursery. Fill the pots with a good quality potting mix that is loose, open and drains well and you are ready to plant seeds or transplants.

A great advantage of container vegetable growing is that it skips the labor intensive step of establishing garden beds. This makes it a good choice for people that are not physically able to do the work of creating beds. It is also much easier to properly water and control weeds when growing vegetables in containers.

In Ground Gardens

There are many variations when it comes to gardening in the ground, including traditional raised garden rows, wide raised garden rows and raised beds. Start relatively small. There may be more work involved than you think. You should gain some experience before creating a large vegetable garden.

In traditional raised garden rows, rows are created that are about eight to 12 inches higher than the walkways and one or two feet wide. After removing any existing unwanted vegetation (such as lawn grass), the first step is tilling up the garden area to a depth of about 8 inches. Next, the rows and walkways are laid out. The rows are generally about two to three feet wide and walkways about one foot wide. Using a shovel or hoe, soil is moved out of the walkways up into the row area for form the raised rows. Use a rake to flatten the top to a width of one to two feet – this is the planting area (including the sides that taper down to the walkway, the row will be a total of two to three feet wide).

Wide raised rows are constructed in a similar way. However, the finished raised rows are four feet across (basically, make them as wide as you can comfortably stand or squat in the walkway and reach into the middle of the row to plant, mulch weed and harvest). Use a rake to flatten the top to a width of about 3 feet – this is the planting area (including the sides of the row that taper down to the walkway, the wide row will be about 4 feet across).

The wide raised row is a more productive method as there is more planting area and less walkway area. We cannot grow vegetables in the walkways of our gardens. So, the more we minimize walkways and maximize the planting area, the more productive our gardens will be.

Next, the traditional or wide row is prepared for planting by spreading a two to four inch layer of organic matter over the soil. Homemade compost is free and an ideal amendment to improve the soil. If that is not available, you can use composted stable sweepings, or purchased bags of compost, bagged cow manure or bags of composted soil conditioner products.

Do not scrimp on this. Home grown vegetables produce far better in soils enriched with generous amounts of organic matter. The organic matter improves the soil structure and encourages strong, healthy root systems (never forget that the health and vigor of a vegetable plant, or any other plant for that matter, is directly dependent on the health of its roots). The organic matter also adds mineral nutrients to the soil.

More nutrients are generally added to the soil by applying fertilizer. We expect our vegetable plants to live up their maximum potential and produce as much as possible. For this to happen, mineral nutrient levels, such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, need to be at optimal levels.

Fertilizers supplement the mineral nutrients naturally present in the soil. To have a clear idea of what the mineral levels are, have your soil tested through your local parish LSU AgCenter office.

If you soil is especially low in any of the major nutrients, choose fertilizers, whether commercial or organic, that provide those nutrients. Generally speaking, soils that are high in phosphorous can be fertilized with fertilizers that have a higher first number, lower second number and third number somewhere in between. Gardeners on the north shore where soils are typically less fertile may choose to use a fertilizer with an analysis that has three numbers that are about the same. You do not need a different fertilizer for each different vegetable. Gardeners on the north shore may also need to apply lime.

Scatter the fertilizer over the organic matter and thoroughly incorporate everything into the raised row and rake the top smooth. After the organic matter and fertilizer are incorporated into the raised rows they will be even higher. The height of the rows is important as it ensures proper drainage during heavy rains.

Raised Beds

You may also choose to grow your vegetables in 12 inch high raised beds with sides constructed of 2 by 12 boards, cinder blocks, landscape timbers or other materials, and filled with soil.

Prepared by:

Dan Gill
LSU AgCenter
Consumer Horticulture Specialist