Building a Vegetable Garden - Planting
Learn How to Plant Peas, Beans, Tomatoes, Peppers, Lettuce, and More
May 31, 2009
You have several different choices of plants to grow in the garden now that it is prepared:
- Plants that vine grown horizontally – cucumbers, beans, peas
- Plants that vine along the ground – zucchini, summer squash, pumpkins, melons
- Plants that grow upright /bear fruit above ground – tomatoes, peppers, bush beans, broccoli, eggplant
- Root crops – radish, carrots, beets, onions, potatoes
- Plants that grow close to the ground – cabbage, lettuce, spinach.
Note that some plants are cool crops to be started in the spring and harvested before it gets too hot or started in the fall and harvested before first frost. Cool crops include peas, radish, carrots, beets, cabbage, lettuce & spinach. All others mentioned above are hot weather crops.
Plant the taller crops to the north and gradually plant the shorter ones toward the south end of the garden.
Plants That Vine – Grown Horizontally
You will need a trellis of some sort. You can buy panels of lattice and stake them up with long stakes buried in the ground or you can bundle up tall sticks Tee Pee manner and tied at the top with twine. Place these on the north end of the garden so that they won’t shade the rest of your plants. Peas should be started in the early spring right after the ground becomes pliable enough to work. Plant seeds along the lattice or around the edges of your Tee Pee and train them to grow through the lattice or up the sticks. Beans should be planted when all chance of frost is gone. Do the same as peas and plant seeds along the lattice or around the bottom edge of your Tee Pee. You can also purchase seedlings and plant at intervals along the trellis or Tee Pee. Cucumbers are more easily grown from a plant purchased at the garden center. Plant them about 1 foot apart at the bottom of lattice or at 4 sides of the Tee Pee. You can tie your plants to the lattice or Tee Pee with nylon stockings (knee highs are the best). These will give and won’t strangle the plant (don’t tie too tightly)
Vining Plants
These plants are often planted in hills. Hills should be placed about 2 to 3 feet apart since these plants will take up a lot of room. All vining plants can successfully be planted with seed after all danger of frost is over. Make a hill about 8 inches high and about 8 to 10 inches in diameter. Place 5 to 6 seeds in a hill and once they sprout keep 2 or 3 of the best in the hill and pull the rest.
Plants That Grow Upright
These are best to start with seedlings. Go to your garden center and purchase 4 or 6 packs of the desired vegetable to start. Planttomatoes about 1 foot apart and make sure to place a tomato cage around them when planting. This will prevent damage to the root if you insert the cage in the ground later. Tie the tomato vine to the cage once it gets big enough with more nylon stockings. Peppers can be grown near tomatoes; in fact, they enhance the flavor and growth of both. Place peppers about 8 inches apart. Bush beans can be started from seed as they grow quickly. Plant either seeds or transplants 10 inches apart. Broccoli and Eggplant are a little more challenging to grow but if you feel adventurous, go ahead and try. Seedlings should be placed about 10 inches apart.
Root Crops
These plants grow fruit underground and can be planted right after the last frost or in late August and some will keep growing even if the weather gets cold. Onions must be planted from onion sets that look like tiny onions. You can pull these early for green onions or keep them growing until the end of the season for regular onions that have to be cured. Carrots, radishes and beets can be planted by seed. Make a trench in the garden soil with the wooden end of a hoe that is about 1 to 2 inches deep. Shake your seeds into the trench and cover lightly with soil tamping down. Once seedlings start to grow you will have to thin them out so the plant has enough room to grow. Thin radishes and carrots 2 to 3 inches apart and beets 3 to 4 inches apart. Potatoes have to be hilled. Plant potato slips (actual pieces of potato where the eye was) in a long hill about 3 inches high. As the potato plant grows you have to hill the soil up further on the vine that grows on top of the ground.
Low Growing Plants
Cabbage, Lettuce and Spinach can be started by seed or by seedling. These are cool weather crops so once it gets hot you won’t be able to grow these anymore. Schedule them to start in early spring and cover if a frost is advised. Place cabbage seedlings 1 foot apart as they get pretty big. Lettuce that heads should be planted about 10 inches apart. The leaf variety should be started by seed as should be spinach. Just sprinkle seeds onto the soil and lightly cover tamping down. This type of lettuce or spinach can be grown as a mat, just pick when you need some leaves.
Once planted your seeds or seedlings will need to be watered regularly. Water with a light spray as to not dislodge your seeds and keep watered lightly every day. Do not let water puddle in the garden and pretty soon you will start to see the fruits of your labors.
Seed packets will have all the info you need like days to maturity, sun requirements and height and width of plant.
Coming soon – Cultivating your vegetable garden.
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