Vegetable Garden Planting

Vegetable garden planting time has arrived at last. After all the hard work the fun bit begins. Did you say what hard work? If you did it can only mean that you have moved into a home with a vegetable plot already prepared, taken over an existing garden allotment or you are annoyingly young and fit!

Before your vegetable garden planting begins, as part of learning how to vegetable garden you have hopefully thought about the vegetable garden layout and prepared the ground by double digging if using the raised be or deep-bed method and have worked in a good quantity of organic material such as well rotten manure or compost. 

The step before actual planting and sowing is working your soil into a good tilth. To quote Wikipedia, good tilth is a term referring to soil that has the proper structure and nutrients to grow healthy crops. To achieve a good tilth you may have to break up lumps of earth and a good way to do this is by using the back of a garden fork. Swing the fork from side to side and strike the earth and you will find that the large clumps break up into workable crumbs. Then rake over the surface to level it, further break up the lumps of soil and remove large surface stones. 

Do not be in a rush to sow or plant but wait until the ground has warmed up sufficiently. A good way to judge is to look for signs of weed seeds germinating. 

To sow seed make a groove in the soil which is known as a drill. The depth of the drill should be just deep enough to cover the seed to about twice its diameter or if the seed is very small as shallow as you can make it to just cover the seed. For peas, rather than making the groove with a cane or the edge of a hoe, use a spade to make a shallow but wide trench so that the seeds can be broadcast (scattered) rather than in a regimented row. 

Carefully water the bottom of the drill, avoiding washing the drawn back soil into the drill. If the soil is very dry repeat this process as many times as required, letting the excess water drain away before sowing the seed. 

Sow the seed thinly; do not be tempted to sow thickly because the seed is very small. You can of course thin out the germinated seedlings and some varieties will successfully transplant to reduce wastage but some vegetable seedlings do object to being moved. A good method to use when sowing very fine seed is to firstly mix the seed into a cup that contains fine grained dry sand (not builder’s sand as this is too heavy) and then sow this mix into your drill. Draw the dry soil over to cover your seeds using your garden rake or, in the case of a shallow drill, your fingers. Gently pat down over the filled drill with the back of your garden rake or your hand to make sure the seed is in contact with the soil. If your soil is heavy clay it may be better to backfill the drill with potting compost. Do not be tempted to water the filled drill at this time as there is a danger that the top surface will form a hard crust that the young seedlings may find hard to penetrate. 

If you have purposely sown seeds thickly into a seed bed to be planted out into a fresh plot there are a couple of rules to remember. As a general rule the young plants should be carefully lifted so that neither the roots nor stem is damaged and then be planted to the same level as they were in their original home. There are exceptions to this rule such as leeks which when pencil thick make a hole with a dibber so that the leek drops in deeper than they were originally. Cabbages are buried to a depth of the lowest leaves but do not transplant until five true leaves have formed. You need to limit the shock of being moved as much as possible and it helps if you water well before and after transplanting. 

To get a head start seeds can be sown under cover and be raised in trays or pots. For small seed use a tray of good proprietary compost. Fill to about two thirds, water with a watering can fitted with a fine rose and allow to drain. Sow the seed thinly on the surface and cover with sieved compost or alternatively use Vermiculite. The latter is good in that it is lightweight, does not form a hard crust over the seed and lets in light. Many new to gardening assume that seed needs to be buried so that no light is allowed to reach but this is not the case. When the seedlings are large enough to handle, gently grip the seedlings by the leaves and “prick out” into trays of compost to grow on to planting size. Pricking out is just a term that means taking out seedlings that inevitably will be growing too close together and spacing them out in new compost. You will learn the best number of a variety to put in a seed tray by experience but if you start with 5 along the length and 4 across the width resulting in 20 plants to a tray you will not go far wrong. 

For large seed such as Broad Beans or Runner Beans sow these directly into individual pots. Two beans can be sown to a pot as insurance in case one does not germinate. 

If sowing very early you will need to give your seed warmth to get then to germinate and will need to provide warmth and shelter until the conditions outside are suitable for the plants to be put out. Do not take young plants from their cosy growing conditions and put them straight out into the soil as they will get a shock that they will not recover from or will suffer a setback. Do not be impatient; wait until the risk of frost has well and truly passed. 

Hopefully you will have kept your seed packets for reference or taken note of the wording on the packet so that you can plant out at the recommended distances apart. If using a raised bed and deep-bed method you will be able to plant closer than the recommended distances. 

Vegetable garden planting time is an exciting time and one that gives the gardener optimism and something to look forward to, all those tasty fresh vegetables that have only travelled a short distance from your garden to the kitchen.