Summer Bounty : All You Can Eat in 15 X 18 Feet
This is the month to start your own summer vegetables--fresh, free of pesticides and probably better for you than store-bought. You may even save some money. Ripe tomatoes, crisp lettuce and cucumbers, beets and baby carrots, and corn so sweet it makes your teeth hurt, can be grown in surprisingly little space.
The 15-by-18-foot garden pictured should hold enough to keep a family of four happy, according to the University of California Cooperative Extension. Corn and sunflowers take up a lot of space, so they’re shown in their own 6-by-15-foot plot, optional if you haven’t the room. The spacing of rows and beds allows room for walking, weeding and plenty of root room. Pick a place that gets a full day of sun but note that some of these vegetables can get by with less. Rows run east to west. Plant from seed, sown directly in the garden, then thin to the suggested spacing. Or start elsewhere, then transplant when they are 4 to 6 inches tall.
Pumpkin
Plant in full sun or part shade, May-June.
Thin seed to 4’ apart in rows 6 ‘ apart; bush kinds 2’ apart in rows 3’ apart.
Ready in about 100 days. Bush kinds, such as Bushkin, produce only a few 10-pound fruit, but they are large enough for a jack-o’-lantern and only spread six feet. To be ready by Halloween, plant seed June 10-15. Cut stems when they are hard and dry and vines begin to die.
Tomato
Plant in full sun, April-mid-July.
Plant young transplants, 3’ apart in rows 3’ apart.
Harvest begins in 60-80 days. Grow five plants, what are called “indeterminate” types for the biggest longest lasting crops, such as Early Girl, Sweet 100, Burpees’s Supersteak, Better Boy, or the new All-America Selection Big Beef. Grow in 5-7’ tall cages, made by rolling up a 77-inch length of 7’ tall, 6” mesh reinforcing wire. Bury several inches of stem when planting and support with two sturdy stakes driven into ground.
Sunflower
Plant in full sun, March-July.
Sow seed in ground, thinning to 18” apart in rows 3’ apart.
Ready in 80 days. Nothing’s taller, often growing to 10 feet, so plant on the north side of the garden so they don’t shade other crops. Inland gardeners sometimes train heat-sensitive beans or cucumbers up the stalks to protect them from the sun.
Corn
Plant in full sun, March-July.
Sow seed in ground, thinning to 12” apart in row 3’ apart.
Ready in about 75 days. If you want full-kerneled ears, plant corn in blocks so winds can cross-pollinate plants. Four rows are the minimum. Make each row five feet long and you’ll have more than enough. Eat within milliseconds of picking for best flavor. Or, grow popcorn, so you can dry and store you harvest.
Companion Planting
Though there is little scientific evidence that certain plants contribute to the well being of others, or that they control pests, there is a rich folklore--little of which has actually been explored by the scientific community. Some is worth trying, but be aware that the competition from companion plants can dramatically lower yields. For instance: Marigolds do repel nematodes, but in such a small area that it really doesn’t affect nearby vegetables. Pole beans aren’t supposed to get along with beets, but bush beans will. Basil is reputed to be a good companion for tomatoes.
Pest Control
Products safe to use in the vegetable garden include:
Bt (Baccillus thuringiensis) for tomato and other “worms” (most are moth larva).
D.E. (diatomaceous earth) kills slugs, ants, grasshoppers.
Insecticidal soaps for aphids, scale and whiteflies.
Refined horticultural oils are new smother aphids, mites, thrips and whiteflies.
Row by Row
A. Squash: 7 (1 pumpkin, 6 yellow crookneck), 2 cucumbers
B. Carrots, beets, chard and lettuce in raised bed
C. Egglplant: 2, peppers: 5
D. Tomatoes: 5
E. Beans: 1 row
F. Sunflowers: 4
G. Corn
Preparing the Soil
Most people turn the soil with a spade, spading fork or rototiller, mixing in a 2-3 inch layer of organic matter along with a complete granular fertilizer, but there are many other ways, from “no-till” to “biointensive.”
Raised Beds
Three-to-four-foot-wide beds, made fluffy with added organic matter, are a good way to grow small crops, or root crops that want a soft soil. Adding organic matter improves fertility so you can space plants close together, so close they choke out weeds. The added organic matter raises the bed so excess water drains away, a good idea in heavy clay soils. To water, use a sprinkler or porous drip tubing.
Succession Planting
If you don’t want to eat beets (or any small vegetables) every night for a week, don’t plant too much seed at once. Spread it out. Plant a few seeds, or a few feet of row one week, then plant more a week or two later.
Row Crops
Slightly raised rows are another way to grow vegetables. Make furrows and mound the soil in the space between. Simply flood the furrows to irrigate, or use drip tubing.
No Garden Space?
You can grow most of these vegetables in a container (corn might be a challenge), as long as it’s big enough. Try half oak barrels and water and fertilize more often. One should hold a tomato, squash pumpkin or cucumber, or two peppers or eggplants, or several beans.
See K6 for more on vegetable gardening.
