Plant a Garden Today
May 2nd, 2009 by farmstandmarfa
Every day is a good day to start a garden. In just a few hours you can prepare a planting bed and seed it. Within a week arugula, radish and lettuces will be up and growing.
Site a bed for growing lettuce and greens in a part of the yard that receives some shade during the day. Basil enjoys a little shade too. Start another bed in a sunny spot and plant tomatoes and beans.
Here’s How:
PREPARING THE BED
Mark out a planting bed 3ft wide by however long you want to make it. Using a digging fork, loosen the soil to a depth of about 6 inches. Work backwards down the bed. Never step on turned soil or you will compact it. Once the soil has been dug, work from the sides and ends of the bed. Shake the soil from the clods of grass and weeds and put them into a compost bucket.
Next, using a hard rake, prepare the soil by raking back and forth across the width of the bed. Rake the top 3-6 inches of soil to one side of the bed, then rake it back over to the other side. Finally, rake the bed until it is smooth and level.
Add about 4 inches of composted material to the raked bed and continue raking back and forth until the material is mixed in with the top 6 inches.
Now that the soil is nice and fluffy, using a board, gently tap down the entire surface of the wide bed. This light firming of the soil will allow the seeds to make contact with the soil when you plant them. Water the bed with a fine spray.
DRIP IRRIGATION
Lay drip irrigation down the length of the bed. The hoses can be placed 12 inches apart, depending on which vegetables you are seeding. If you are planting a cutting mix of lettuces, you will be planting closely and harvesting the leaves young. In a 3-foot wide bed you can lay 2 lengths of drip irrigation and seed 3 rows of the lettuce mix.
MUCLH
Cover the bare soil with a few inches of mulch. The best mulch is chopped or shredded native plant or tree trimmings mixed with compost. Straw, alfalfa, and cotton burr work as mulch but may have herbicide residue.
Make sure the mulch does not touch the stems of the plants.
Drip irrigation may be laid under the mulch or on top of it.
SEEDING THE BED
Clear the mulch from the soil where you are going to plant. Make a drill, a shallow depression, down the length of the bed. Read the information on the seed packet to find out how deep to plant the seeds and how far apart to space the seeds. Sow seeds a little closer than recommended to allow for seedling loss to insects. Sow the seeds in the drill. Cover the seeds with soil and firmly pat the soil down.
When the seedlings have several sets of leaves thin them. Thin so that the leaves of the mature plants will touch. This close planting blocks out light and discourages weed growth between the drills. The shade made by the plants conserves water.
Label each drill with a wooden marker. I use shims, purchased in packages from the hardware store. On the label record the plant’s name and the date of planting. If it is helpful, record how far apart to thin the seedlings once they are up a few inches.
Water the bed with a watering can fitted with a fine rose nozzle or with a fine spray attachment on your hose. Water lightly, moving the spray back and forth across the bed until the soil is shiny. If the water puddles, the seeds will wash away.
Don’t let the seedbed dry out. If the days are warm, the seeds will sprout within a week or a little more. If they don’t, replant them and be more diligent about keeping the seedbed moist.
FLOATING ROW COVER
Cover the seedbed with a summer weight floating row cover to help maintain an evenly moist bed and to prevent animals from bothering the planting. You can bury the edges of the cover with soil or you can keep it in place with rocks. This lightweight row cover used by organic growers is water permeable. It provides even warmth, protects against damaging winds and is an effective form of insect control. It is so light that the plant lifts up the cover as it grows. Remove the cover when the plants are flowering.
COMPOST
Composting is the most important aspect of gardening.
The soil can’t feed you unless you feed it. Compost kitchen and yard waste – bury it or pile it. Do not compost oily cooked food or animal bones.
