Planning for raised bed vegetables

Looking towards summer, I'm planning what will go in our new raised beds in the mountains.

They're yet to be built, but we've scouted out the right sort of stone, that will be easy (for me as well as my gardening companion) to stack, and we'll get to work next weekend.

Quite handsome large stone blocks, of hefty proportions, were available, and would have made seriously sturdy raised beds, but I could barely lift one stone (I think they weighed about 50 lbs. each), so I'm hardly going to be able to help build that sort of wall. I'm not gifted in the strong shoulders and arms department, but I have built a number of nice retaining walls and an excellent front path, so I do want to be part of this endeavor.

I spent some enjoyable time plotting out the beds -- basically they'll be four long beds, two horizontal and two perpendicular to the house, on what's currently unused 'driveway.'

It'll hopefully be fairly easy to lay out; there's gravel below the mulch on the 'driveway' -- so we'll dig down to prepare footings, put in a bit of builder's sand, and build the stone walls (at about 14 inches).

These beds will be devoted to summer vegetables and herbs: tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, and basil.

The main vegetable garden in the Piedmont will be fallow this summer to reduce root-knot nematodes there. And the satellite vegetable garden, after the garlic and onions are harvested, will be devoted to winter squash, and cool season vegetables in the fall.

I've also just ordered some tough asparagus crowns (all male UC 157) to put in, to join the 'from seed' plants that I grew last year. (They struggled through the tough winter, so I'm thinking they need some reinforcements!)

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Waiting for summer vegetables

I know they're coming. The summer vegetables, that is.

I'm waiting for squash, tomatoes, and beans, in particular, having just about eaten my fill of greens and lettuce. My gardening companion (a good vegetable eater) commented this evening that he needs to eat lettuce at every meal, after putting away yet more freshly-washed and spun leaves. (These were actually harvested as one of the props for a couple of 1st grade plant classes, illustrating plant diversity -- they were impressed by the deer tongue, purple-tingled, and speckled lettuces, I think!)

My gardening friends (hrrmph, they know who they are) that were early planters are already seeing zucchini flowers, at the same time mine barely have 4 or 5 leaves (I was late in planting). This may be a challenging squash vine borer year; the C. moschata squash (winter squash and tromboncino) will sail through probably, but I guess I can hope that the colder than usual winter had a detrimental effect on overwintering larvae, for the Ronde de Nice and pattypan squash.

I've started to harvest heads of garlic to use fresh. The larger harvest to dry and keep will come a bit later. But in the meantime, we'll enjoy fresh -- yum. We have more than enough (see photo -- think about the patches here in the main vegetable garden multiplied by 4). I should be able to plant some later sowings of squash and beans in these patches!

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Warm-season vegetable transplants

We're well past our last frost date, and unusually warm weather has jump-started the soil temperatures, I hope. It's been exceptionally windy this week, hard on young warm-season vegetables. I've been too busy to get recently purchased transplants (Lao round green and white; Thai green-striped, Thai round green, and a variety of peppers and tomatoes) in the ground, and I didn't think the soil was warm enough, either for them. I guess I could have checked, but I was still too busy -- largely encouraging other gardeners....

The seeds for the eggplants came from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and I hope they produce some of the delicious small eggplants that we've enjoyed in SE Asia. Along with a lemon grass plant from another plant sale, I'm prepared for Asian stir-fries.

I tucked eggplants and peppers into larger nursery pots, getting ready for a weekend away in the mountains, but put most of my tomatoes directly in the ground this evening. I can't say that I'm being any better about careful planning, but at least I've prepared most of my beds in advance.

Next week, I'll be planting squash and bean seeds, but it's a dance, with the cool-season peas, garlic, and greens still taking up a lot of space. Fortunately, in our long-growing season, there's plenty of time for everything, even if I don't have the first tomato in the neighborhood.

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Planting warm season vegetables

It's tempting when the weather's mild to think about putting out tomatoes and peppers, and sowing seeds of squash and cucumbers, especially when the garden centers are full of plants. It's still too soon for us for the really warm-weather loving plants, based on the last 'average' frost date of April 15.

But, there's a progression of sowing as the soil temperatures gradually warm. First, the really cold-hardy plants (garden peas, snow peas, sugar snap peas, fava beans, and onion plants), then as spring gets underway (but frost might still be a possibility), planting spinach, potatoes, carrots, beets, chard, more greens, and lettuce. Winter squash seed can be planted now, getting a jump on the long season they need, but basically the seeds wait until the soil warms up enough to trigger germination.

It's always an interesting progression, swapping out bed space, checking soil temperatures, and watching the amount of rain and whether a cold snap might be in store. This year, I seem to have an awful lot of space allocated to garlic, onions, and their kin. We quite enjoy all of them, but definitely I'm not ordering so many onion plants next year! Clearly fresh 'scallions' and young garlic will be on the menu to make room for some of the warm-season vegetables.

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