A garden plan by Green Thumb

Visualize? The best-ever BLT sandwich with your own wonderfully tasty heirloom tomato slices, zucchini sizzling on the grill, a stroll through garden paths overhung with hundreds of bright green peas, a bean pole trellis abounding with blooms and crunchy beans.

“Fail to plan, plan to fail!” The old adage applies to your garden, too. The process starts with the goal – how many BLT sandwiches are in your future? Will you can or freeze or sauce or salsa the extra tomatoes? Then how many tomato plants will you need? Start with a goal of how many pounds of green beans, tomatoes, peas, onions and squash you want to grow. Then plan how many plants are needed to reach your goals.

Next on the agenda is looking at space. How closely will you plant? Many garden books have thoughts on spacing. Some feel that cabbage needs to be spaced 24 inches apart. Others state 12 inches. Either could be correct, depending on your variety and what you are trying to accomplish. Closely spaced plants will generally provide a greater yield, but smaller individuals (cabbages, or onions, or other veggies). Smaller cabbages might be just what you want. But smaller onions may not!

In beds or rows? Rows are convenient, as it is easy to cultivate between the rows with a tractor or rototiller. But, in a backyard garden, beds are more efficient. With beds, you can grow $500 to $700 worth of food in just 100 square feet. Weeding is minimal, because as the plants grow in the bed, they shade the weeds out. Consider bed planting with close spacing for maximum efficiency.a

If you have not tried companion planting, give this centuries-old trick a try. The well-known combination of beans, squash and corn was used by Indians in the 1600s and much earlier, also. This is called the “three sisters” and refers to tall corn grown for grain, winter squash left to wander and shade the roots, and beans grown up the corn stalks for dry harvest (such as black beans or kidney beans). Some tribes planted the three crops, sometimes with a fish for fertilizer, then went off and left for summer hunting areas, coming back in fall, hopefully to find a good harvest. But there are many companion planting strategies. Onion and garlic next to tomato plants are said to discourage tomato pests. Onions next to cabbages, as well as celery and nasturtiums, also give off “bad” odors to cabbage moths. But, apparently, green beans do not like onions growing near them. Marigolds and radishes can be planted next to most all plants to keep bugs out of the crops.

If you have not yet planted your tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery and even chard, now is the time to get these started in your windowsill. Paper cups and a little seed starting mix will get the show on the road. Just punch a hole in the bottom of the cup, add the seed starting mix to the top, water, and then plant your seed. Squash can also be planted soon.

Let me know! What new plants, seeds, or techniques are you trying this year?