Gardening Series: Post 1

These next few posts will be a series on gardening from information that I've gleaned both from experience as well as attending a class for gardening specifically in our area. Hopefully this information will be helpful to those who are looking to start a garden or improve their gardens for this year.

This first post will talk about the 3 main types of garden crops:

1. Leaf and Root crops - These are planted in the cool season, they are shallow rooted and should be watered twice a week. In our area you can usually plant these crops around the middle of March - as soon as the ground is thawed enough to plant. We usually till up the soil, fertilize and make rows in the fall after the harvest so that we can plant our spring garden as soon as the snow melts. This year we planted a little later - around the third week of March because we hadn't gotten around to tilling it in the fall. You can also plant a second planting of these crops for a Fall harvest (planted around the end of June/beginning of July). The leaf and root crops include: lettuce, celery, spinach, swiss chard, radishes, beets, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and peas.

2. Immature Fruit - When they are mature these crops should be watered once a week. In our area, we plant them after the danger of the frost is over (around Mother's day). These include beans, corn, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, summer squash and cucumbers.

3. Seed and Fruit - These are the warm season, deep rooted vegetables. When they are mature they should be watered every 2 weeks (or 10 days in the very hottest weeks). In our area, we plant them after the danger of the frost is over (around Mother's day). These include tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupes, butternut squash, hubbard squash, banana squash, other winter squash, peaches, pears, apples, plums, cherries, grapes, asparagus, peanuts, and yams. Note: the fruit trees you can plant any month that as an "r" in it - that is, September through April.

Larry Sagers wrote an article called "Vegetable-gardening-101" in the Deseret news that I noticed separates the crops a little differently. This is an excellent article and very helpful to read as well. He is more specific - grouping the items from the leaf and root crop category into hardy and semi-hardy.