Plants are the lens Jessie views the world through because they’re all-sustaining. (“They feed, clothe, house and heal us. They produce the air we breathe and even make us smell pretty.”) She’s a garden writer and photographer with degrees in both horticulture and plant biology from Purdue and Michigan State Universities. Her degrees were bolstered by internships at Longwood Gardens and the American Horticultural Society. She has since worked for many horticultural institutions and companies and now manages communications for Sun Gro Horticulture, the parent company of Black Gold. Her joy is sharing all things green and lovely with her two daughters.
Vegetable gardening is a dynamic process. Gardeners have to shift from cool-season spring vegetables to warm-season summer vegetables back to cool-weather crops. In between, savvy gardeners rotate their crops to maximize their output and health. Here are some seasonal planting and rotation tips that will help vegetables transition effortlessly and produce well from one season to the next.
Planning for Rotation
Vegetable gardens are not like perennial beds, you cannot establish a set planting design and stick with it from year to year. Instead, vegetable gardens must be divided into planting areas for easy rotation. Raised beds make it easy, but if you are working with standard in-ground rows or blocked beds, plan beds to accommodate a variety of crops of different sizes to anticipate yearly shifts.
A four-square design is a good option because it allows gardeners rotate crops on a four-year basis. Root crops, cole crops, and greens can be planted in one plot, Solanaceous crops (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplant) can be planted in another plot, the third plot can be planted with squash, melons, and/or cucumbers, and the fourth plot can be planted with corn, beans, okra and/or sweet potatoes. Each year, the planting combo can be switched for a full rotation.
Rotation for
Temperature Needs
Longtime vegetable gardeners know that there are vegetables suited for cool months, warm months, and those that will thrive despite temperature fluctuations. Some of the basic crops that fit these temperature requirements include the following:
Cool-Season Vegetables: Cole crops (cabbage, cauliflower, collards, broccoli, broccoli rabe, kohlrabi, and kale), greens (arugula, endive, lettuce, mustard greens, radicchio, and spinach), spring root crops (radishes, potatoes, scallions, spring carrots, and turnips), fall root crops (leeks, parsnips, and rutabagas), and peas.
Temperature-Neutral
Vegetables: Beets, summer carrots, Swiss chard, cucumbers, and onions.
Rotation for Pest and
Disease Prevention
When some vegetables get diseases, the disease-causing pathogens remain in the soil for several years where the infected plants were planted. These include many fungal diseases, bacterial diseases, viral diseases, and crop-specific nematodes. Rotating crops in new planting areas in the garden on a two- to three-year basis will help protect future vegetables from getting these diseases.
The most susceptible crops for soil-borne pests and diseases are carrots, cole crops, cucumbers, lettuce, melons, potatoes, squash, and tomatoes. Cucumbers, melons, and squash get many of the same diseases, so consider this when devising your rotation plan.
Many weeds also harbor diseases that can damage crops, so keeping gardens weed free does more than reduce competition for nutrients and light. Maintaining clean beds benefits crop health.
Rotation for Nutritional
Needs
Some vegetables are heavy feeders that deplete the soil of nutrients and water, while others take less from the soil or even added essential nitrogen. The most heavy feeders are tomatoes, squash and melons.
It is also essential to feed your soil yearly with rich organic matter and fertilizers formulated for vegetables. Two recommended Fafard products for added fertility are Fafard Garden Manure Blend, which provides natural nutrition and essential soil microbes, and Fafard Premium Natural & Organic Compost.
Cover Crops
Winter cover crops are a great help to vegetable gardens. Some, like alfalfa, add nitrogen to the soil and set deep roots to break up difficult, clay-rich soils down below. Others, like winter wheat or rye, add needed cover to protect your beds from heavy infestations of winter weeds. They can also be tilled into the soil in spring for added organic matter.
Spring-Summer-to-Fall Rotation Ideas
If you do not have the space, yearly crop output, or inclination to follow a set yearly rotation schedule, consider planting complementary spring-summer-fall crops in these five sequence options.e
Good rotation will improve your vegetable gardens for the long term. Formulate a smart rotation plan and maintain a journal to keep the process in memory.
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Any low, wet area in the yard where rainwater runoff collects after a storm has the potential to be a spectacular, flower-filled rain garden. Maintaining these landscape reservoirs as beneficial gardens rather than stressed turf will save time and headaches and improve your yard’s looks—as long as you plant the right plants and create a design for all-season bloom.
Victory Gardens inspired millions of Americans that had never gardened to grow food to feed their families. Everyday people learned to garden on a homesteading scale. And, my family was no exception. My maternal grandparent’s Victory Garden taught them to fend for themselves and eat well when wartime rations were most limited. Continue reading “Lessons from Wartime Victory Gardens”
A well-planned vegetable garden will sustain your family with a variety of fresh produce from spring to late fall. Serious gardeners will even cold-frame garden into the winter months for a steady stream of fresh greens and root vegetables. Sustenance vegetable gardens save money and ensure produce is organically grown. Careful planning and timing are essential for season-long garden-fresh produce for eating, canning, freezing, and drying.
Vegetables are divided by their best season of culture. Cool season crops are ideal for the spring and fall months, while warm-season crops are suited for summer growing. Some vegetables can be grown at almost in the growing season. Fruits are almost purely seasonal. Planning the garden with a well-rounded collection of vegetables is essential. Consider your proteins (legumes and brassicas), carbohydrates/starches (root vegetables, corn, and squash), greens, fruits, and flavorful herbs when planning for each season. The broader array of healthful edibles you grow, the better.
Soil Preparation and Plot Design
Two key ingredients for good garden planning are soil preparation and plot design. Nourish your soils with OMRI Listed® amendments, like Fafard Garden Manure Blend and Fafard Premium Natural & Organic Compost, to encourage deep rooting and maximize growth and production. Then feed the ground with a multi-purpose fertilizer formulated for vegetables. Design your garden plots in tidy rows or blocks, planning for spring, summer, and fall, and be sure that you know exactly where your vegetables will go. Rotation is essential for crops that are heavy feeders and suffer from soil-borne diseases and pests. Tomatoes, potatoes, and cucumbers are three crops that always require yearly rotation.
Here are some season-by-season vegetable suggestions and their benefits.
Spring Garden Sustenance Edibles
Protein: Legumes are the main providers of needed protein from the garden. Good candidates for the spring include crisp snap peas, snow peas, and shelling peas (click here to learn more about growing peas). All are grown similarly and thrive in the cool weather. Brassicas, such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi are also good protein sources (click here to read more about growing brassicas). Choose fast-growing brassicas (50-60 harvest days) for spring growing. Each year I like to grow crisp and productive ‘Super Sugar Snap’ peas (60 days), fast-growing ‘Gypsy’ broccoli (58 days), and sweet, purple ‘Kolibri’ kohlrabi (45 days).
Carbohydrates: Root crops are made for the cool weather of spring and are rich in starch and nutrients. This is when they grow most rapidly and taste the best. Choose fast-growing beets, carrots, radishes, and turnips and plant them as soon as the soil can be worked. This is also the time to plant early potatoes, onions, and leeks. Asparagus is a perennial spring vegetable that is also high in carbohydrates. Of these, try the candy-striped ‘Chioggia’ beet (55 days), crisp, sweet ‘Yaya’ carrot (56 days), and ‘D’Avignon’ French radish (21 days).
Greens: Most garden greens taste and grow best in cool weather. This is the time to plant arugula, lettuce, endive, and spinach. Swiss chard is also best planted in spring and will remain productive well into late fall. (Learn how to grow several cool-season greens by clicking here.) The spicy ‘Sylvetta’ arugula (45 days), Salanova® green butter lettuce (55 days), and ‘Dragoon’ mini romaine lettuce (43 days) are all great choices.
Herbs: Cool season herbs may be annual or perennial. Recommended perennials for spring are chives, sorrel, tarragon, and thyme. Borage, chervil, cilantro, parsley, and dill are all superb annual herbs for spring. All are nutritious and very flavorful. The flavorful, slow-to-bolt cilantro ‘Calypso’ (50 days) is a high performer.
Fruit: Perennial late-spring “fruits” for the garden include rhubarb and strawberries—both being very high in vitamin C. (Click here to learn more about growing strawberries). Can them as jam or freeze them for use later in the season. I like to grow everbearing strawberries that will produce fruits through the growing months.
SummerGarden Sustenance Edibles
Protein: Beans of all kinds provide summer protein from the garden (click here to learn more about growing beans). Vining beans offer the highest yields because they produce more for longer. Heat-loving beans like Chinese noodle beans, Roma beans, and lima beans are tasty and very nutritious and protein-packed. Colorful beans for drying are also essential for winter storage and good eating. Okra is another high-protein vegetable that thrives in heat and is very easy to grow. The meaty ‘Musica’ Roma pole beans (55 days) and ‘Maxibel’ slender bush beans (50 days) are always good choices as is the compact, spineless ‘Annie Oakley’ okra (50 days)
Carbohydrates: Sweet corn is everyone’s favorite starchy crop (click here to learn more about growing sweet corn) and many varieties will start to mature by midsummer. Sweet potatoes require high heat for development and are an excellent source of carbohydrates (click here to learn how to create a sweet potato tower). Summer beets and carrots are also good choices for summer salads and sautees (click here to learn how to grow summer beets). Summer squash and zucchini of all kinds will also feed the family for weeks with their starch- and nutrient-filled fruits. my favorite summer squash of all is the long-vined but prolific ‘Zucchetta Rampicante’ (70 days).
Greens: Heat-tolerant greens are limited because many of the best greens are adapted to cool weather, but Swiss chard will provide a needed supply of tasty leaves through summer. Choose Rainbow Mix Swiss chard, which tastes great and comes in colorful shades of white, yellow, red, orange, and pink. Malabar Spinach (Basella rubra) is a vining green with a spinach-like taste that bursts forth with loads of edible foliage when summer is at its hottest. (Click here to read more about heat-tolerant greens.
Fruit: Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and cucumbers are the four best savory fruits of summer. These are the staples that many gardeners rely on for summer garden harvest, especially tomatoes (click here to learn more about growing the best cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, and sauce tomatoes). All of these fruits require summer warmth for full development and flavor. (Click here for some of my favorite tomato varieties!) Melons are everyone’s favorite garden fruits for summer. All are easy to grow if you have space (click here to learn more about growing melons). Watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew melons are all nutritious and low-calorie. Summer is when many perennial and tree fruits are at their prime. Blueberries, blackberries, mid-season raspberries, cherries, and peaches are all also ready by early to midsummer. Planting these fruits is an investment but one that’s worth it if you value growing your own fresh fruit. (Click on these links to learn more about growing blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, cherries, and patio peaches.)
Fall Garden Sustenance Edibles
Protein: Few protein-rich vegetables grow at this time, but this is when shelling beans dry for harvest and winter storage. Choose a variety of flavorful shelling beans that you can enjoy all winter long like the red soup beans ‘Vermont Cranberry’ or classic white ‘Cannellini ‘ beans. You should also replant brassicas in late summer to they can sweeten up with the fall frost. Broccoli, broccoli rabe, and cauliflower are all great choices
Carbohydrates: Beets, carrots, radishes, turnips should be planted by early fall for late-fall harvest. (Click here to learn more about growing late-season root vegetables) Choose winter carrot varieties and extra sweet beets that will remain harvestable after frost. Leeks should also be ready to harvest after the first light frost of the season. This is when they taste their sweetest. Nutritious winter squash and pumpkins should also be fully mature by early to mid-fall.
Greens: Replant the same cool-season greens of spring and consider throwing in a few kales and collard greens. Kales of all colors and sizes are pretty in the garden and delicious, and collards are reliable producers with large leaves and high yields. Both grow sweeter with frost. I like the flavor of blue-green ‘Lacinato’ kale
Herbs: Annual cool-season herbs are also back on the menu. Evergreen sage and rosemary are also available for favorite fall dishes. Sage pairs particularly well with winter squash.
Fruit: Apples, pears, and persimmons are the fruits of fall. Small-space gardeners should consider planting dwarf trees for home gardening. (Click here to read more about growing dwarf apples.) This is also when hazelnuts, pecans, and walnuts can be culled from the ground and roasted. (Click on the links to read more about growing hazelnuts and pecans.)
Winter Garden Sustenance Edibles
Assuming you don’t live in the American South or Southwest, there are only a handful of garden edibles suitable for cold-frame growing in winter. (Read more about high-desert vegetable gardening.) These consist of cool-season greens, root vegetables, and herbs. Then, after the cold of winter wanes, it will be time to start planning and planting your sustenance vegetable garden once again.
Planting Table
VegetablePlanting Time Season Seeding Bush Beans Spring, Summer Warm Outdoor Pole Beans Spring (after frost) Warm Outdoor Beets Spring to Fall Warm/Cool Outdoor Broccoli Spring, Summer Cool Indoor Cabbage Spring, Summer Cool Indoor Carrots Spring, to Fall Warm /Cool Outdoor Corn Late Spring Warm Outdoor Cucumbers Spring (after frost) Warm Outdoor Eggplant Spring (after frost) Warm Indoor Kale Spring, Summer Cool Indoor Kohlrabi Spring Cool Indoor Leeks Spring Cool Indoor Lettuce Spring, Summer Cool Indoor Melons Spring (after frost) Warm Outdoor Okra Late Spring Warm Outdoor Onion Sets Mid-Spring Warm Outdoor Onion(Spring) Early Spring Cool Indoor Peas Early Spring, Summer Cool Outdoor Peppers Mid-Spring (after frost) Warm Indoor Potato Sets Spring Cool Outdoor Pumpkins Mid-Spring (after frost) Warm Outdoor Radishes Early Spring Cool Outdoor Spinach Early Spring Cool Indoor Zucchini/Squash Mid-Spring (after frost) Warm Outdoor Sweet Potatoes Late Spring Warm Outdoor Swiss Chard Early Spring Cool/Warm Indoor Tomatoes Mid-Spring (after frost) Warm Indoor Turnips Early Spring Cool Outdoor
Now in its 13th year, the Independent Garden Center Show will be held from August 13-15, 2019 at Lakeside | McCormick, a modern facility with floor-to-ceiling windows that offer sweeping views of Lake Michigan. The landscaped deck is a serene place to enjoy the cascading waterfall overlooking the lake.
The IGC Show is the country’s only show dedicated to independent garden centers, and Sun Gro Horticulture will be at the industry trade show, along with hundreds of other vendors, highlighting the best new products and services we have to offer. The event will also include great keynote speakers, educational seminars, tours, concerts and other networking events. One of the notable keynote speakers includes Jeff “Skunk” Baxter who will present on the topic “So what can a classic rock star do to help your store?” Plenty! Jeff is a founding member of Steely Dan and a Grammy-winning guitarist with The Doobie Brothers in addition to being a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense!
Sun Gro Horticulture will be at Farwest Portland 2019, the largest green industry show in the American West. This year’s event will be held from August 21-23, 2019 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. We will be there with over 400 green industry exhibitors. This exciting event features a grower’s showcase, a new plant varieties showcase, workshops and seminars, and a new products showcase. There are also lots of fun and exciting networking events for its thousands of attendees.
If you love orchids and outdoor gardening, then it’s time to welcome some beautiful hardy orchids into your garden this season! There are a surprising number of garden-grown orchids available at garden centers and specialty nurseries these days and many are surprisingly easy to grow. Once they put forth their first delicate blooms of the season, you’ll be hooked. Continue reading “Hardy Terrestrial Orchids for the Garden”