Garden design depends on the tools you use, and how you want your garden to look. We rototill our garden, so it is in-ground as opposed to raised beds, and the rows are straight (the rototiller makes lovely rows!).  If you plow or till, in-ground is probably best for you. If you use a garden fork to turn your soil, either raised beds or in-ground will work. Just don’t dig up more than you can maintain over the growing season!

Vegetables don’t have to grow in single file, straight rows. Broad row planting is very efficient for crops like spinach, bush beans, and peas. A broad row is about 2 ½ to 3 feet wide and is scatter planted, rather than row planted. You get more plants this way—fewer paths and more planting space—and can still reach from either side to harvest. The plants also provide root shade for each other (important in hot climates), and keep weeds down.  Single file rows of plants make mulching and weeding easy. Also, there is something in a gardener’s heart that loves all those vegetables marching single-file to the kitchen! And if you want some recipes to help use up those veggies, just click here.

Crop rotation is recommended by most garden gurus, but for many of us it is not terribly practical. The main reason for crop rotation—planting a vegetable in the space previously occupied by a different one—is soil nutrient depletion. If corn is planted in the same space in the garden year after year, all the nutrients needed by corn will be used up, and the harvest will be disappointing. The same thing happens with almost any vegetable, as long as nutrients are not replaced. Most home gardens just don’t have the space to allow for scientific crop rotation. In our garden, the tomatoes are planted a few rows away from where they were last year, but that hardly compensates for soil-borne diseases and nutrient depletion.

            Fertilizer takes care of nutrient depletion. We use a lot of well-rotted cow manure in our vegetable gardens. While not heavy in nutrients, well-rotted cow manure adds some nutrients, as well as tilth (that wonderful word “tilth” means the mealy, crumbly soil that is so beloved by gardeners). Compost also helps replace some necessary nutrients.  As soon as we find a source of sheep manure ( which is at the top of the “poo pyramid”) we’ll use that judiciously on heavy-feeding vegetables like asparagus and melons. Just be sure that if you are using manure, it is well-composted and well-rotted. Fresh manure will burn crops.

            Soil-borne diseases can travel, so planting a few rows away as we do doesn’t really help much. The best thing to do is keeping your garden clean while the vegetables are growing (pulling weeds and removing any sickly plants before they infect their neighbors) and  planting disease-resistant varieties. If you develop a persistent soil-borne disease, you might want to consider making a raised bed for the affected plant, filling it with purchased compost and garden soil.  Of course, placing the raised bed far away from the infected spot is a good idea!

Choosing varieties of crops can be really confusing, or sheer fun. Is there anything more pleasant than perusing the garden catalogs, planning what you want in your garden and speculating if a new variety of tomato or pepper is in your future? We all have dream gardens—every plant is big, healthy and productive.

            Your dream garden may depend heavily on which variety of a plant you choose. Your soil type, the acidity or alkalinity of your soil, and how much natural water (rain) you get should be considered. We are gardening on blackland prairie soil with a high clay content, a high rate of alkalinity, and we can count on about 30” of rain a year  which usually occurs on a December night when it doesn’t do anyone any good!

            Peppers, melons, tomatoes and eggplant  require warm soil and a relatively long growing season. However, you can jump the season by starting these plants from seed inside and transplanting out when the soil and weather are amenable. As a rule of thumb, if you stick your thumb into the garden soil and it feels warm, you can plant your warm-season crops.

            Of course, there are plants that just don’t transplant—mainly root crops and those with a long tap root. If you have heavy soil, you can still grow carrots. Just choose the shorter, stockier variety, or even one of the “ball” carrots. Radishes come in shapes to fit any garden—we have good luck with the French Breakfast and with Cherry Belle. For some reason the icicle radishes attract nematodes for us. Perhaps we need to make a raised bed for them!