Vegetables
We grow our vegetable in raised beds. This protects the ground from compaction by foot traffic and is easier on our backs.
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The keys to good organic gardening:
Full Sun
Watering - not too much, not too little
Soil testing
Beneficial insects
Good soil
Aerate with a broadfork
Row covers
Avoid poisons
Full Sun
If you want a garden, you will need an areas that gets half-a-day's sun or more - preferably full sun. If trees or buildings shade your garden excessively, you garden will suffer. This should be obvious, but I have seen people plant a garden in the shade and wonder why it is not doing well.
Watering
A vegetable garden needs about 1" of water a week. Put a few empty buckets around your garden and monitor how much rainfall you get. If it is under 1" per week, you need to water to makeup the difference. However, in well drained soils, or raised beds, you may need to water more than this. If the plants get droopy, you have waited too long to water. If the plants die, you have either watered too little or too much. How can you tell? Dig down a few inches into the soil, pick up a handful of soil from the 2"-4" depth and squeeze it, then let go. If you squeeze water out of it, it is way too wet. If it crumbles into dust, it is way too dry. Ideally, when you let go, the soil should hold together without being too damp.
Soil Testing
Which is better, spending $300 on organic fertilizer or $10 on a soil test? Mailing your soil in for testing, can pay off and save you money. Test results will tell you what might or might not be needed and how to fix the situation. Plants need at least 19 minerals to be healthy. If they do not get these, they will be more prone to diseases.
Good places to have your soil analyzed are UCONN or the University of Maine.
This is what your plants need:
Carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, light - plants grow best at 1500 ppm carbon dioxide; however, our air is at the lowest it has been in 300 million years, i.e. only 400 ppm - ice age levels. There is not much we can do about raising CO2 levels outdoors, but greenhouses pump in extra CO2 to raise the levels to 1500 ppm, thereby boosting production by 30%. Over the next few thousand years, as we continue to come out of the last ice age and as the planet warms, it will cause the oceans to release more CO2 into the atmosphere and the plants will love that.
NPK – macronutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) – these three are needed in the highest quantities.
Macronutrients - calcium, magnesium, sulfur – less is needed of these 3, but much more than trace amounts.
Micronutrients - boron, chlorine, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, molybdenum, nickel, cobalt, vanadium, selenium, silicon, sodium - even less of these 13 are needed.
Trace nutrients – all 90 or so naturally-occurring elements are found in plants, debate persists whether these are needed for optimum plant health or just along for the ride.
Proper soil pH is needed, for the plants grown. Each type of plant has its own preferred pH range. Mineral deficiencies occur in the soil if pH is too high or too lowl.
If you want a garden, you will need an areas that gets half-a-day's sun or more - preferably full sun. If trees or buildings shade your garden excessively, you garden will suffer. This should be obvious, but I have seen people plant a garden in the shade and wonder why it is not doing well.
Watering
A vegetable garden needs about 1" of water a week. Put a few empty buckets around your garden and monitor how much rainfall you get. If it is under 1" per week, you need to water to makeup the difference. However, in well drained soils, or raised beds, you may need to water more than this. If the plants get droopy, you have waited too long to water. If the plants die, you have either watered too little or too much. How can you tell? Dig down a few inches into the soil, pick up a handful of soil from the 2"-4" depth and squeeze it, then let go. If you squeeze water out of it, it is way too wet. If it crumbles into dust, it is way too dry. Ideally, when you let go, the soil should hold together without being too damp.
Soil Testing
Which is better, spending $300 on organic fertilizer or $10 on a soil test? Mailing your soil in for testing, can pay off and save you money. Test results will tell you what might or might not be needed and how to fix the situation. Plants need at least 19 minerals to be healthy. If they do not get these, they will be more prone to diseases.
Good places to have your soil analyzed are UCONN or the University of Maine.
This is what your plants need:
Carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, light - plants grow best at 1500 ppm carbon dioxide; however, our air is at the lowest it has been in 300 million years, i.e. only 400 ppm - ice age levels. There is not much we can do about raising CO2 levels outdoors, but greenhouses pump in extra CO2 to raise the levels to 1500 ppm, thereby boosting production by 30%. Over the next few thousand years, as we continue to come out of the last ice age and as the planet warms, it will cause the oceans to release more CO2 into the atmosphere and the plants will love that.
NPK – macronutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) – these three are needed in the highest quantities.
Macronutrients - calcium, magnesium, sulfur – less is needed of these 3, but much more than trace amounts.
Micronutrients - boron, chlorine, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, molybdenum, nickel, cobalt, vanadium, selenium, silicon, sodium - even less of these 13 are needed.
Trace nutrients – all 90 or so naturally-occurring elements are found in plants, debate persists whether these are needed for optimum plant health or just along for the ride.
Proper soil pH is needed, for the plants grown. Each type of plant has its own preferred pH range. Mineral deficiencies occur in the soil if pH is too high or too lowl.
Beneficial insects
Beneficial insects are a farmers best friend and are discussed in the Fruit Trees menu, sub-item Overview.
Good Soil
Topping off your soil annually with compost (for organic matter and minerals) and crushed sea shells (for calcium and magnesium) is the best way to quickly boost the health of your plants.
Also, planting cover crops and plowing these into your soil (called "green manure").
The biggest secret of organic gardening is compost, compost, compost.
Organically approved screened compost can be obtained from:
Collins Powder Hill Farm, Enfield, CT
Earth Care Farm, Charlestown, RI. Earth Care Farm also has an excellent "Raised Bed Mix" which is ready to use - just fill your bed. It contains their compost with peat moss, and minerals. We use this in all our raised beds, then top each bed off with compost each spring.
Aerate the soil with a Broadfork
Each Spring, just prior to planting, I use a broadfork to aerate the soil. I do not rototill. A broadfork allows the soil to develop a good structure, important for growing, and it does not bring up weed seeds and kill earthworms as does a rototiller. Buy a good broadfork and it will last a lifetime. Look at the photo of our carrots below. We could not grow carrots like this if I did not use a broadfork. Using a broadfork is fast and easy.
Meadow Creatures makes one of the toughest available broadforks.
Here are two short videos on how to use a broadfork:
The Urban Farmer
No-Till Growers
Row Covers
This is one of the greatest inventions, for some veggies, to control harmful insect populations. More details can be be found under the Methodology menu: subcategory Diseases and Insects.
Avoid Poisons
Poisons are not good for you or the environment and they are not necessary to have a healthy, gorgeous veggie garden.
When does veggie gardening start?
Vegetable planting starts mid-October when garlic cloves are planted.
Then in February, March, and April we start growing some of our seeds indoors for transplanting outside near the end of May. We plant the seed in trays and use heating mats to sprout the seeds. After the seeds sprout, we turn off the heating mats and turn on the grow lights.
We grow a wide assortment of vegetables. Some we have found are not worth the effort so we no longer grow those.
Since we garden organically without pesticides, we select varieties that are disease resistant, productive and tasty.
Besides our listing, at Cornell, you can find disease resistant vegetable varieties, and information on diseases for each type of vegetable crop.
These are the vegetables we grow:
Asparagus
Basil
Beans (pole beans) - 'Rattlesnake Pole', 'Kentucky Wonder Pole', Chinese beans from a friend
Beets - 'Boro F1', 'Eagle'
Bok Choy - 'Shanghai Green'
Cabbage, Green - 'Golden Acre', most cabbage needs too much space, this one is compact and delicious
Carrots - 'Danvers 126', 'Naval F1'
Chard (Swiss) - 'Improved Rainbow' ('Bright Lights'), 'Silverado'
Cucumbers - we only grow 'pickling' cukes for salad and pickling, 'Adam', 'Calypso', 'Cool Customer', 'Cross Country', 'Little Leaf', 'Wautoma'
Dill - 'Bouquet'
Eggplant, Asian - 'Diamond', 'Kamo', 'Millionaire', 'Pingtung Long', 'Orient Express', 'Purple Shine', 'Shoya Long'
Fennel - 'Perfection'
Garlic - 'Phillips'
Greens, Chinese - 'Senposai'
Horseradish - 'Big Top'
Kale - 'Lacinato' (i.e. Tuscan), 'Dwarf Green Curled', 'Ripbor F1'
Kohlrabi - 'Kolibri', 'Konan', 'Kordial F1' - can get both spring and fall (plant Jul 15) crop
Leeks - 'King Richard' live plant sets
Lettuce - 'Black Seeded Simpson', 'Nevada', 'New Red Fire', 'Newham', 'Red Oak Leaf'
Onion (Scallions) - 'Evergreen Bunching' live plant sets
Parsley - 'Krausa'
Peppers, sweet - 'Carmen' (delicious sweet red), 'Sweet Banana'
Peppers, hot - 'Bird' 1.5" Thai, 'Chile Cayenne', 'Early Jalapeno', 'Hungarian Hot Wax'
Snow Peas - 'Carouby De Maussane', 'Green Beauty', 'Taichung 11'
Spinach - 'Escalade F1' (semi-savory leaf, summer), 'Regiment F1' (semi-savory leaf, spring, fall) , 'Renegade F1' (smooth leaf, all season), 'Shelby F1' (smooth leaf, spring, fall) - all are disease resistant
Spinach, 'Malabar' - comes in green and red stem varieties, large vine you can east all summer without bolting
Squash - 'Green Striped Cushaw', 'Little Dipper Butternut', 'Tromba d'Albenga' (aka Tromboncino)
Tomatillo - grows well and is productive; we only grow this in years when we run out of green sauce
Tomatoes, Cherry - 'Jasper', 'Sweetie'
Tomatoes, Plum - 'Yaqui'
Tomatoes, Salad - 'Mountain Merit F1', 'Iron lady F1', 'Warrior', 'Longkeeper' (keeps into December)
Turnip - 'Gilfeather Turnip', 'Helenor Rutabega' - plant July 4 and harvest Oct-Nov. Needs to go thru several frosts prior to harvest to sweeten.
These are the vegetables we no longer grow:
Broccoli - heads do not develop
Cabbage, Chinese - too buggy
Celery - shelf life is too short
Corn - too much labor and space used for the little we get
Eggplant, large - not enough time to grow to full size on our site
Okra - grows well, but Judy does not like it.
Onions (full sized) - not enough sun in our garden area to get large onions
Parsnips - have not figure out how to grows these properly yet
Potatoes - too much labor for the little we get and seed potatoes are too expensive
Pumpkin - we prefer Cushaw squash for pumpkin pie
Radish - they grow well but have limited use
Sweet potatoes - too much labor for the little we get and the vines take up too much room, however the leaves are tasty in salads
Beneficial insects are a farmers best friend and are discussed in the Fruit Trees menu, sub-item Overview.
Good Soil
Topping off your soil annually with compost (for organic matter and minerals) and crushed sea shells (for calcium and magnesium) is the best way to quickly boost the health of your plants.
Also, planting cover crops and plowing these into your soil (called "green manure").
The biggest secret of organic gardening is compost, compost, compost.
Organically approved screened compost can be obtained from:
Collins Powder Hill Farm, Enfield, CT
Earth Care Farm, Charlestown, RI. Earth Care Farm also has an excellent "Raised Bed Mix" which is ready to use - just fill your bed. It contains their compost with peat moss, and minerals. We use this in all our raised beds, then top each bed off with compost each spring.
Aerate the soil with a Broadfork
Each Spring, just prior to planting, I use a broadfork to aerate the soil. I do not rototill. A broadfork allows the soil to develop a good structure, important for growing, and it does not bring up weed seeds and kill earthworms as does a rototiller. Buy a good broadfork and it will last a lifetime. Look at the photo of our carrots below. We could not grow carrots like this if I did not use a broadfork. Using a broadfork is fast and easy.
Meadow Creatures makes one of the toughest available broadforks.
Here are two short videos on how to use a broadfork:
The Urban Farmer
No-Till Growers
Row Covers
This is one of the greatest inventions, for some veggies, to control harmful insect populations. More details can be be found under the Methodology menu: subcategory Diseases and Insects.
Avoid Poisons
Poisons are not good for you or the environment and they are not necessary to have a healthy, gorgeous veggie garden.
When does veggie gardening start?
Vegetable planting starts mid-October when garlic cloves are planted.
Then in February, March, and April we start growing some of our seeds indoors for transplanting outside near the end of May. We plant the seed in trays and use heating mats to sprout the seeds. After the seeds sprout, we turn off the heating mats and turn on the grow lights.
We grow a wide assortment of vegetables. Some we have found are not worth the effort so we no longer grow those.
Since we garden organically without pesticides, we select varieties that are disease resistant, productive and tasty.
Besides our listing, at Cornell, you can find disease resistant vegetable varieties, and information on diseases for each type of vegetable crop.
These are the vegetables we grow:
Asparagus
Basil
Beans (pole beans) - 'Rattlesnake Pole', 'Kentucky Wonder Pole', Chinese beans from a friend
Beets - 'Boro F1', 'Eagle'
Bok Choy - 'Shanghai Green'
Cabbage, Green - 'Golden Acre', most cabbage needs too much space, this one is compact and delicious
Carrots - 'Danvers 126', 'Naval F1'
Chard (Swiss) - 'Improved Rainbow' ('Bright Lights'), 'Silverado'
Cucumbers - we only grow 'pickling' cukes for salad and pickling, 'Adam', 'Calypso', 'Cool Customer', 'Cross Country', 'Little Leaf', 'Wautoma'
Dill - 'Bouquet'
Eggplant, Asian - 'Diamond', 'Kamo', 'Millionaire', 'Pingtung Long', 'Orient Express', 'Purple Shine', 'Shoya Long'
Fennel - 'Perfection'
Garlic - 'Phillips'
Greens, Chinese - 'Senposai'
Horseradish - 'Big Top'
Kale - 'Lacinato' (i.e. Tuscan), 'Dwarf Green Curled', 'Ripbor F1'
Kohlrabi - 'Kolibri', 'Konan', 'Kordial F1' - can get both spring and fall (plant Jul 15) crop
Leeks - 'King Richard' live plant sets
Lettuce - 'Black Seeded Simpson', 'Nevada', 'New Red Fire', 'Newham', 'Red Oak Leaf'
Onion (Scallions) - 'Evergreen Bunching' live plant sets
Parsley - 'Krausa'
Peppers, sweet - 'Carmen' (delicious sweet red), 'Sweet Banana'
Peppers, hot - 'Bird' 1.5" Thai, 'Chile Cayenne', 'Early Jalapeno', 'Hungarian Hot Wax'
Snow Peas - 'Carouby De Maussane', 'Green Beauty', 'Taichung 11'
Spinach - 'Escalade F1' (semi-savory leaf, summer), 'Regiment F1' (semi-savory leaf, spring, fall) , 'Renegade F1' (smooth leaf, all season), 'Shelby F1' (smooth leaf, spring, fall) - all are disease resistant
Spinach, 'Malabar' - comes in green and red stem varieties, large vine you can east all summer without bolting
Squash - 'Green Striped Cushaw', 'Little Dipper Butternut', 'Tromba d'Albenga' (aka Tromboncino)
Tomatillo - grows well and is productive; we only grow this in years when we run out of green sauce
Tomatoes, Cherry - 'Jasper', 'Sweetie'
Tomatoes, Plum - 'Yaqui'
Tomatoes, Salad - 'Mountain Merit F1', 'Iron lady F1', 'Warrior', 'Longkeeper' (keeps into December)
Turnip - 'Gilfeather Turnip', 'Helenor Rutabega' - plant July 4 and harvest Oct-Nov. Needs to go thru several frosts prior to harvest to sweeten.
These are the vegetables we no longer grow:
Broccoli - heads do not develop
Cabbage, Chinese - too buggy
Celery - shelf life is too short
Corn - too much labor and space used for the little we get
Eggplant, large - not enough time to grow to full size on our site
Okra - grows well, but Judy does not like it.
Onions (full sized) - not enough sun in our garden area to get large onions
Parsnips - have not figure out how to grows these properly yet
Potatoes - too much labor for the little we get and seed potatoes are too expensive
Pumpkin - we prefer Cushaw squash for pumpkin pie
Radish - they grow well but have limited use
Sweet potatoes - too much labor for the little we get and the vines take up too much room, however the leaves are tasty in salads
Seed sources we like are:
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (California, Missouri)
Burpee (Pennsylvania)
Fedco Seeds (Maine)
Ferry-Morse (Massachusetts)
Grow Italian (Kansas)
High Mowing Seeds (Vermont)
Johnny Seeds (Maine)
Jung Seed (Wisconsin)
Kitazawa Seed (California, Oriental seeds)
Prairie Moon Nursery (Minnesota, flower seeds for pollinators and beneficial insects)
Seed Savers Exchange (Iowa, Heirloom seeds)
Seeds 'N Such (Georgia)
Pine Tree Garden Seeds (Maine)
Territorial Seed (Oregon)
Tomato Growers (Florida)
True Leaf Market (Utah, Microgreens)
Victory Seeds (Oregon)
Wild Garden Seed (Oregon)
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (California, Missouri)
Burpee (Pennsylvania)
Fedco Seeds (Maine)
Ferry-Morse (Massachusetts)
Grow Italian (Kansas)
High Mowing Seeds (Vermont)
Johnny Seeds (Maine)
Jung Seed (Wisconsin)
Kitazawa Seed (California, Oriental seeds)
Prairie Moon Nursery (Minnesota, flower seeds for pollinators and beneficial insects)
Seed Savers Exchange (Iowa, Heirloom seeds)
Seeds 'N Such (Georgia)
Pine Tree Garden Seeds (Maine)
Territorial Seed (Oregon)
Tomato Growers (Florida)
True Leaf Market (Utah, Microgreens)
Victory Seeds (Oregon)
Wild Garden Seed (Oregon)
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