Beginner’s Vegetable Garden Shows You How to Grow

Posted in Exhibitions, The Edible Garden on July 16 2009, by Plant Talk

Kristin Schleiter is Curator of Outdoor Gardens and Herbaceous Collections.

Have you been toying with the idea of starting a vegetable garden but you aren’t sure just how to do it? The Beginner’s Vegetable Garden, across from the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, is the perfect place to learn the basics. We planted popular vegetable varieties like ‘Early Girl’ tomatoes and jalapeno peppers in simple raised beds that receive sun all day long. We used a number of different easy-to-find support structures to give you ideas that you might want to try at home.

We are growing cucumbers on a frame, a large square grid of heavy gauge wire that is propped up on one side. The frame allows the cucumbers to hang down freely from the vines ensuring perfectly shaped vegetables. It also increases air circulation around the plant, which helps to minimize diseases like mildew. Cucumbers and squash both can take up a lot of real estate, so if you have limited space, this frame lets you grow them and still have room for other plants in the garden.

Pole bean seeds are planted at the base of bean towers and spirals, which will offer the plants strong support so they can grow tall, which allows for an easy harvest while again ensuring good air circulation. When your beans reach the top of their support, snip off the growing tip to encourage the plant to produce side branches. It is best not to work around bean plants or to pick beans when they are wet to prevent the spread of disease.

Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers are planted within vegetable ladders and cages. The structures do double duty—they support the main stem of the plant and support branches laden with heavy vegetables. An A-frame support helps tame rambunctious cherry tomatoes, offering a strong foundation for the multiple fruits while allowing easy harvest from inside the frame. Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers love the heat, so it is best to wait until the hot weather has set in before planting.

It is easy to grow delicious carrots and beets from seed. First, make sure that your garden’s soil is relatively rock free and that it is not compacted. Root vegetables prefer a deep, soft soil into which their roots can grow long and straight. Carrot seeds are often available affixed to a long biodegradable paper tape that makes for easy planting. Simply make a shallow furrow in the soil, stretch out the tape, cover, and you will have perfectly spaced seed. Make sure root crops receive at least an inch of water a week throughout their growth.

Add a few tasty herb plants like basil or thyme and an edible flower or two and you can have a beautiful and bountiful garden this summer.