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I don’t weigh my harvests, but do keep notes on the number of plants grown from year to year. The inventory of the preserved garden bounty from the previous year also factors into the amount of plants in the plan.

Learn More: 3 Succession Planting Tips to Maximize Your Harvest.

Once the bush beans are finished producing, a fall crop of spinach, lettuce, and other cool-season crops are planted. These can be removed, fed to the chickens, and the space used to grow bush beans. Once the warmer weather arrives, spring greens usually turn bitter and bolt. Quick growing crops such as spinach, lettuce, and other various greens can be planted in spring.

Learn More: 9 Creative DIY Trellis IdeasĮven in my Maine Zone 5 garden, I can grow up to three crops in the same garden space if schedule carefully.

Tall trellised plants such as peas, pole beans, and indeterminate tomatoes are limited to the north end of the garden beds, so they don’t shade other plants.

Learn More: Benefits of Crop Rotation for Your Vegetable Garden.

Other vegetables such as lettuce, corn, carrots, and herbs are worked in where there is room, but I try not to plant them in the same spots two years in a row. The plants in each family are grouped together and planted in the same beds, so I can easily move them to a different bed the following year.

Cucurbit Family: cucumbers, gourds, melons, pumpkin, and squash.

Brassica Family: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, radish, rutabaga, spinach, and turnip.

Solanaceae Family: eggplant, peppers, potatoes, tomatillo and tomatoes.

Allium Family: chive, garlic, leeks, onions, and shallots.

In my garden, I focus on five vegetable plant families for rotation planning purposes: Planting different crop families from year to year helps to avoid depleting the soil and prevents crop specific pests and diseases from building up from one season to the next. Vegetables that are in the same family use similar nutrients and are vulnerable to the same pests and diseases. It is beneficial to rotate plant families from one garden bed to another each growing season. Follow the recommended plant spacing specified on the seed packages. Overcrowded plants will actually produce less and become more susceptible to pests and diseases. Plants that are too close together will compete for nutrients, moisture, and airflow. Each plant requires a certain amount of space to grow healthy and produce an abundant harvest. Plant Spacingĭon’t be tempted to overcrowd your garden.

Things to consider when planning the garden bedsīefore sowing a single seed, it is helpful to sketch a map of the garden so you know how many seedlings you will need, where they will be planted, and how you can keep each bed producing all through the growing season. Thoughts of warmer days and fresh garden harvests encourage me to the next step in planning a vegetable garden: Mapping the Garden Beds.Īfter organizing your seed box, paging through the catalogs thinking about what to grow, and making a seed wish list, the following step is to figure out how everything will fit into the garden.

After enduring snowstorms and cold temperatures for months, I begin wondering whether spring will ever come at all. Late winter is the perfect time to plan your vegetable garden. Herbs usually taste better before they’ve gone to seed.Ī lot of when to harvest is just common sense and the best time to harvest is in the morning, that’s when your vegetables will have the highest water content.Mapping your vegetable garden before planting helps you see how many seedlings you need, where they will be planted, and how you can keep each bed producing all through the growing season. Root crops, like carrots, onions and potatoes, generally have a larger window of picking opportunity than other vegetables. Other veggies can wait it out until you’ve got the time. A tomato may be ready, even red, but it tastes a lot better when it’s picked as ripe as possible and eaten straight from the vine. For example, baby peas or a small zucchini generally has more flavour and is more tender than one that’s been allowed to grow into a giant.įor vegetables where the fruit part of the plant is what you’re eating, for example tomatoes, the opposite is true. Many other vegetables can taste better while still young. Deciding when to pick a fruit or vegetable depends on the type of fruit or vegetable you are growing – we will email customers guides on when to harvest the vegetables chosen for each crop, however there are some general rules that can be applied:įor leave crops such as spinach and stems crops such as celery, you want to pick them early and when they’re still at their most tender state. Deciding when to pick a fruit or vegetable is a big decision! Pick too early or late and weeks of growing can be wasted as the fruit may be too tough or too soft, bitter or sour.