DIY Vegetable Garden Tips

Growing your own vegetables is fun, rewarding, and delicious!

Here are 6 easy-to-grow veggies and tips for their care:

Beans
Growing green beans from seed is a great introduction for many new gardeners looking to gain a green thumb. In early spring, plant each seed so that it is covered by about ½ to ¼ inch of soil and keep it moist until it germinates – begins to grow. Beans will start in cool spring weather but enjoy growing on and producing their bean pod fruits as the season gets warmer. Make sure to plant it near a fence or trellis so that it has something to climb on! Beans and peas really enjoy a good climb. By supporting the plants they will not flop over on themselves and more leaves will be able to take in that nice fresh sunlight, giving the plant more energy to produce more beans. Pick the bean pods when they flesh out to contain beans inside. The beans and pods are edible raw and cooked.

Lettuce
Lettuce is, without fail, delicious. It’s a cool-season crop that can be started in early spring and again in early fall. Plant in rows, with holes about 10 to 14 inches apart, because a full-grown lettuce head is usually 8 to 14 inches across. In each hole, plant 3 to 5 seeds to increase the likelihood of sprouting. about ¼ to 1/8 inch under the soil and keep moist until germination. When they start to grow, carefully thin – remove all but one of the seedlings per hole. Each lettuce plant needs enough space to grow to full-size. Watering deeply really helps the plants get off to a good start. Lettuce leaves are edible at any stage of development. In 1 month they can be harvested for baby salad greens. In about 2 to 3 months your lettuce will be full-size. Cut at the base to harvest the whole plant. Cut two inches above the base to cut-and-come-again when the plant regrows its leaves.

Mustard
There are so many types of mustard. Mustard is used both for its leaves as a spicy salad and cooked green vegetable, and for its seeds in making the mustard condiment. To grow mustard for its remarkably healthy leaves, plant ¼ inch deep about 6 inches apart in early spring or early fall. Mustard likes similar conditions to lettuce and is very tough when it comes to unexpectedly cold outdoor temperatures. Mustard is often grown as a cut-and-come-again plant, picking off the biggest outside leaves of the plant and letting the center of the plant produce more leaves throughout the growing season.

Potato
Have you ever had a potato in your cupboard that decided to sprout one day? Planting it in late spring gives you the opportunity to multiply your potatoes! There are many colors of potatoes to try, including purple, which is just downright fun. Plant the whole potato under the soil with the eyes- the places where the potato is sprouting, facing upwards, or cut the potato into pieces so that each piece has an eye and plant individually. Every few weeks as the potato plant grows pile more soil around of the base of the plant. This encourages the plant to grow taller and stronger. Harvest the potatoes in fall by digging up the entire plant and in a circle all around. Sometimes small potatoes hide and are easy to miss!

Radish
We often use the very young leaves in our microgreen mixes here at Highland Orchards. Radishes grown in the classic way for their roots are simple, and fast. Really fast. Plant in a row outside in early spring with seeds about an inch apart, about ¼ inch deep. As they grow you will want to thin the radishes so that they have enough room to form a nice big root. There are many types and colors of radishes. Check to see how much space the radishes need between each plant. For small radishes, it is often about 3 inches apart. Classic round radishes should be at least the diameter of a quarter before picking, and up to the size of a ping pong ball. Brush away the top soil to check the size progress before harvesting. Watch carefully as the weather warms up: If the top of the plant begins to send up a flower stalk, that means the plant is bolting- and is redirecting its energy from making tasty roots towards making flowers and seeds instead. Pick your radishes before they bolt, because they have a tendency to crack down the sides and lose their good crunchy texture and flavor. They are still edible after that point but taste less delicious.

Tomato
These plants like it hot hot hot. There are so many types of tomatoes to choose from. In mid-spring, when the plants are going to get enough light and heat to sprout, plant seeds ½ to ¼ inch deep, about 10 inches apart. Tomatoes, like beans, will need support. Unlike beans, they do not climb as well by themselves. Staking tomatoes involves using a circular tomato trellis, or gently tying the tomato stalk to a bamboo stake or fence to keep it upright each time the tomato plant grows more. Tomatoes take anywhere from 70 days to 120 days from the time they are planted as seeds to when they will produce a ripe fruit. Planting a flower garden nearby attracts bumblebees, which tomatoes need to produce lots of fruit. Bumblebees have a special way of pollinating. They buzz to shake the tomato flowers, releasing pollen that gets stuck to the bees when they visit the next flower. Honeybees and butterflies cannot buzz-pollinate this way, so our native bumblebees are very important in making sure that your plants give you nice fresh tomatoes in the summer.

These plants are perfect projects for the first-time gardener of any age! All of these plants can be grown in containers. For example, in a 10-inch pot you can grow 1 bean plant, 1 large lettuce plant or 5 baby lettuce plants, 3-5 mustard plants, 1 potato plant, 6-8 radish plants, or 1 tomato plant.

- Emma