Creating the best spring garden this season

Now that it's late spring and summer is just around the corner, it’s a perfect time to start thinking about planting a garden in your outdoor space or the yard of your Virginia home.

If you plant flowers in those empty flower beds, fruit trees, and shrubs you will reap the rewards of all the beauty of planting a late spring garden or late summer garden.

Additionally, if you plant a garden you will enjoy months of veggies and fragrant flowers.

However, if you don’t know how or where to begin, what the soil type is, type of bed, or if you want to buy a seed packet or a few, no problem as there are some easy tips and ideas to get you going on creating your late spring garden or late summer garden.

Take A Couple of Days

As a beginner, take a couple of days to decide if you've still got cool weather before you start choosing the vegetables and fruits you want.

Be sure to check with the state’s Cooperative Extension Service or local garden center or garden centre to find out what plants grow best in your area in the cooler weather or warmer weather.

For example, if you live in an area with extremely hot weather, vegetables that prefer cooler temps may have a hard time and your gardening tasks might be more involved.

Here are some easy veggies to begin with for your late spring garden or late summer garden.

You will surely be making daily garden visits and checking out the edible garden space as well as the type of bed once you get situated:

• Lettuce
• Green beans
• Radishes
• Tomatoes (bush variety or cherry are easiest)
• Zucchini
• Peppers
• Beets
• Carrots
• Chard, Spinach
• Garden Peas
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Add Fragrant Flowers

While planting any or all of the above in the garden soil or garden beds try to add in a flower bed or two with fragrant flowers such as marigolds — which will keep away pests, and animals, attract pollinators and offer up some nice color.

You should be able to get everything you need: organic materials, and a garden journal, a container of garden soil, plants, flowers, fruits, fruit tree, and veggies, a garden hose, garden soil, items to keep away animal scavengers, and any future buildup of insects at your local garden center.

More tips for choosing spring garden vegetables and fruits for your edible garden space and garden beds:

Opt for those veggies that you (and your family) like to eat. For instance, if the brood doesn't like brussels sprouts skip them and go for something else that will be fun to watch in the edible garden space and later eat.

Maybe your kids like green beans, garden peas, and tomatoes, so put more effort into growing those items. Again, local garden centers should have these plants and a nice fruit tree for you to plant in the edible garden space.

Be realistic about how many vegetables your family will eat. In other words, don't go crazy and overplant in your spring garden, or you’ll be spending a lot of time caring for lots of plants.

Consider the availability of veggies and fruits at your grocery store; maybe you want to grow tomatillos, instead of cabbage or carrots, which are readily available.

Also, certain veggies and fruits are so so much better and tastier when homegrown, so do think about adding them to your late spring garden and in your garden beds. Pick up whatever you like and those you want to see growing in your late spring garden from your local garden center.

Also, any type of homegrown herbs is far less expensive than grocery store herbs, and fun to watch them grow in your yard.

Be prepared to take care of these plants throughout the growing season. Going on a summer trip? Remember that tomatoes and zucchinis are growing strongest in the middle of summer. If you’re going to be gone most of the summer, ask a friend or neighbor to look after the crops and your spring garden or they will suffer.

Or, if you plan to be busy this summer and not home much, think about planting cool-season crops or plant seeds such as lettuce, kale, garden peas, and root veggies during the cooler months of late spring and early fall.

Plant high-quality seeds; seed packets are less expensive than individual plants, but if seeds don’t germinate, your money — and time — are wasted. If you do plant seeds be sure there is an airflow between plants in the soil or via a layer of compost.

Spending a bit more for the year’s seeds will pay off in higher yields at harvest time, all this according to almanac.com

Vegetable Gardening for Beginners

Overall, you might be asking why create a spring garden and/or have a spring garden at all after reading about all things you’ll need to do just before even the first crop.

Well, time is of the essence and now is the perfect time to start thinking about adding a garden or edible garden space at home for many reasons.

Think about sketching a garden diagram first and as you go keep a garden journal to add ideas, thoughts and how things are going. It might be fun for you and the family to write down when the first harvest window occurred or simply follow the continual harvest timeframe throughout the seasons in the garden journal.

How about enjoying the best vegetables and fruits you’ve ever tasted? If you’ve never had garden-fresh food, you will be surprised at how sweet and juicy everything is.

There’s certainly nothing like fresh veggies, and fruits especially if you grow them — which you surely can this season.

It may seem like a big job, but gardening can be an enjoyable hobby and pastime.

Pick the Right Location

After deciding on the plants, the next process is choosing a good location for your late spring garden and edible garden space since the wrong time can result in subpar veggies.

Here are a few tips for choosing a good site:

Sunny spot: Most vegetables need 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight per day. There are a few veggies (mostly the leafy ones) that will tolerate some shade.

Drains well and doesn’t stay wet: If you have poorly drained soil where water pools, plant veggies in a raised bed or raised row for improved drainage. Wet soil means wet roots, which can turn into rotted roots. If you have rocky soil, till or use a garden fork and remove the rocks, as they will interfere with root growth and make for weaker plants.

Stable and not windy: Avoid places that receive strong winds that could knock over your young plants or keep pollinators from doing their job. Also, do you want to plant in a location that receives too much foot traffic or floods easily?

Nutrient-rich soil: Your soil feeds your plants so before planting makes sure beds are ready. If you have thin, nutrient-poor soil, you’ll have poor, unhealthy plants. You can always get a soil sample or a soil test kit to make sure you have the right soil. You may want to add compost, a layer of mulch, or brown bark to the edible garden space as well.  

Do mix in plenty of organic matter and organic materials to help your plants grow, all according to almanac.com

Things to Ask Before Planting

Also, be sure to know where the area gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight. Why?

Without substantial sunlight, and too much direct sunlight throughout the day you might have a sad vegetable garden. If you don't have a location that receives at least six hours of direct sunlight, find a way to reduce shade in your yard or get on a list for a community garden site.

Creating an overhead view and garden diagram of your garden area can be very helpful in planning a new garden space or creating a seasonal plan for an existing garden space. Consider these tips:

Is there vegetation that needs to be removed before planting?

Vegetables will struggle if they must compete with grass, weeds, or other plants while they grow, so make sure the vegetable garden area is free of all vegetation and any unsightly grass clippings at the time of planting.

What is the soil like in my garden? Is the soil moist? Is it wet soil or poor soil? Is it fertile soil?

What is its texture? (sandy soil, clay soil, loam?) What is its color? (Darker generally indicated higher fertility) Does it hold or shed water? Do things seem to like growing where I am planning my vegetable garden?

Here are some easy home tests that you can use to learn about your soil:

There is a variety that you can do at home to learn a ton about your soil.

A soil test submitted to a lab can tell you even more.

Will I need to amend my soil with compost or organic fertilizer before planting?

Thinking out your garden plan as listed above, and getting an official soil test is easy and can provide much more extensive insight into the hidden qualities of the soil.

Timeframe

Every vegetable has its own unique needs and ideal conditions when garden planning, in general:

Spring: Cool season roots and greens.

Summer: Heat-loving summer veggies, + a whole lot more.

Fall: Cool season roots and greens.

Winter: Hardiest Winter roots and greens.

Cool Season Vegetables

These veggies do best when they are grown during the cooler spring and fall seasons. Many of these vegetables will bolt or become stunted when exposed to high temperatures. Most can be grown in the spring and fall while some are best suited for one season or the other:

Plant For Spring Only: Snap Peas, Snow Peas, Fava Beans.

Plant For Spring and Fall: Arugula*, Beets*, Broccoli, Broccoli Raab, Bok Choi, Cabbage*, Carrots*, Cauliflower, Collard Greens*, Kale*, Kohlrabi*, Lettuce, Mizuna, Mustard, Parsley*, Radishes, Spinach, Turnips.

Plant For Fall Only: Brussels Sprouts, Celery*, Parsnips*, Leeks.*

* = Tolerates some heat.

Hot Season Vegetables

These veggies do best maturing in the heat of the summer. Many (like tomatoes and peppers) need hot summer days to mature their fruits. Planting hot season vegetables too early in the year leads to unhealthy, unhappy plants while planting too late in the season doesn't offer enough time to grow them to maturity. Timing is everything with many of these summer vegetables:

Basil, Bush Beans, Pole Beans, Cilantro, Corn, Cucumbers, Dill, Eggplant, Melons, Potatoes, Summer Squash, Tomatoes, Tomatillos, Winter Squash.

All-Season Vegetables

This shortlist includes some of the few vegetables that can be grown successfully in the height of summer and the dead of winter:

Arugula, Beets, Carrots, Chard, Collard Greens, Kale, Parsley, these tips are from  portlandediblegardens.com

Now, Get Busy

Once you’ve figured out your garden plan,  picked out the exact area for your garden and all the plants and veggies you want to incorporate into the edible garden, it’s time to grab your gardening gloves, garden tools, and soaker hose, and get busy.

Before you know it you will have your first harvest and you will be enjoying it with your family for your next meal!

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