Clacy’s Garden…Starting A Vegetable Garden
The location of your vegetable garden is the first thing you should consider. Choose a full-sun area with good drainage. Vegetables don’t like areas where water stands during or after it rains. If your only full-sun area is low lying with poor drainage, install raised garden beds instead of planting your vegetables directly into the ground.
When you have the perfect location, be sure you have the proper tools on hand: a spade, shovel, garden rake, and wheelbarrow. Before you start digging, you’ll want to check that the soil is ready for planting. If it’s too wet, the soil will stay molded into a ball when squeezed between your hands. You’ll know when the moisture content is right when the soil crumbles and breaks into small clumps.
To get the bed ready for planting, turn the soil with your shovel. When you are digging and turning the soil, add compost to enrich the dirt with nutrients. Smooth the area with your garden rake when you have finished mixing together the soil and compost, at the same time, remove any grass, weeds, and other plant material from your planting bed.
You can plant “cool season” crops immediately, such as spinach, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and onions. Wait to plant warm weather vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers until after May 15th as there is still the chance of frost at night.