PLANNING A VEGETABLE GARDEN 101/STARTING FROM SEED
If you're a beginner vegetable gardener, remember this: It's better to be proud of a small garden
than to be frustrated by a big one!
A good-size beginner vegetable garden is 10x16 feet and features crops that are easy to grow. A
plot this size, planted as suggested below, can feed a family of four for one summer, with a little
extra for canning and freezing (or giving away).
Draw it out on paper and list the vegetables you would like to incorporate into your garden. It‖s
usually better to grow only the vegetables in which you enjoy and those that are easier to grow.
Beets, carrots, lettuce, radishes, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, and asparagus are all good
choices for beginners
Consider planning your garden on graph paper. Use the cells on the graph paper as units of
measure. Measure the area where you plan to plant your vegetables ahead of time. Plan to make
the space large enough to accommodate substantial growth. Plan to reuse space when you can.
You will be able to plant some vegetables several times so you can have longer harvests or
multiple harvests.
Lettuce, spinach, peas and radishes are cool weather crops. You can plan to plant them in
staggered plantings so that you don't get the entire harvest at one time that way you can extend
the growing season. Radishes don't take long at all to mature. Most varieties will mature in
about a month or less. If you plant your radishes at two week intervals during the cool weather
(after the danger of frost has elapsed,) you may be able to get about three times as many
radishes as you would have had you only planted them once. Once the radishes start to sprout,
you will need to thin them so that there is space under the soil for them to develop.
Vegetables that may yield more than one crop per season are beans, beets, carrots, cabbage,
kohlrabi, lettuce, radishes, rutabagas, spinach and turnips. Try to orient the rows north and
south to take full advantage of the sun.
For a beginner garden 10x16feet, some suggested veggies:
 Tomatoes — 5 plants staked
 Zucchini squash — 4 plants
 Peppers — 6 plants
 Cabbage
 Bush beans
 Lettuce, leaf and/or Bibb
 Beets
 Carrots
 Chard
 Radish
 Marigolds to discourage rabbits!
11335 N Michigan Rd Zionsville, IN 46077 (317) 733-GROW altums.com
Step 1 Choosing a location.
Vegetables need at least six hours of full sun per day. Make sure it‖s where you can easily water
it and get to it. If the garden is too far from your house or condo, it will get neglected.
Step 2 In the ground garden? Or raised beds? Or even containers?
In the ground
Organic matter is vital for healthy vegetable gardens. If your soil does not contain sufficient
amounts of organic material, then you will have to work some into it using compost or manure.
Compost helps improve texture, fertility, and drainage of the soil. Altum‖s recommends Soil
Amendment and Manure to add to your soil
You must dig your soil to loosen the clumps and allow air in, which will allow the roots to breathe
(yes, they need air also). The depth should be at least 12 inches. Keep in mind that your tomato
plants will extend their roots approximately 2 feet down into the soil. Use a large digging fork or
a rototiller makes short work of it. Rakes also help in smoothing the soil out after the digging is
done. You should add about 2" of Soil Amendment /Composted Manure at this point and mix it
into the soil well. Do not add too much, 10-20% of the soil should be compost, but no more than
that or you will over-fertilize your garden.
After the soil in your desired location has been properly worked, you are ready to begin planting
your vegetable garden. You‖ll want to set the tallest crops at the furthest point back and
gradually work others towards the front. Plant rows north to south and allow approximately 2-3
feet of spacing between your rows, if possible. Place each crop into the garden at its appropriate
planting time-check seed packets or other resource.
Raised beds are easy
Order or build a raised bed, fill it with soil, and plant. Raised beds are ready to go once filled with
soil and are pretty low maintenance compared to in the ground gardens. Raised beds require
more water than natural beds, and you must avoid using treated wood to create your raised
beds. You control the soil that goes in them; you can mix it to your specifications, adding
whatever organic materials you like and creating a precise balance of pH and soil nutrients that
fit your needs. Plants in raised beds generally get better sun and air circulation, simply because
they‖re situated a bit higher than plants growing in the ground. Raised beds also warm up
earlier in the spring, which means earlier planting and harvesting.
Add either 10-10-10 fertilizer at a rate of 1 pound per 100 sq feet or Organic Chickity Doo-Doo at
a rate of 1-2 lbs per 100 sq feet.
Plant in Containers
Still too much work? Plant vegetables in some containers and move them around to where they
are happy. Size: The size of the container is important. For larger vegetables like tomatoes and
eggplants, you should use a five gallon container for each plant.
11335 N Michigan Rd Zionsville, IN 46077 (317) 733-GROW altums.com








Varieties good for Container Gardening
Cucumbers: Salad Bush Hybrid, Spacemaster, Bush Pickle
Eggplant: Bambino, Slim Jim
Green Beans: (Pole beans give a higher yield in a small footprint) Blue Lake, Kentucky
Wonder, French Dwarf
Leaf Lettuce: Buttercrunch, Salad Bowl, Bibb
Peppers: Frigitello, Cubanelle, Sweet Banana, Apple (Hot) Red Cherry, Jalapeno, Robustini
Radishes: Cherry Belle, Scarlet Globe, (White) Icicle
Squash: Ronde de Nice, Gold Rush
Tomatoes: Patio, Pixie, Tiny Tim, Saladette, Toy Boy, Spring Giant, Tumbling Tom, Small Fry
Step 3 What do I plant, and when do I plant it?
What:
Here are the Top Ten Most Popular Vegetables:
1. Tomatoes
2. Cucumbers
3. Sweet Peppers
4. Beans
5. Carrots
6. Summer Squash
7. Onions
8. Hot Peppers
9. Lettuce
10. Peas
It‖s really up to you. Plant what you enjoy eating. Think about planting vegetables that have
different growing times, so that you have a longer period of harvesting. Water well after planting
and fertilize them.
Cool Season Vegetables
Cool season vegetables are the ones that can be planted early, and will take a light frost if
necessary, as well as grow well on cool days. They do however, suffer when the heat of summer
hits, so get these vegetables started early.
While you‖re waiting for warm temperatures to start gardening, you could be missing out on preseason delicacies from your organic garden. Cool season vegetables require temperatures in the
40s or 50s to germinate, and they thrive in the moist soil that spring rains deliver.
The following list can be direct seed grown into the garden
Beets- Fast-maturing varieties for the early spring garden are sweeter than summer varieties;
plant ―Early Wonder‖ as soon as you can work the soil. Each seed capsule can produce multiple
plants, so thin them as soon as the plants are several inches tall.
Carrots- Mix the tiny seeds with sand for even dispersion into the soil. If your soil is rocky, plant
the dwarf ―Thumbelina‖ variety.
11335 N Michigan Rd Zionsville, IN 46077 (317) 733-GROW altums.com
Lettuce- Slugs are notorious pests, deter them with diatomaceous earth or beer traps. Provide
consistent moisture and ample compost.
Peas- A must-grow crop for home gardeners. Soak seeds in water overnight to hasten
germination. Treat seeds with bacterial inoculants to help them fix nitrogen from the air.
Potatoes- Buy seed potatoes certified to be disease-free. Don‖t follow a planting of tomatoes
with potatoes in the same area of the garden, as they share the some diseases.
Radishes- This fast and easy crop is fun for children to grow, even if the grownups do all the
eating. Harvest them within the month to avoid pithy roots.
Spinach- You can plant successive crops of spinach every two weeks to ensure tender young
leaves for salads.
The following are planted from vegetable starts
Broccoli-Cabbage –Cauliflower- Practice good crop rotation practices by moving broccoli to a
different part of the garden each year, and don‖t follow with a planting of cabbage. Moisture is
paramount to a successful crop; mulch heavily to increase yields.
Onions- Choose transplants instead of seeds and sets for the widest selection and fastest
maturing plants. Plant onions in the early spring when the ground is 45 degrees. harvest in
summer when the tops turn brown.
Growing from seed
If you want to grow your own tomatoes from seed, and you live in a northern climate, plant seeds
in February and expect to bring them outside in May. You need to allow at least ten weeks from
the time you start tomato seeds until you will be able to plant the tomatoes in the ground. After
the danger of frost has elapsed, bring them outside during the day - provided temperatures are
warm enough, and bring them back inside at night. This is known as hardening off. This is done
with all vegetables that are planted from seed indoors.
Lettuce, radishes, spinach and peas are cool weather crops. These crops are best grown in
early spring and late summer or early fall. All of these are crops can be direct sowed. Plant
them directly in the ground.
Warm Season Plants
Direct seed these vegetables after soil is warm and frost free date
Beans- pole/bush & Corn- Plant from Starts or grown from your own seed
Cantaloupe – Cucumbers - Melons – Eggplant –Peppers –Tomatoes
11335 N Michigan Rd Zionsville, IN 46077 (317) 733-GROW altums.com
Vegetables that are Perennials
Asparagus – Rhubarb – Strawberries
When to Plant:
Asparagus (1)
Bean, Lima
Bean, Snap
Beet
Broccoli, sprouting(1)
Brussels sprout (1)
Cabbage (1)
Cabbage, Chinese
Carrot
Cauliflower
Celery and celeriac
Chard
Chervil and chives
Chicory, witloof
Collard (1)
Corn, sweet
Cornsalad
Cress, upland
Cucumber
Eggplant (1)
Endive
Fennel, Florence
Garlic
Horseradish (1)
Kale
Kohlrabi
Leek
Lettuce, head (1)
Mar 20-Apr 15
May 15-June 15
May 10-June 30
Apr 1-June 15
Apr 1-May 1
Apr 1-May 1
Mar 15-Apr 10
(2)
Apr 10-June 1
Mar 1-Mar 20
Apr 15-May 1
Apr 15-June 15
Mar 20-Apr 20
June 15-July 1
Apr 1-June 1
May 10-June 15
Mar 1-May 1
Apr 10-May 10
May 15-June 15
May 15-June 10
Apr 1-May 1
Apr 1-May 1
Mar 15-Apr 15
Apr 1-Apr 30
Apr 1-Apr 20
Apr 1-May 10
Apr 1-May 1
Apr 1-May 1
Lettuce, leaf
Muskmelon
Mustard
Okra
Onion (1)
Onion, seed
Onion, sets
Parsley
Parsnip
Pea, black-eye
Pea, garden
Peanut
Pepper (1)
Potato
Pumpkin
Radish
Rhubarb (1)
Rutabaga
Salsify
Shallot
Sorrel
Soybean
Spinach Spinach, New
Zealand
Squash,
Sweet potato
Tomato
Turnip
Watermelon
Apr 1-June 1
May 15-June 15
Apr 1-May 10
May 10-June 1
Apr 1-May 1
Mar 15-Apr 15
Mar 10-Apr 10
Apr 1-May 1
Apr 1-May 1
May 15-June 1
Mar 20-May 1
May 15-June 1
May 15-June 10
Mar 20-May 10
May 1-May 30
Mar 20-May 10
Mar 20-Apr 15
May 1-June 1
Apr 1-May 15
Apr 1-May 1
Apr 1-May 15
May 15-June 15
Mar 20-Apr 20
May 1-June 15
May 1-May 30
May 20-June 10
May 10-June 15
Mar 20-May 1
May 15-June 15
(1) Plants (transplant instead of direct seeding on indicated dates)
(2) Generally fall-planted
Maintenance for your Garden
Vegetable gardens will need enough water to keep the soil moist to a depth of roughly two
inches. The best way to accomplish this is by watering for a longer period of time but less often.
Two or three times a week should be sufficient as long as it is not extraordinarily hot and as long
as you get some rain during the course of the season.
11335 N Michigan Rd Zionsville, IN 46077 (317) 733-GROW altums.com