Vegetable Gardening Read Online Free PDF Page B

the overall climate of your yard, neighborhood, or town. These differences usually are caused by large objects, such as your house, a wall, or a tree. For example, the south side of your house may be hotter than the rest of your yard, because the sun reflects off the walls and the house blocks prevailing cold winds. Or an area under a large tree may be cooler than the rest of the yard because of the shade provided by the tree's canopy.
    How big is too big for a veggie garden? If you're a first-time gardener, a size of 100 square feet is plenty of space to take care of; I like to tell beginning gardeners to start small and build on their success. However, if you want to produce food for storing and sharing, a 20-foot-x-30-foot plot (600 square feet total) is a great size. You can produce an abundance of different vegetables and still keep the plot looking good.
    Speaking of upkeep, keep the following in mind when deciding how large to make your garden: If the soil is in good condition, a novice gardener can keep up with a 600-square-foot garden by devoting about a half-hour each day the first month of the season; in late spring through summer, a good half-hour of work every 2 to 3 days should keep the garden productive and looking good. Keep in mind that the smaller the garden, the less time it'll take to keep it looking great. Plus, after it's established, the garden will take less time to get up and running in the spring. And if you use some of the time-saving tips throughout this book, you may be able to cut down the time commitment even more.
    Letting the sun shine on your plot
    Vegetables need enough sun to produce at their best. Fruiting vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, melons, cucumbers, and eggplant, need at least 6 hours of direct sun a day for good yields. The amount of sun doesn't have to be continuous though. You can have 3 hours in the morning with some shade midday and then 3 more hours in the late afternoon.
    However, if your little piece of heaven gets less than 6 hours of sun, don't give up. You have some options:
    Crops where you eat the leaves, such as lettuce, arugula, pac choi, and spinach, produce reasonably well in a partially shaded location where the sun shines directly on the plants for 3 to 4 hours a day.

    Root crops, such as carrots, potatoes, and beets, need more light than leafy vegetables, but they may do well getting only 4 to 6 hours of sun a day.

    If you don't have enough sun to grow fruiting crops, such as tomatoes and peppers, consider planting a movable garden. Plant these crops in containers and move them to the sunniest spots in your yard throughout the year. I discuss this technique more in Chapter 18.
    Keep in mind that sun and shade patterns change with the seasons. A site that's sunny in midsummer may later be shaded by trees, buildings, and the longer shadows of late fall and early spring. If you live in a mild-winter climate, such as parts of the southeastern and southwestern United States where it's possible to grow vegetables nearly year-round, choosing a spot that's sunny in winter as well as in summer is important. In general, sites that have clear southern exposure are sunniest in winter (refer to Figure 3-1).
    You can have multiple vegetable garden plots around your yard matching the conditions with the vegetables you're growing. If your only sunny spot is a strip of ground along the front of the house, plant a row of peppers and tomatoes. If you have a perfect location near a backdoor, but it only gets morning sun, plant lettuce and greens in that plot.
    If shade in your garden comes from nearby trees and shrubs, your vegetable plants will compete for water and nutrients as well as for light. Tree roots extend slightly beyond the drip line, the outer foliage reach of the tree. If possible, keep your garden out of the root zones (the areas that extend from the drip lines to the trunks) of surrounding trees and shrubs. If avoiding root zones isn't