What I’m Gardening This Week: All the Veggies and Herbs!

Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all those amazing biological moms, adopted moms, moms-to-be, trying-your-hardest-to-be-moms, fur moms, and for all of you women that make the world go round for all those in your lives. You’re incredible and I admire every single one of you.

With the click of Mother’s Day on the calendar, it’s officially growing season! This is when the soil and air temperature rise and our sweet little seedlings can thrive. I’ve been waiting for this week since January!

This week, I’m hitting the garden hard and getting my sweet little plants the start they deserve. It’s time for weeding, tilling, enriching the soil, all before planting the remainder of my garden.

Here’s what I’m planting this week:

• Beefsteak Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Red and Yellow Peppers
• Cucumbers
• Sweet Corn
• Transplant Herbs

Tomatoes

• When determining the spacing, look to spread your tomato plants out 30-48 inches apart and in rows 48 inches apart. Putting them closer together is a sure-fire way to spread disease among your plants.
• Work your soil up to 12 inches below the surface with compost or enriched soil
• To create a strong root system, plant each tomatoes plant DEEP under ground. The rule is about 2/3 of your plant is underground (3 or 4″ of a 10″ plant will be underground)
• Plant your tomatoes along with a slow-release fertilizer – once the fruit blossoms, it will require much more fertilizer, but needs very little to get started initially
• Always prepare yourself for which staking system you will implement – stakes, cages, etc. My go-to are these Amazon tomato cages to help keep fruit and branches off the soil and prevent disease as much as possible

Red and Yellow Peppers

• Peppers are wonderful and SIMPLE plants – once you plant, they take off almost entirely on their own
• They are thirsty plants so it’s important to work the soil with enriched material to allow for the most moisture retention
• A 5-10-10 fertilizer is a good fertilizer to begin with while planting, but from that point, it’s unnecessary to add any additional fertilizer during the growing season
• Once plants begin to grow larger, add mulch at the base to give one more boost of moisture retention throughout the season
• Once the fruit begins to grow, the limbs can become very heavy – add a small stake while planting and add old nylon or torn t-shirts to help gently tie the plant to the stake

Cucumbers

• In a full sun, well-drained area of your garden, work in plenty of organic matter into your soil – helps to retain moisture which these little gems LOVE
• To get the most production, it’s important to plant your cucumbers with a trellis or fence to allow fruit to hang above the soil – the height improves air circulation keeping your plants healthy and fruitful
• Pick your cucumbers prior to full maturity – waiting until full maturity signals to the plant that they can finish producing and will stop your yield short – – pickling types can be picked at 3-5″ and slicing cucumbers at 6-8″
• Pick your cucumbers in early morning for best taste

Sweet Corn

• The minimum amount of space required to grow sweet corn is about a 6 x 10′ plot
• Work your soil with enriched material to ensure that the crops have plenty of nutrients to help boost their growth
• Plant in full sun and well-drained soil
• Dig a trench about 1″ deep and drop seeds about 4-6″ apart and in rows 2-3′ apart – corn must have rows to ensure there is complete and even pollination across the crops
• Once seeds are planted, cover with 1″ of soil and water
• Once plants are 4-6″ tall, thin to about 9″ apart to allow for proper air circulation and sunlight for all

Happy Planting!!

xx Rachel

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