moonGROW - Organic gardening by the moon and zodiac signs

Vegetable Planting Guide - Planting, cultivating and harvesting your favorite vegetables.

Victory Garden - Planning
Planning, locating and determining the size of your Victory Garden

Victory Garden - Main Index
Planning	Planting	Cultivation	Maintenance

Plan and record your garden layout

In order to eat foods from your own vegetable garden for as many months of the year as possible, you must plan your garden program before putting a single seed into the ground. A complete record of the space you used in a vegetable garden is an invaluable aid in planning your next garden.

Map out the pH levels in your garden

A map showing the pH of the soil in various garden areas should be made and kept up to date. Application dates for slowly available materials, such as phosphate rock, should be recorded. With such a record you can make a long-range plan of your garden that will be of inestimable help in your soil preparation.

Locating your Victory Garden

On a small suburban lot, the vegetable garden can be placed at the back of the property where it will receive the least shade from buildings and trees to meet your plants light requirements. If you wish, it may be screened from the landscaped areas by plantings or fences.

Kitchen garden

Where limited space is not a factor in locating the garden, it is best planted near compost heaps, toolsheds and barns, but not too far removed from the kitchen. If the vegetable plot is distant from the house, a supplemental herb and salad plot, called a kitchen garden, and located near the kitchen door, is useful.

The ideal spot for a vegetable victory garden

The ideal spot for a vegetable garden is an area that slopes gently toward the east, southeast or south. Good drainage is essential to the success of a garden, and a slope is likely to be well drained and thus provide the proper water requirements for your plants. A southern slope warms up early in spring and, with moderate protection, can be kept warm to prolong the growing season for several weeks in the fall.

Cold frames and hotbeds

With judicious use of cold frames and hotbeds, the season may be stretched another four to eight weeks, making it possible for you to grow your own table greens two to three months longer than average without the use of a greenhouse.

Stay away from trees

In addition to having a favorable exposure, the vegetable garden should be placed away from shallow-rooted trees, such as elms, maples, poplars, and willows. Such trees not only rob the soil of food and moisture, but they seem to send all their roots into the plot.

Size of your Victory Garden

The size of the vegetable garden must ultimately be determined by what it is expected to yield—the quantity of food that your family can eat during the growing season, and the amount that can be stored fresh in the cold cellar, or can be frozen or canned.

Use the chart below to help you estimate plant quantities and approximate yields.

NUTRIENT REQUIREMENTS AND PLANTING DIRECTIONS FOR YOUR VICTORY GARDEN
Crop	Nitrogen	Phosphorus	Potash	pH	Distance between plants (in.)	Distance between rows (in.)	Yield (per 10row-ft.)
Asparagus	EH	H	EH	6 - 7	18	48 - 60	2.4 lbs
Bean, bush	L	M	M	6 - 7.5	4 - 6	18 - 24	5 lbs
Lima beans	L	M	M	5.5 - 6.5	6 - 10	18 - 24	7.5 lbs
Beet	EH	EH	EH	5.8 - 7	3	12 - 18	10 lbs
Broccoli	H	H	H	6 - 7	18 - 24	24 - 30	5 lbs
Cabbage	EH	EH	EH	6 - 7	15 - 18	24 - 30	10 lbs
Carrot	H	H	H	5.5 - 6.5	3	12 - 18	10 lbs
Cauliflower	EH	EH	EH	6 - 7	18 - 24	24 - 30	3 heads
Corn	H	H	H	6 - 7	12 - 18	24 - 36	10 ears
Cucumber	H	H	H	6 - 8	36 - 60	36 - 60	15 lbs
Eggplant	H	H	H	6 - 7	24 - 30	24 - 30	12 fruits
Lettuce	EH	EH	EH	6 - 7	6 - 12	12 - 18	5 lbs
Muskmelon	H	H	H	6 - 7	48 - 72	48 - 72	5 fruits
Onion	H	H	H	6 - 7	2 - 3	12 - 18	10
Parsley	H	H	H	5 - 7	3 - 6	12 - 18	5 lbs
Parsnip	M	M	M	6 - 8	3 - 6	18 - 24	10 lbs
Pea	M	H	H	6 - 8	1 - 3	18 - 36	4 lbs
Potato	EH	EH	EH	4.8 - 6.5	12 -15	24 - 30	8 lbs
Radish	H	EH	EH	6 - 8	1	12 - 18	120
Rutabaga	M	H	M	6 - 8	6 - 10	18 - 24	15 lbs
Soybean	L	M	M	6 - 7	6 - 10	24	5 lbs
Spinach	EH	EH	EH	6.5 - 7	2 - 6	15 - 24	5 lbs
Squash	H	H	H	6 - 8	36 - 80	36 - 80	10 fruits
Sweet potato	L	M	H	5 - 7	12 - 18	30 - 48	10 lbs
Tomato	M	H	H	6 - 7	24 - 48	24 - 48	20 lbs
Turnip	L	H	M	6 - 8	3	12 - 18	10 lbs
L = Light M = Moderate H = Heavy EH - Extra Heavy

Estimating your family's needs

Your estimate should take into account the tastes of your family, your methods of preparing foods and the help available to you during peak harvest season.

Row-feet estimates

It is easy to calculate the number of row-feet needed to grow below ground crops like onions, beets, or carrots where the whole plant is uprooted and used at once. Row-feet for above ground crops that produce fruits or pods that are picked, leaving the plant to yield more, are not as easy to calculate.

Factors that influence estimated growth

This is especially true in an organic garden, where increasingly rich soil and improved growing conditions after a few years of organic practice sometimes bring about phenomenal yields. Results, however, are limited by the length of the growing season, and by rainfall and temperature. Soil fertility and your cultural practices also influence results. Only experience can accurately tell you how many vegetables can be grown in a given locality or a particular garden.

Spacing

By having calculated the number of plants needed to supply your family with vegetables, you have now arrived at the number of row-feet needed in the garden. To calculate the dimensions of the garden, you must also know how close together to plant your rows. Before arriving at this figure you must decide how the garden is to be cultivated, or if it is to be temporarily or permanently mulched.

Allow yourself room to work

A garden which is hoed by hand or cultivated by rotary tillers or a tractor will need more space between rows than a garden under an organic mulch. Each plant needs a certain amount of space and an open path must be left between rows if a machine is to pass without damaging the plants. The size of the path will, of course, depend on the size of your machine. If mulched, your garden should need no cultivation except hand-weeding around young plants.

In a stone-mulched garden, rocks are set in paths two feet wide, leaving a foot between for planting. With this much space, almost any crop may be placed in any row, making rotation of crops a simple matter. Remember that stone mulching is permanent.

PLANTING YOUR VICTORY GARDEN >


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Victory Garden - Planning Planning, locating and determining the size of your Victory Garden

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