After preparing your soil and raised bed you have to decide what to plant, and when to plant it. To know when it is acceptable to plant in your area you should determine what hardiness zone you live in. This basically tells you what types of plants will survive in your area. Adjust that knowledge to how the weather is at the current time. Seed packages and plant tags will also give instructions for when it is appropriate to plant. For cool weather plants instructions may say: plant in early spring as soon as the ground can be worked, or for warm weather plants, sow after all danger of frost has passed. Some instructions include maps with a range of months that it is appropriate to plant in.
Here is a link for the USDA plant hardiness zone map. Zone maps are usually more beneficial for perennials than vegetable gardens, but it’s interesting information nonetheless.
In the Piedmont of North Carolina, the winter of 2011-2012 was very mild, and most people have had their cool weather plants in the ground for a few weeks if not longer. I planted mine in early April. Cool weather plants are plants that are more tolerant to cool nights and most are somewhat frost resistant.
Common cool weather plants are cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, peas, lettuce, onions, carrots, radishes, garlic, spinach, turnips, beets, and many others.
After deciding what I wanted to plant I had to plan a space layout for my vegetables. With a limited amount of space in a raised bed things can overcrowd very easily and the smaller plants will get shut out from the sun and either die off or have a less productive yield. Last year I made the mistake of planting peppers beside of zucchini, so the peppers were quickly hidden, and didn’t start their growing season until after the zucchini had finished its season.
It is important to pay attention to the plant label as far as how tall the plant is going to be. Shorter plants should be planted on the sunnier side or end of the bed so that they are not shaded out by taller plants.
Larger plants such as broccoli, cabbage, or Brussels sprouts need to be placed one per grid square.
Where as smaller plants such as head lettuce can fit four plants per grid square.
Plants such as onions or leaf lettuce can fit from 8 to 16 plants per square, it’s important to research what you’re planting to make sure you don’t overcrowd your plants.
I am a somewhat of a visual learner so I like to draw a plan with a grid so I can decide where I want to plant everything. It’s also a good idea to take advantage of online resources that allow you to plan your own virtual garden. Some of these websites also have the benefits of telling you how much of each item to plant in the grid space and give planting instructions.
My favorite online resource is a retail site that offers a free gardening planner.
I keep a yearly garden journal that includes a diagram of what I planted to include each plants complete name and variety, where I put each plant, and the dates I planted. I will look back at the varieties that I liked and locations that worked the best when I plan the garden next year.
I will admit the warmer weather this Spring convinced me to go ahead and plant some warm weather plants such as peppers, herbs, potatoes, and beans, and now we are experiencing another cold snap. Be prepared to cover your plants when frost warnings occur, and expect some plant loss for varieties that are not frost hardy. Try to cover your plants with pots, old jugs, or sheets. If you use plastic make sure the plastic is not touching the plant because it will kill or damage the plant. I used plastic, but I kept it raised off of the plants by putting empty pots underneath the plastic. The most important thing to know about gardening, is that no two years are ever the same and each season you will learn something new. Sometimes you learn what not to do….
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