Sowing entire packets of seed for each crop you want to grow will leave you swimming in produce. To avoid drowning in a river of lettuce, tomatoes, and zucchini, use this chart to determine how many plants or how many feet of row of each crop to plant to feed your household. Quantities listed are for fresh eating; plant more if you plan to can or freeze your produce. If you’re planting in succession, quantities listed are the amount to plant at each planting. Be sure to adjust your estimates according to how enthusiastic family members are about a particular vegetable, and plan on growing a couple of different cultivars to make up the total for each crop. Have some fun and experiment a bit!
Here are a few of the best and most stable online resources for gardening information:
USDA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICES.
This government agency offers a wealth of local information
on home gardening through county-based offices staffed by
Extension agents and volunteer Master Gardeners. Use the
following link to locate the websites of Extension offices
throughout the United States: www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/
THE ORGANIC AGRICULTURAL CENTRE OF CANADA.
This government agency participates in field studies across the
country and offers programs and information for farmers and
vegetable gardeners alike on a wide range of topics.
www.organicagcentre.ca/Extension/horticulture.asp
GARDEN FORUMS. There are many forums on the Internet
where you can post questions or read postings by backyard
gardeners. These offer users a community of gardeners that
extends around the world. Here are three of the best:
The Garden Web. Read the postings on the forums along with the very useful FAQs (frequently asked questions). There are forums on several hundred different topics from composting, seed saving, and vegetable gardening to tomatoes, hot peppers, and market gardener. There also are forums for gardeners in many different specific regions from Florida to Canada. You need to join Garden Web to post your own questions. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums
Dave’s Garden. Another extensive website, Dave’s Garden has forums on many different topics, plus a bug-identification database. Both free and paid subscriptions are available and allow access to many of the forums. http://davesgarden.com
Gardening with the Helpful Gardener. This website features forums on vegetable gardening as well as many other gardening topics. Users who register have access to more services than those who don’t, but you can read posts and post questions even if you are not registered. www.helpfulgardener.com
The following books are some of the best sources of information for growing and managing a vegetable garden and dealing with insect pests and other problems.
Bartholomew, Mel. All-New Square Foot Gardening. Franklin, TN: Cool Springs Press, 2006.
Bartley, Jennifer R. Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook. Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2006.
Bradley, Fern Marshall. Rodale’s Vegetable Garden Problem Solver. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 2007.
Coleman, Eliot. Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Around. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 1999.
Cranshaw, Whitney. Garden Insects of North America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.
Cutler, Karan Davis. Burpee: The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, 2007.
Denckla, Tanya L. K. The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 1994.
Ellis, Barbara W., and Fern Marshall Bradley, eds. The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1992.
Greenwood, Pippa, Andrew Halstead, A. R. Chase, and Daniel Gilrein. American Horticultural Society Pests and Diseases. New York: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc., 2000.
McGee, Rose Marie Nichols, and Maggie Stuckey. McGee & Stuckey’s Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits and Edible Flowers. New York: Workman Publishing, 2002.
Nick, Jean M. A., and Fern Marshall Bradley, eds. Growing Fruits & Vegetables Organically. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1994.
Smith, Edward C. Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2006.
Smith, Edward C. The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2000.
