Garden Lover answers:

Start off your stuff indoors. You can get little trays to plant your seeds in. If you want them to grow faster, get yourself a propagation mat. It keeps everything 10 degrees warmer than room temperature. This can make them grow up to 3 times faster than normal. Also, a UV light would help if you dont have a lot of sunlight. Then, when things seem to be growing in too big for the tray, put them outside.

Garden Lover answers:

Six varieties of melon? WOW…that takes LOTS of space. Melons should be grown 4-6 feet apart for maximum yields. You can plant pumpkins among your corn plants, but corn also takes up a lot of space. This isn’t that large a garden–do you think you’ll have enough room? You have three gardens’ worth of melons alone! I’d keep it to two varieties of melon, no pumpkins, and no corn, myself. But you should do what you want!

Beans and eggplant together.
Peppers (capsicum), tomatoes together. Plant oregano or parsley and basil among the plants if you like them. Onions can be nearby.

Corn and tomatoes should not be planted near each other, nor should beans and onions or beans and carrots. Beans don’t do well near ANY root crops such as turnips, potatoes or beets.

Put all your root crops together–except the potatoes. Potatoes are another crop that takes up a lot of space UNDER the ground–so plant those where you won’t walk, or compress, the earth too much–like the edge of the garden. Keep them away from tomatoes, zucchini, or any squash/melons. Put your onions, carrots, parsnips, beets in one place, all your “leafy” veg in another place: your lettuce, cabbages and silverbeet.

Leaf crops like lettuce should be at the other edges of the garden so you can replant after initial harvest or at the end of the season for cool-weather growing.

Honestly I don’t know how you’re going to pull off this many different vegetables in such a small space–even if you only plant one of each. You’ve just got so many things that spread out a good ways–all the melons and pumpkins have vines which can reach 25 feet long! And corn requires at least 2 feet apart and 3 feet between rows. At least that’s how they grow here in the US.

Good luck anyway!

Garden Lover answers:

I have looked for the same kind of software online, but to no avail.

I have found there are several garden design tools available online, but they are either hard to use or you have to pay for them. If you are still interested try www.download.com.

I suggest you do what I did, and use the traditional methods of pen, paper, a ruler and a calculator!

Good luck with your vegetable garden.

Garden Lover answers:

I made a small raised garden last year. I used potting soil and got loads of tomatoes and peppers. Go to vegetablegardeninghelp.com for schedules

Garden Lover answers:

I want to make it clear that I’m not an expert, but I have developed a passion for gardening. I know live on the East coast and it’s such a joy when spring comes that I can’t wait to plant. But about California, my husband and I used to live in Calabasa (similiar climate to SFV) and I do remember how hot it can be. I would go to Green Thumb (assuming it’s still there) and talk to an expert. If they are selling seedlings then it should be time to plant. If you’re going with seeds, you need to make sure the soil is warm. Early spring are a great time for lettuce (easy to grow) broccilli. They don’t respond well to heat. Here in NE we grown them both in Spring and Fall.

Green beans are amazing in the garden and there are mulitiple varieties. I would suggest bush beans, because they don’e spread too much. When I buy tomato seedlings I look for different maturation time. Patio tomatoes (small) usually, mature first. We has lots of tomatoes when we live in Calabasas.

I don’t know how much to plant of each seedling. We had about 8 bush bean plants and had beans well into September. I grow 3-4 tomato plants and in the fall I cut them up (remove the seeds if you like) and freeze them for future use in sauces. Herbs are very gratifying also. Basil is sensitive but well worth the effort.

There is a great garden book called “Square Foot Gardening”. It’s full of fantastic information. Highly recommend it.

My last suggestion….Compost, compost compost. It’s easy and fun and there are many websites that will tell you how to compost. Mine seems slower here (NE), but I think it’s because we don’t get the intensity of heat here and that helps to break down your compost.

Good Luck and enjoy!