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Less is more How to start a vegetable garden T ruth be told we make vegetable gardening much too complicated. There are a zillion books, articles and TV shows on the subject but it���s still mostly a business in which all you do is dig a hole, stick in a plant and add water ��� being generally certain you begin with the plant���s roots facing down. Sure, there���s all that stu about amended soil, mulch, sun, tuce and cut o as needed. There���s incredible joy in watching shade, bugs, disease, staking, companion planting, adding the something you planted as seed come up as something to eat. right nutrients and semi-worthless weed whackers ��� but that���s It���s almost magic. Rule 6: Around here wait until mid-to-late April to plant the about it. Plants were around long before we were and they���ll warm season crops such as corn, beans, peppers, cucumbers, still be here long after the last iceberg melts into the sea. So let���s take this vegetable garden thing one step at a time ��� pumpkins, squash and tomatoes ��� and many people won���t especially for those of you who want to start your ��rst one and want to plant tomatoes until after the Derby, when they can then be mulched with losing pari-mutuel tickets. have been a little afraid to try. Plants such as tomatoes and peppers can be purRule 1: Start small, and then go even smaller. Expect success chased as tiny babies and stuck in holes twice as You want success. You want something to show deep and wide as its root ball, roots down. Toma... and failure. o to family and friends. Pick a well-drained spot toes should be staked. Pumpkins and squash will that gets six to eight hours of sun, is close to water need room to spread. Cucumbers can be grown up and is maybe even located in a spot where you can on trellises. Beans are best eaten right o the plant. -Bob Hill still gaze fondly out the window at its beauty and Add some annuals ��owers like marigolds or zinproductivity come the dog days of August. nias to add garden color. Rule 2: How are you ��xed for gardening tools? You can���t Rule 7: Mulch your crops. It���s a rule few people follow with plant potatoes with a tablespoon. At a minimum you���ll need a good spade or turning fork, hand diggers, a good pair of any regularity but it makes such a di erence in time, labor and pruners and maybe an old-fashioned hoe. The designer garden good crops. Buy some mulch in bags or bulk and place it a few jeans, $50 garden gloves and imported, half-acre sombrero can inches deep between plants. You���ll water less and eat more come later ��� although you will always need skin protection and ��� and the garden will look better. Have I mentioned yet you should begin small. sunscreen. Rule 8: Bugs, disease, drought, famine, pestilence and deRule 3: You need good dirt. If you live in a fairly new subdistruction. Nobody ever said gardening was going to be easy. vision chances are your soil has the consistency of reconstituted asphalt. Get some compost or peat moss and work it deeply There are all sorts of critters and pathogens out there wanting into the soil. Rent a tiller. Get your teenage son up o his iPad. to cause harm, BUT a healthy, well-watered and loved plant in Plan on repeating all that next year as your garden and ambi- good soil will have a strong resistance to all of them. Meanwhile study up on the enemy, hand-pick marauding tion grow. No decent dirt ��� no decent veggies; another reason bugs o your plants, learn to recognize the good ones and exto start small. Rule 4: Plant what you like to eat. Do you like salads; to- pect to lose some plants, or at least have them weakened. Rule 9: Expect success...and failure. This is all about starting matoes, lettuce and cucumbers? Do you want fresh beans? Do something you���ve always wanted to do, and enjoying the fruits you want potatoes or sweet corn ��� which will require more space and some special care? Being able to bring your home of your labor. Life is all about learning. Rule 10: A LOT more information is available by just going to grown vegetables directly into your heavily mortgaged house Google and hitting for lunch or dinner will make gardening even more fun. Rule 5: OK, you know what you want to plant but when do Purdue University Bob Hill owns you plant it? If you want lettuce, spinach, radishes and carrots Vegetable Garden. Hidden Hill ��� and each of those o ers a greater probability of success ��� It���s a great hortiNursery and can their seeds can go in the ground about the ��rst of April. You culture school. It���s be reached at can also plant onion ���sets���, and baby onions you can buy in your tax dollars. farmerbob@ Now get out there bunches. hiddenhillnursery. Plant them in evenly spaced rows following directions on the and plant! ��� package, or, what the heck, just create a Big Ol��� Patch of let- com. silivingmag.com ��� 9