Seed packets and books and articles frequently give instructions to vegetable gardeners that are tough to follow in the real world of backyard gardening.
What these authors fail to consider is space limitations.
Developers have been building homes on small lots for decades, and the recent penchant for large houses eats up even more space that otherwise could be used for gardening. Throw in a patio and a small patch of lawn, and there’s not much room left for beans and broccoli.
In some subdivisions vegetable gardens are prohibited by covenants, so if you put in a few tomato plants you have to hope your neighbors don’t rat you out to the homeowners’ association. Neighborhood covenants are a good idea, but a vegetable garden hardly equates to a 1974 Buick sitting on blocks in the driveway.
When I read an article that tells me to rotate my crops every year, I wonder in what part of rural Iowa the author lives.
For example, we are advised to plant tomatoes in a given location only once out of each three or four years. This is good policy to reduce the likelihood of disease, and I might be able to do it. But wait. I am also instructed to not plant in that particular space any vegetables from the same family as tomatoes. Like sweet peppers, chile peppers and eggplant, all of which I grow in my backyard garden. Those plants and the tomatoes take up about half the space I have available for my veggie plot.
By using my rudimentary math skills I compute that at best I am able to grow plants from the nightshade family — tomato, eggplant, pepper and potato — in that space every other year, and with other limitations even that is a reach. Now if I had an acre to work with — but then my garden would be a full-time job. Gardening should be a joy and a passion, not a burden.
Nearly every plant needs a lot of sun to thrive, and so the experts tell us to plant veggies of every variety in full sun. I do agree that is ideal, except I have a couple of fruit trees in my yard, and trees equal shade. And a cedar fence (covenants) that shades plants growing near it at a certain stage of the afternoon.
In my yard, and in most yards, it is simply not possible to plant every vegetable in full sun, so I must decide which can make do with partial sun, lettuce, onions and carrots for example. The tomatoes and okra get the best sun. Not fair maybe but hey, you do what you can.
We are advised to plant corn in rows 30 inches apart, carrots in rows a foot apart, and onions the same. Eggplants should be spaced 24 inches from each other. Say what? I have a garden, not a farm. I would love to eat sweet corn picked fresh out of my garden but am unable to grow it because of space limitations.
My carrot rows are 4 inches apart, not 12, and I cram a hundred onions in a 3-by-6-foot space. If my eggplants and peppers get a foot of space, they are ecstatic.
This is the real world of backyard gardening. There is not enough space or good sun for all plants, crop rotation is difficult or impossible, and in drought years water may be restricted.
Suburban backyard vegetable gardening is a challenge, and all of us who love doing it make compromises and concessions. Sometimes we can’t follow the rules. We adjust our expectations, inspect for bugs, keep an eye out for hail clouds and hope for the best.
Master gardener Gerald Miller lives in Pueblo.
