You need to plan for time to tend your vegetable garden. Once you get six weeks past planting, expect to build upon the initial tasks of planting and watering and incorporate time for weeding, supporting plants and heavy produce, and insect scouting -- and soon you will be harvesting as well. Being in the garden and working in it can be a wonderful, restorative time spent in nature for the whole family.
You should plan on a minimum of once a week to tend your garden. How much time you need each week will vary greatly throughout the season and with what types of crops you are growing.
Title: Week by Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook
Author/Source: Ron and Jennifer Kujawski
Publisher: Storey Pub., 2010
Description: Once readers have set the wheels for a small garden in motion, the book's weekly worksheets, with timely advice on which plants can be planted or harvested as well as maintenance tips for specific crops, are likely to be the most useful.
There are some tricks to managing weeds to avoid a lot of hard, unnecessary work.
Title: How I have a "Weed Free" Garden By Simply Growing Lots of Plants
Author/Source: MIGardener
Description: This video shows the secrets that weeds use to become so invasive and how to apply that to the plants you grow. It is very simple, it will save you time, save your back, and allow you to have more fun in the garden.
Title: The Honest Truth about How to Have a 'Weed Free' Garden
Author/Source: MIGardener
Description: There is good news and bad news to having a weed free garden. The good news is you can have one and anyone can do it, the bad news is it doesn't just happen. It takes a little bit of work and persistence.
Title: Never Pull a Garden Weed Again! This One Thing Makes It Possible!
Author/Source: Living Traditions Homestead
Description: Description and use of woven weed fabric to prevent weeds in an organic garden. Includes potential mistakes in its use and how to avoid them.
Title: Pros and Cons of Landscape Fabric
Author/Source: Davey.com blog
Description: This is important reading. This specific blog clearly and quickly provides the pros and cons of using a woven weed fabric to prevent and control weeds in your garden.
Children love to harvest by looking for vegetables that are “ready.” Below are tips on when and how to harvest.
Title: Bringing Great Food from Your Garden to Your Table
Source/Author: Harvest to Table
Description: Harvest Tips tab brings up an alphabetical list of produce names. Pick each one for specific tips on how best to harvest and store that vegetable or fruit. Website also includes plant-specific tips for growing and preparing each type of food.
Title: Harvest Chart
Author/Source: New York Dept. of Agriculture
Description: When to pick your fruits and vegetables in New York State.
Title: Sustainable Table’s Seasonal Food Guide
Author/Source: GrowNYC
Description: This harvest calendar is provided by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and is available in Bengali, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Spanish.
Also available via the Sustainable Table Seasonal Food Guide app.
Title: Vegetable Plant Nutrients: Sources and Deficiencies
Author/Source: Steve Albert/Harvest to Table
Description: We want our vegetables to provide us with the most nutrients possible. Here are some ways to tell when your plants are suffering from a nutrient deficiency -- and solutions.
Fall crop in a raised bed.
Some vegetables grow fast. And there are vegetables that grow into the fall -- so don’t miss this opportunity to get in a second crop. You can also keep planting some vegetables all summer in intervals, so you never run out of salad greens, for example.
Title: Vegetable Crops and Their Succession-Planting Intervals
Author/Source: Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Description: This chart by a regional seed provider provides general guidelines for vegetable crops that are good for succession planting at intervals of 7 days, 10 days, 14 days, 21 days, and 30 days. Also included on Johnny’s site is a useful succession planting spreadsheet you can tailor to your local frost dates and vegetable preferences.
Title: Succession planting in the vegetable and herb garden
Author/Source: Margaret Roach, The New York Times
Description: Great advice from New York Times writer,Margaret Roach, on how to make a succession planting plan.
If you grew something wonderful this year -- save the seeds for next year. You’ll also save money next year by saving seeds.
Title: Seed Savers Exchange
Author/Source: Seed Savers Exchange
Description: This nonprofit operates the largest nongovernmental seed bank in the United States. They offer instructions on how to save your own seeds. The Exchange also sells heirloom vegetable seeds to nonmembers, and by joining you gain access to an additional 12,000 varieties.
Members of Victory Farms, located in Larchmont and Mamaroneck.
If your garden has been super-productive, you can donate food to others who really, really need it. You can even plant extra rows for others.
Title: Donate Food
Author/Source: Ample Harvest
Description: Enter your zip code to find a food pantry near you that could accept your extra produce. Ample Harvest also provides information about creating a local group dedicated to growing and sharing. Here is one example of a local group in Larchmont/Mamaroneck.