TIMING

Consistently cool air temperature, after a true cold front.

BED PREP

Weeds

Ideally, the planting space should have been cleared of weeds well before planting time. Any emerging weeds should be removed and kept cleared.

Soil

The planting zone should be loosened up. For root crops, especially carrots, you want to ensure that the soil is loose further down so that the roots can penetrate and not fork or stunt.

Work your dry fertilizer into the soil as you’re loosening it. You can work in some compost or composted manure as well, but avoid making root crop (beets, carrots, radishes) or pea areas too rich. 

Water

Pre-watering the bed ensures that you can form planting holes and that water will penetrate to the seeds. Soil is often very dry and water-phobic after a hot summer.

PLANTING AND EARLY CARE

Garden Layout

Figure out how many plants of each kind you need.

Draw a map of your bed, indicating what plants will be grouped where. Use these spacing guidelines (also check your seed packet for instructions):

• Arugula and baby greens scatter
• Carrots 1-2 inches
• Beets 2-4 inches
• Peas 2-4 inches apart in a row
• Onions 3-4 inches
• Lettuce 6-8 inches – needs light to germinate, so planting depth is zero!
• Cabbage 8-12 inches
• Bok choy – 6 inches for baby types, 10-12 inches for full-size
• Kale and chard 12 inches
• Broccoli and collards 12-18 inches

In beds, there is no reason to plant in rows except for trellis plants (peas). Plant in grid blocks with uniform spacing between all plants.

Seeds

Never leave seeds in a hot location! (Car, garage, sunny window)

Soak beet family seeds (beets, chard, spinach) overnight before planting.

Inoculate legumes just before planting.

Use a “dibble” like a chopstick, or your hands to create a loose-walled planting hole about 3x as deep as the seed width. Don’t just poke a hole, which compacts the soil around the sides and bottom.

You may want to plant 2 or 3 seeds per planting space, especially for wider-spaced plant types. You can thin them later. Beets, chard, and cilantro are seed balls, so they automatically plant multiple per hole.

Transplants

Examine before you buy! Look for thicker stems, stocky (not leggy) growth, and healthy leaves (color & size). Avoid anything that looks like disease.

When planting, loosen any circling roots, don’t try to separate plants (root damage, some plants will bolt).

Water in

Gently water your new plantings so as not to wash away the soil or seeds. You want everything to settle in place.

ONGOING CARE

Keep the planting consistently moist until plants emerge. This may mean watering (gently) every day. Some plants like carrots and parsley may take two weeks to germinate. The shallower the planting, the faster it gets dry around the seeds.

Thinning: when more plants than you ultimately want are growing close together, pinch or clip off the less-vigorous ones. Do not pull them! Their roots can be entangled with the ones you want to keep.

Succession planting: cilantro, arugula, baby greens, radishes can be harvested and re-planted within the same season.

Fertilize leaf crops (including onions!) regularly. Nitrogen depletes quickly and is necessary for leaf production. It is better to feed lightly and often rather than heavily and seldom.

Remove weeds when they’re small, so you never have big ones. They compete for nutrients and can entangle with your plants’ roots.

HARVEST

Leafy greens: always leave the growing tip and harvest older leaves.

Check the shoulder size of carrots and beets. The tops can be deceiving. Long carrots may require loosening/digging.