Starting a Spring Vegetable Garden

Spring is hitting us early here in Tennessee and that means it’s time to get in the garden! We are still hitting cold temperatures at night but the daytime temperatures are regularly hitting the 60’s. Now is the time to start thinking of that spring vegetable garden.

Preparing the Spring Garden For Planting

When I think of prepping the spring vegetable garden I’m considering several different aspects. What needs done with the garden beds, what am I going to plant, and how to arrange the garden beds.

Preparing the Soil

Proper preparation of the soil depends on what style of vegetable gardening you do. Tilling, no-till, and raised bed gardening are just a few of the many ways to grow a garden. All of them have positives and negatives and whichever one you enjoy doing is great. Personally I’m a huge fan of raised beds with some applied no-till concepts. Let’s go through some of the preparation details for each of these types of vegetable gardening.

Soil Prep For Tilling

Tilling the soil involves breaking up the top soil and working in organic matter into the soil. Often you have to till multiple passes to break up the soil enough. Depending on soil conditions you need to time it right so that the ground is not too clump forming after tilling.

When tilling you should try to work in compost material into the soil. The compost will mix in and help the soil structure as it breaks down with soil microbes. The big negative to tilling a vegetable garden is if you have a clay soil. It’s possible to create a hard layer just under the blades of your tiller that may make it difficult for roots to penetrate as the plants grow.

Compost and organic matter will offset that and minimize how much compaction in the subsoil occurs. How much compost should you add? That really depends on the quality of the soil. 1-2 inches spread over the area then tilled in is probably a good base line but if your soil is heavy clay you may way to amend more or top dress after tilling.

Clay soil can be full of nutrients so it isn’t bad except in that it is hard for the plant roots to access it. Compost makes it more readily available.

Soil Prep for No Till Gardening

No till gardening is a great alternative to tilling. You can have a great garden without using a tiller! With no till gardening you consitently top dress and amend the beds with organic matter. All kinds of organic matter can be used for top dressing:

• Compost
• Straw
• Grass clippings (without seed if at all possible)
• Wood Chips/mulch

As the organic matter breaks down the water from rain and regular watering pushes organic matter and microbes down deeper into the soil.

Each time you replant a garden bed add more compost/organic matter to the top so that the bed continues to improve without tilling and without creating the hardpan layer that generates after repeated tilling.

When initially planting a no till bed it may be helpful to cover the sod with thick newspapers or cardboard to prevent weeds from coming up and through the garden beds. As you gradually amend the top layers the soil becomes easier to weed and you continually cover up weed seeds which without light have a harder time germinating.

Soil Prep For Raised Bed Gardening

Raised beds are my ideal backyard gardener vegetable gardening method or IBGVGM for short! Nevermind, ignore that last part…but really raised beds are really easy to maintain compared to tilling and tend to be good at organization in the garden.

Assuming you already have raised beds I recommend topdressing them with compost like with the no till method. Prior to that hand weed it and remove any of the early spring weeds. You don’t need to till a raised bed, just add additional organic matter to the top.

I usually find that by the end of the season the soil depth has dropped a bit. Some of this is due to plants using soil nutrients but some is due to compaction. Adding a layer of rich soil or compost to the top will allow the nutrients to trickle into the lower parts of the raised bed.

Do you have Questions on Growing in Raised Beds? If you do follow the link to the post and see if I may have answered it!

I tend to topdress with a mulch of some kind after planting. Grass clippings work great for this. I take my bagger mower and gather up some fescue grass from the yard (which is chemical free) and put a layer over the soil. It breaks down, feeds the soil, and reduces water loss in the garden bed.

Other Techniques for Starting a Garden Bed

Double Digging

Double digging can be a good way to break up the soil in a raised bed if you absolutely need to (but by adding compost you usually don’t). Double digging involves digging a trench out of the garden bed and filling it with the soil you take from the next trench.

While double digging you can add some nutrients and compost to the trench you just dug. To me it seems like a lot of extra work you won’t need with the previous methods but is a viable way to work compost into a garden bed.

See how these cuttings did in the video below!

Straw Bale Gardening

Straw bale gardening has become popular too over the last several years. The idea is by planting in straw bales you take advantage of organic matter in the bale, have instant garden height, and good water retention. I have not done this method in my garden but I’ve seen those who have. It can be effective if you have a good source of straw bales that are seed free! That’s important, otherwise you just going to grow hay.

What to Plant in the Spring Garden

Beets

Pickled beets are delicious! One of my favorite treats. Beets are a good root crop in the garden which also has edible foliage. They contain a lot of iron which is reflected in their red coloration. Plant beets a couple weeks before the last frost date in a rich soil. They can be planted in succession to have a regular crop of beets throughout the season but will eventually bolt in warmer temperatures. Watch the spacing when planting and try to space them about 3-4 inches apart.

Broccoli

Broccoli isn’t well loved around our home but I wish it were! Broccoli can be started outdoors about 3 weeks before the last frost date. It is very susceptible to cabbage loopers which can be prevented through row covers.

Carrots

Carrots should be planted a couple weeks before the last frost date in your area. It’s important to have a loose organic soil to develop nice roots. Typically those odd shaped carrots you see in memes are the result of some soil obstruction that redirects the root. There are all kinds of varieties that you can grow from short roots to long roots to purple or yellow roots.

Chard

Chard is actually a type of beet grown more for its edible foliage than the root. Chard comes in a rainbow of colors and can be very ornamental! The same planting tips work for chard and beets.

Lettuce

Lettuce grows very well in the spring garden. Again like with carrots you can start lettuce outdoors in the garden a couple weeks before the last frost. You can also start lettuce indoors in plant cells then transplant before the last frost date. There are too many lettuce varieties to count but we enjoy the red Romaine lettuces. The color is beautiful and the shape of Romaine is great for cutting and using in salads. Butter crunch lettuce is also very tasty. We don’t grow iceburg types in our garden simply because of personal taste.

Kale

Kale has been very popular over the last several years. It’s highly nutritious and fairly frost tolerant. Plant it outdoors 4 weeks or so before the last frost date. Succession planting is helpful to maintain a good steady crop. I have found that kale is very susceptible to cabbage looper caterpillars. To thwart cabbage loopers use row covers so they cannot access the plants. Dinosaur Kale is a popular variety.

Pak Choi

Pak Choi is a tasty evergreen that can withstand some cold. Plant it 3 to 4 weeks before the last frost. You can plant it in the fall in Tennessee and it will withstand the cold just fine. Pak Choi is used in a lot of Asian cuisine.

Peas

Peas are easy to grow and can be started several weeks before the last frost date. They are also a legume which fix nitrogen into the soil as the spent vines decay. Snap peas are very popular with our kids!

Spinach

Spinach is very frost tolerant and can be started 3 to 6 weeks before the last frost in Tennessee. Spinach is not so popular with my wife.

Other Good Spring Vegetable Garden Plant Options you can Start

Arugula, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Mustard and Radishes.

As you can see from the above list there is a lot of options for plants in the spring vegetable garden. Many of these vegetables should be planted prior to the last frost date for best results.

See how these cuttings did in the video below!