Vegetable Garden Plans

Creating early spring vegetable garden plans is something almost every gardener does. Planning the garden on paper before planting it can help gardeners envision what their garden will look like, how much they can grow and make sure the right plants are in the right spots for companion planting.

Once the vegetable garden plans are down on paper and the gardener is satisfied, it is time to head outside to the garden to build the appropriate sized frost fighting structures and warm the soil.

Structures to Outsmart Frost

Frost and cold weather is a given factor of spring and fall gardening. Since gardeners cannot control the weather, the easiest way to proceed with the vegetable garden plans is to outsmart Mother Nature by using cold frames, tunnel houses and row covers.

Cold frames are nothing more than a box that has a see through cover on top. A cold frame can be made out of four bales of straw and an old window or a more elaborate one can be made out of a wooden frame covered with 6 mil. plastic.

Tunnel houses, or hoop houses, are nothing more than large walk-in cold frames. Their name comes from the fact that the structure itself looks like a half circle. Tunnel houses are usually covered in 6 mil. plastic.

Gardeners use row covers or frost covers inside cold frames or tunnel houses to add an extra layer of frost protection. This spun-bonded material allows light to get to the plants while increasing the temperature around the plants a few extra degrees.

Warming the Ground

Once the structures are in place that will protect the plants during the spring or fall, the next step is to warm the soil. This is an important part of the vegetable garden plans.

Seeds and plants put into cold soil simply do not thrive. Every vegetable has a preferred soil temperature. For example, tomatoes prefer soil that is around 70 degrees F.

One way to warm the soil is to use plastic. Black plastic is the color used the most; however, there are colored plastic mulches that will do the job just as well. Some gardeners prefer to use red plastic, also called mulch film, under tomato plants because research shows that the red color increases the tomato production.

Gardeners looking for a more environmentally friendly way to warm the soil may choose compost. A 3-inch layer of compost put on top of the existing soil will help insulate and warm the soil underneath.