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Vegetable & Herb Gardening in Different Growing Climates

Getting to know your local growing climate is one of the first steps to growing a thriving vegetable garden. But there’s a big difference between learning about your climate and feeling limited by your climate.

Your growing climate matters. It determines what veggie varieties you’re going to grow and when you plant and harvest them.You’ve probably heard that vegetables and herbs thrive in an “ideal” temperature range of 50-85 F (10-30 C). But how many places on Earth consistently stay in that ideal range? Not many!

You don’t have to live in ideal conditions to grow lots of food all year long.

There’s no denying great growing conditions help. But once you understand the language of plants and what they want, you can grow vegetables anywhere at any time of year. You just have to get a little creative!

“There are as many creative ways to grow your own vegetables as there are places on this earth” -Stacey Murphy

In this two minute video, Stacey shows you what’s possible if you want to grow food at an unusual time of the year OR in a less than ideal growing climate.

What grows best in your climate? Share your creative gardening tips with us!

Why Water Retention is Important for Our Vegetable Gardening

Water is the life support system of this earth. It’s what makes everything possible. Watch the video below and learn why it is important to us and future generations of vegetable gardeners.

The Earth’s surface is 75% water, similar to our bodies. Some of our organs, like our lungs, are up to 90% water. Without water, we can’t even breathe. Without water, we can’t live. 

Our plants are much the same: water is vital. It’s important that we make sure that there is water around for years and years to come. Water retention is about holding water in our landscape systems so that future generations can benefit from those systems and be able to grow food.

The oceans are 97% of the earth’s water. The remaining 3% is fresh water. That means that there’s a very small fraction of water that’s available for us to use to water our vegetable gardens. Of that 3% fresh water, much of it is in a frozen state, in glaciers and ice caps, and some of it is in the groundwater. 

There is this little teeny bit, this 1%, that’s accessible surface fresh water. A small part of that is what is available as a means to naturally irrigate our crops. Since a very small percentage of water is actually available to us, we want to conserve as much as possible and be very aware of our water usage.

Now, let’s link water retention and its importance to global warming and climate change. With global warming, we’ve been seeing high temperatures all across the globe in the last couple of years. What’s happening is that the earth is sweating as a response. Basically, when water is in its ice state or in its liquid state, it starts to melt and then it starts to evaporate into the air. That’s what the earth is doing, It’s trying to cool itself off. That’s what we do when we try to cool ourselves off; we sweat. As a response to all of the sweating, more and more water is in the vapor state. 

And what does that lead to? It leads to larger storm events like hurricanes. There’s much more vapor in the air creating cloud formations; different currents of vapor create different storm conditions, like tornadoes, etc.

What does this mean for us as vegetable growers? In the future, there will be some changes when we’re gardening. It might not happen all at once, but it’s important for us to understand. Many crops are going to benefit from increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations because that’s how they photosynthesize, They will benefit from low levels of warming in areas where it’s cooler. But where temperatures are already high, more warming is going to negatively impact growth and yields. We know that plants stop growing and stop yielding when they start to get above 86 °F (30 °C) hat’s one way in which our gardening is going to shift, these extreme weather events will likely reduce crop yields.

Another negative impact is that weeds, diseases, insects and pests love warmth. These are all increasing with warmer weather.  The biggest thing you might notice, and maybe you’ve already noticed where you are located, is that your growing zone may change and your soil may change as a result of changing weather.

These are things to have our eye on. They aren’t going to change overnight, but being able to conserve water and retain as much moisture as we can in our soil will reduce the amount of climate change that is happening. This is our contribution.

Have you noticed shifting weather in your area?
Share how it has impacted your gardening!

How to Measure How Much Sunlight Your Garden Space Gets

Watch the video below and learn how to observe key temperatures in your area and map the sunlight and shadows in your garden space for success!

All plants have ideal growing temperatures. Outside those optimum temperature ranges, plants become less productive, and growth grinds to a halt. Too far outside the zone, plants die. It’s crucial to know what temperatures your plants need and when those temperatures happen in your area! 

 

Your vegetable plants need 6-8 hours of sunlight minimum to thrive. Measuring hours of sunlight and mapping your shadows BEFORE you dig or build your garden beds will ensure your plants’ success.

Download our complimentary shadow mapping template

Once you understand your climate, you can let Mother Nature do the work. She’ll even let you take the credit! 

Share what shadow mapping has taught you about your garden space!

One Crop Rotation Rule to Prevent Diseases in Your Garden

Plan your plants to prevent disease in your garden!

When you’re thinking about what to plant where this year, you should be thinking bigger picture…what crop rotations each year will help you prevent the kinds of diseases that wipe out all your hard work and your harvest.

To help you create a plant plan that works for you, Stacey created this video about how to use crop rotation to prevent 3 of the most common “big nasty diseases” you might see pop up in your garden:

If you would like more in-depth instruction on planning your garden for success, check out our Crop Planning course. It’s a sure fire way to feel more in control of your garden every time you plant.

What crops do you like to rotate? Let us know below!

Productivity Tips on How to Lay Out a Garden

Jason Matyas
Seeds for Generations

Jason is a 2022 Superfood Garden Summit presenter.

“Starting Seeds & Caring for Seedlings”

Jason Matyas is a husband, father of seven, homesteader, lifelong gardener, 20-year Air Force veteran with 9 worldwide deployments including two tours in Afghanistan, and visionary entrepreneur and public speaker. He is the founder of a family business with his children called Seeds for Generations that provides heirloom garden seeds and inspiration for gardening as a family. Jason is also the Executive Producer of the documentary film Beyond Off Grid, and founder of the Return to the Old Paths project devoted to inspiring and equipping you to reduce your dependence on the modern economy and seek true freedom by Returning to the Old Paths of productive households and local community interdependence.

In previous posts (see entire blog series here), we’ve already discussed the most important planning considerations for your garden, but there are a few other considerations that you may find helpful as you’re finalizing your plot. Keep these things in mind while considering how to lay out a garden.

Considering Garden Size

In an earlier post (see entire blog series here), we touched on garden size (i.e., available space), but it’s worth repeating here. The size of your garden is determined by which growing method you use. There are many different methods, but the most basic methods are row gardening, square foot gardening (popularized by Mel Bartholomew), and container gardening. You can also use vertical growing methods, which are great for small spaces.

Regardless, you’ll want to maximize your planting area by placing paths only where absolutely necessary. Generally, you don’t want more than four or five feet between your paths, because most people can only reach two and a half feet, so keep this in mind.

Laying Out Your Garden

Once again, your layout entirely depends several factors, including sunlight. Like we mentioned previously (see entire blog series here), you’ll want to orient your plot towards the south to get the maximum sunshine potential, which will help plants grow better. If you’re growing plants that may struggle in a lot of direct sun and heat or bolt (i.e., go to seed) in hot conditions, consider planting those varieties where they’ll be protected from afternoon sun.

Positioning Crops in Your Garden

How you position crops together may impact their productivity, so consider using companion planting techniques to create synergy and play off of natural relationships between different plants. Plants like basil and tomatoes grow well together, for example.

In addition, sometimes you can plant two different crops in one space during the same growing season, such as lettuce with cabbage. If you do this, you will have harvested the lettuce before the cabbage grows completely into its space. If you don’t know how many days the plant takes to grow to maturity, check the seed packet–that information should be listed there.

Also, while planting, ensure that you have adequate access for harvesting later. If you don’t harvest winter squash or corn until late in the year, for example, you usually  don’t need to make it very accessible during the spring and summer. But tomatoes and cucumbers that will need picked every other day? You’ll need to access them easily, without crushing other plants.

Productivity Tips on How to Lay Out a Garden – Conclusion

Garden size, garden layout, and garden plant positioning. That’s all you really need to know when it comes to learning how to lay out a garden. Now get planting!