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Coronavirus Quarantine Curriculum: Plant A Vegetable Garden

A little bored at home right now? Why not start a garden, it’s the perfect time to plant a vegetable garden. While gardening, you are outside avoiding other people and you are doing something that will make you feel productive. Gardening is also a great activity to get the kids involved. You will be amazed how different the vegetables you grew will taste compared to the ones you buy in your grocery store.

What You Need

When choosing the right spot for your vegetable garden, keep in mind that most vegetables need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day. Start out with a patch 16X10 feet or smaller, especially if you are a beginner. They say your garden should be 11 rows wide, with each row 10 feet long. If this is too big for you, just make the rows shorter. Pick a spot with good soil. You can always enrich your soil with compost to provide needed nutrients for your vegetables.  Do not plant your garden in a place that is prone to flooding. Use a tiller (which can be rented at most home stores and occasionally borrowed from a friend) to break up the soil. This is a lot faster than using a garden hoe. 

If you are worried about bugs and don’t want to use a lot of pesticides in your vegetable garden, consider building boxes to make a raised garden. That way a lot of bugs won’t be able to get to your vegetables. There are plenty of resources online that can help you build the boxes yourself, or you could simply order some already assembled.

Also, keep in mind, our area has been really dry so for now, you will need to water your garden. Do your research, some plants need more water than others.

Vegetable Garden

Spring Vegetable Garden Plants

Right now is the perfect time to plant hot-weather vegetables. Those vegetable include: cantaloupe, eggplant, spinach, pumpkin, some peas, hot peppers, lima beans, mirliton, okra, sweet potato, watermelon and yard-long beans. If you like tomatoes, you have from March to mid-April to get started in southern Louisiana.

For more information visit: https://www.lsuagcenter.com/topics/lawn_garden/home_gardening/vegetables

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