The first year of Meadowwood Garden I was consumed by this desire to have “perfect” garden conditions for my vegetable plants. Every day after setting out the transplants I diligently watered them. The transplants began to grow so I watered some more to give them an extra boost. Rain or shine, in sickness or health for the first three weeks I literally watered the garden every day.

About 3 weeks after transplanting some of the plants began to wilt. Figuring they weren’t getting enough water, I stepped up the watering program once again! But that didn’t seem to help — the plants wilted even more, leaves turned yellow and the whole garden was a soggy mess.

Soon I came to my senses, did some research and found out that I was literally drowning my garden by severely overwatering. I cut back on the water, the plants all perked up and the first year of Meadowwood garden turned out to be a resounding success.

If you are new to vegetable gardening you might be surprised that overwatering a garden is probably easier to do than underwatering it, as the story above illustrates. Watering a garden isn’t an exact science — it is something that yo get a feel for over time as you do it.

Signs That Your Garden is Overwatered:

Wilting plants — especially if they have yellow leaves probably mean too much water. (On the other hand, a wilted plant with brown leaves usually means not enough water.)

Dropped leaves — another sign of too much water, especially if they were drooping and/or yellow before they fell off the plant.

Rotting roots — Rotting or stunted roots usually indicate too much water.

Mold or algae around the base of the plants is a good indication of too much water.

Tips to Avoid Overwatering:

A good rule of thumb is that a garden needs one inch of water per week.

Feel the top of the soil before you water — if it is damp you don’t need to water.

Use a quality rain gauge or other measuring device to assist in measuring how much water your garden is getting.

Watch the plants for signs of overwatering and cut back immediately if you see them.

Use a timer if you use an area sprinkler.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Signs You are Overwatering the Garden

Many MWG readers use raised beds in their vegetable gardens.  I do too – raised beds have so many advantages for the home vegetable gardener that is is hard to imagine gardening any other way.

As good as raised beds are, however, they do have some disadvantages.  I feel that the advantages of raised beds completely outweigh the disadvantages, but it is still a good idea to know the what the limitations are.  I have outlined a few for thought and discussion below:

Drainage – Raised beds drain very well vs. conventional beds and that is actually one of the best reasons to convert to a raised bed system.  During wet times and in the spring at planting time raised beds are the way to go!  But during the heat of summer when water is less plentiful raised beds often dry out much quicker than a conventional bed would, leading to stress, increased disease susceptibility and reduced yields.  If drying out is a problem for you then supplemental watering and mulching might be the best solutions.

Poor Air Circulation – Typically we grow things closer together in a raised bed system to maximize our planting space and yields.  Normally this isn’t a problem, but if the plants are too close together the reduced air circulation can cause diseases because the plants remain moist longer.  I had this exact problem in my lettuce patch this year – the plants were so close together the bottoms never dried out and they ended up rotting.

Cost – Raised beds aren’t necessarily cheap.  Unless you have several cubic yards of soil sitting around you will have to purchase enough to fill in the beds.  The beds will also need some sort of edge to help contain the soil, typically wood.  I tried beds without any edging last year and the experience was so poor I spent about $100 on wood this year to get the beds framed in.

Inflexibility – Plan your garden well — once you have your beds set up you are pretty much stuck with them the way they are.  Moving a raised bed can certainly be done, but it isn’t something to do on a whim.  I’d guess moving a 4 x 8 foot bed would take well over an hour, more if you have things like fences or gravel paths to deal with.

Yellow Squash Overgrowing the Raised Bed

Some Plants Sprawl – Raised beds and plants that sprawl like pumpkins, gourds, winter squash and others don’t mix well unless you have come up with a solid support system beforehand.  The vines tend to go wherever they want, and more often than not end up in the walkways.  That might not sound like a big issue, but typically we try to minimize the walkway space in a raised bed garden to have more room for the beds themselves.  This year I have a yellow squash plant (see photo at right) that has overgrown the bed into the walkway and basically has shut down that path to foot traffic (it is too big to move out of the path and if I cut it back the plant will die).

What other disadvantages have you encountered with your raised beds?  How have you overcome them?

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Raised Bed Disadvantages

The Bottom Line:

The Plant Hardiness Zone helps you determine which plants or trees will be able to survive the winter in your area.  Find your zone here:

The Rest of the Story:

Have you ever looked through a seed catalog and somewhere in the description is says something like, “Appropriate for Zones 4-8?”  And you start to wonder if it is some sort of secret gardener code or something?  Well, it is a code of sorts, and after reading this you will be in on the secret!

The plant hardiness zone helps you determine if a plant can survive outdoors over the winter.  The zones are based on the average low temperatures for an area.  The lower the zone number, the colder the average low temperatures are.

How does that help you?  If you know your plant hardiness zone you will be able to choose plants for your garden/yard that have a reasonable chance of survival.  For example, if you live in Zone 3 and plant a palm tree that is appropriate for Zone 8 and above there is a pretty darn good chance come spring you’ll have one dead palm tree to cut down!

The current plant hardiness zone was released by the USDA in January 1990 and is pictured at the top of this article.  To find your plant hardiness zone click on the Park Seed Zone Map square in the box in the upper right of this page.

You can fine additional information at the US National Arboretum USDA Plant Hardiness Zone page.

A very common misconception is that the plant hardiness zone tells you when you can set your plants into the garden.  Not the case.  Your frost date is what determines planting times, and we have covered that in a previous article Get to Know Your Frost Date.

One other thing to keep in mind is that these zones are not foolproof.  They are based on average temperatures, so it is quite possible that there will be days too cold for a particular plant during any given winter.  Use these zone numbers as a guide, but always remember they do NOT guarantee plant survival.

OK, so now you know that the plant hardiness zone tells us what can survive over winter in our area.  You are in on the secret!

The rest of this article is going to talk about some interesting things that are happening to the hardiness zone map.  A lot of what follows is drawn from unofficial sources and isn’t set in stone.

The old USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is almost 20 years old now.  The USDA has stated that they plan to release a new zone map every 15 years.  We are 4 years overdue!  What gives?

Have you heard all the talk about global warming and climate change?  Well, several years ago the USDA commissioned a new study but were not pleased with the results because the data showed an across-the-board temperature increase.  Apparently they commissioned a new study and are supposed to release a new map sometime in 2009.

Interestingly, the Arbor Day Foundation took the results from the study the USDA wasn’t happy with and produced their own Plant Hardiness Zone Map:

2006 Arbor Day Foundation Plant Hardiness Zone Map

A visual summary of the changes can be seen here:

Differences Between 1990 and 2006 Plant Hardiness Zone Maps

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Plant Hardiness Zones Explained!