Full sun equals 6 to 8 hours of sun per day.  Close enough that you will want to go it. Water/hose will reach it. Start small, 10’ by 10’ will provide vegetables while still being manageable to weed, water, plant and harvest.

Vegetables that you like and will eat and that are suited to the location. The recommended plants are suggestions only. Visit our fact sheet Seed Companies for more ideas.
 

A soil test from the UConn Soil and Nutrient Analysis Laboratory is recommended. Add amendments as recommended. Compost or aged manure worked well into soil. Plotting area, single rows, wide rows or blocks. They all work. Tall crops on the north. Track shadows so all plants get sun.

Plants that reach harvest in under 120 days are considered short season crops and those that take longer are long season crops. Subtract the days to harvest (on seed packets) from the first fall frost date to find the last planting date.

• Last spring frost date in CT is May 15th.                                                              
• First fall frost date in CT is Sept. 15th.

Seed packet will say “Plant as early as soil can be worked”. A good test to tell if the soil is workable is to make a ball of soil in your hand and poke it with a finger, if it falls apart like chocolate cake crumbles, it is ready. If the soil is too wet, the ball stays together leaving only an indent from finger. Working the soil when it is too wet will ruin the structure of the soil and cause compaction.   

Seed or transplant info will say “Plant after all danger of frost has past”. This varies from year to year. May 15th is only an average. Watch daily weather reports for frost warnings and dropping overnight temperatures. Warm season crops will be killed by freezing temperatures and frost. Planting warm season crop transplants in cold soil will stunt the roots. Warm season seeds placed in cold soil will not germinate until a higher soil temp is reached.     

Vegetables need one to two inches of water per week by rain or hose. Feel the soil down where the roots are located. If it is dry, water it. Soaker or trickle hoses are best. They provide a slow, deep watering. Shallow watering keeps the roots up near the surface where it is hotter and dries out quicker. Deep roots make better plants. Keep foliage dry; apply water in the morning, never in the evening. Wet foliage invites fungal disease.

Fertilize when transplanting or when seeds grow into plants with two sets of leaves. Use manure or packaged vegetable fertilizers with balance nutrients such as 10-10-10. Side dress when plants begin to flower and set fruit by again applying fertilizer lightly a few inches away from plants. Follow label directions. Do not over-fertilize as this can harm plants and add to polluted waterways.

Get weeds out. They compete with and steal nutrients and water away from vegetable plants. Hand pull weeds while still small. Cultivate weekly or more often, by hoeing or scratching the surface to one inch deep of garden soil discouraging weed growth around vegetable plants. Apply mulch around plants, but not touching plants, to block light to weed seeds in soil. This stops their germination. Straw, grass clippings, chopped leaves and pine needles are all good mulches.

If you find an insect in the garden, identify it. It may be a good guy providing pollination or predation on the bad guys. Look it up in a book or contact the UConn Home and Garden Education Center for correct ID. You can call or email us Ladybug@uconn.edu.

Pick produce when ripe. Not picking tells the plant its job in life is done. It has produced a fruit containing a seed and then it will die. Leaf crops will send up a seed stalk. Continuing to remove fruits and leaves will keep the plant trying to make more seed, therefore providing more produce. 

Resistant varieties are marked with the following codes:
AL-Alternaria (Early blight)   DM-Downy Mildew     F-Fusarium Wilt    M-Mosaic Virus     N-Nematodes     PM-Powdery Mildew     V-Verticillium Wilt