PLANT & WATER YOUR GARDEN
For an easy garden of the Big Five I'd suggest planting all at once. This is the easy part. Rake out the soil. Stake out the planting pattern. Get down on your knees and put in the seeds and starts. Seed packets have good instructions about planting.
For Tomatoes, allow at least 30 inches between plants then plant them up to their shoulders. Tomatoes are able to make roots all along their stems, so planting the starts deeply with just a few inches of tops showing will give them a better beginning.
Now, go inside, have a glass of wine, and congratulate yourself for getting a great garden started. Water it daily until you see the first sprouts. Unless you have rain. If you get rain, you're lucky as it's free.
Knowing when a garden needs water is like knowing when to take the cake out of the oven --- it's an art form because the timer is just a suggestion. You can push your finger into the soil to test for dampness. Or you can just look at the top soil and estimate. Your seedlings don't want to dry out neither do they want to be drowned. Too much water will cause them to make insufficient root growth, too little will cause them to wilt and encourage disease. So you have to factor in rainfall, the quality of your soil, and the size of your plants to determine how often and how much to water. Let your plants "talk to you". If you look at them frequently you can see a slight droop of the leaf or a bit of curling when they want water.
For Tomatoes, allow at least 30 inches between plants then plant them up to their shoulders. Tomatoes are able to make roots all along their stems, so planting the starts deeply with just a few inches of tops showing will give them a better beginning.
Now, go inside, have a glass of wine, and congratulate yourself for getting a great garden started. Water it daily until you see the first sprouts. Unless you have rain. If you get rain, you're lucky as it's free.
Knowing when a garden needs water is like knowing when to take the cake out of the oven --- it's an art form because the timer is just a suggestion. You can push your finger into the soil to test for dampness. Or you can just look at the top soil and estimate. Your seedlings don't want to dry out neither do they want to be drowned. Too much water will cause them to make insufficient root growth, too little will cause them to wilt and encourage disease. So you have to factor in rainfall, the quality of your soil, and the size of your plants to determine how often and how much to water. Let your plants "talk to you". If you look at them frequently you can see a slight droop of the leaf or a bit of curling when they want water.
Continue to: WEEDING & THINNING