Start Planning a Vegetable Garden

Light Requirements

Vegetables, like many flowers, need lots of sunlight to thrive and produce tasty vegetables. Most vegetables need full sunlight, which gardeners define as six or more hours of sunlight per day. This direct sunlight stimulates the plant’s cells to produce the food it needs through photosynthesis to build a strong root system and produce fruit.

Many people are confused about what type of light they have in the garden. Try this simple test. Pick a day when you’re home and can observe the garden. Take a look at the garden area you want to grow vegetables in first thing in the morning, and write down whether or not the sun is actually touching the ground. Look for full, bright sun, not dappled sunlight filtering through tree leaves. Now set a kitchen timer or alarm clock and return to your observation once an hour or once every two hours until dinnertime, marking down how much light the spot in the garden receives. Then, add up all the times you saw direct light. This will give you an idea of whether you’re working with full sun, partial sun or shade.

While you can grow some vegetables in partial sun, most will struggle. If the entire yard gets only partial sun or shade due to immovable objects like garages, homes, or trees in neighbors’ yards, look for a place that gets bright direct sunlight and grow vegetables in pots instead.

Garlic at Its best

Ancient Egyptians credited it with magical medicinal powers, and Roman legionnaires attributed their strength and stamina to the “stinking rose.” Garlic starts its days buried a few inches into the earth, waiting to be pulled, dried and prepared for those who crave its flavor.

Bill Christopher, who has more than 3,000 acres of garlic under cultivation at Christopher Ranch in Gilroy, Calif., shares tips on growing this flavorful bulb.

Garlic 101First, it’s important to learn the names for the parts of garlic. A bulb of garlic includes the entire clump and often has the roots on the underside. Inside the bulb are the cloves. “When you’re cooking a 60-clove chicken, you want to use 60 cloves, not 60 bulbs,” says Christopher.