Make sure to follow these steps to grow the best vegetables in your home garden

I’ve been around this block 50 times.

That’s 50 springtimes of helping Metroplex gardeners grow vegetables – or attempt to do so. I’ve seen a lot of bad pitches. A lot of bad swings and a lot of sad misses. I saw one guy who used his lawnmower as his weed control program.

I decided to approach today’s notes from a different direction.

Here are 12 steps to success in growing vegetables in your home garden in Texas. I’ll keep them short, but they’re all equally critical. Read ‘em and reap.

• Plant in full sun. All vegetables grow best in full Texas sun. Flowering and fruiting vegetables must have it. Leafy and root crops should have it, although they will tolerate 3 or 4 hours of afternoon shade.
• Plant in raised beds. North Texas occasionally has extended periods of rainy weather. That can push your plantings behind schedule. It can also literally drown plants’ roots in waterlogged soil. You can always add water. It’s much more difficult to remove it. Raised beds solve those issues for you.
• Prepare the soil carefully. Our native black clay gumbo soil actually is a good starting point. It holds moisture and nutrients well, as long as they can penetrate it initially. Incorporate 4 or 5 inches of organic matter into the top foot of soil by means of a rear-tine rototiller as you prepare the garden the first time. I prefer to use 2 inches of sphagnum peat moss and 1 inch each of well-rotted compost, finely ground pine bark mulch and processed manure. If I’m working up a clay soil I will also add 1 inch of expanded shale. Each time that I rework that soil between crops thereafter, I add 2 inches of fresh organic matter.
• Make a list of the types of vegetables your family likes best. Garden space is precious. There’s no point in using it for crops no one will eat or for plants that take up too much room for limited production. (Corn and watermelons are great examples – take too much space for small urban gardens.)
• Choose the best varieties of each crop that you grow. You’ll want leaf lettuce, for example. Head lettuce can’t handle our heat. Neither can large-fruiting tomatoes, so types like Big Boy and Beefsteak aren’t worth planting. Hybrid varieties have been bred for better yields of higher quality, also for resistance to many diseases. Old “heirloom” vegetables are novelties that often disappoint due to poor production.
• Know your average frost-free date. It will determine your optimal planting dates for most of your crops. For most of the Metroplex it will be mid-March. In surrounding counties to the north and west it will be March 20-22. Google it for your county and remember the date.
• Plant each crop at the appropriate time. This is absolutely critical, and it’s one of the most common places people fail. If you’re two weeks too early cold weather may ruin your crop. If you’re four weeks too late hot weather may cause the produce to be bitter or hot. Do your homework ahead of time for each crop that you’re growing.
• Plant seeds or transplants at the recommended spacing. Crowding is a sure way to fail. It happens when we try to grow too many types of crops in too small a space, and it also happens when we sow too many seeds and fail to thin them to the correct spacings within their rows after they germinate.

This might also be a good time to mention seeds vs. transplants. Some plants (broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, etc.) are too slow to develop and too difficult to get started from seeds sown directly into the garden. They should always be started from potted transplants. Other plants (beans, squash, cucumbers, melons, corn, okra, etc.) get a rapid start from seeds. Buying transplants makes no sense and can actually set the plants back.

• Fertilize and water regularly. It’s imperative that you keep your vegetables growing at peak speed. When the plants get too dry, or when they’re stunted due to lack of critical nutrients, the produce will be off flavor. The same thing happens when crops are planted too late and hot weather hits them. Radishes and onions get hot and lettuce becomes bitter. Keep the plants moving along.
• Stop weeds. You can’t use pre-emergent weedkillers in a garden because many of your crops are being planted from seed. You can’t use post-emergent sprays because some of your crops (notably tomatoes) are fatally susceptible to their damage. Your main recourses will be to cultivate weed seedlings as they germinate and to use mulches to prevent their development. Roll-type mulches work very well, or you can use shredded tree leaves or finely ground pine bark mulch.
• Watch for pests. Most of our most popular vegetable crops have at least one common insect or disease invader. Do your homework ahead of time. Know what to anticipate and learn what symptoms it brings. Step to correct it at the first signs. Usually these problems can be stopped if they’re caught just as they’re starting.
• Harvest at the appropriate time. Most vegetables reach their prime quality and nutritional value when they’re about two-thirds their mature size. Harvest at the right times, even if you can’t use all that your plants are producing. Give the extras to friends or find a local shelter that can use them. Leaving them on the plants will stop further production.

You can hear Neil Sperry on KLIF 570AM on Saturday afternoons 1-3 pm and on WBAP 820AM Sunday mornings 8-10 am. Join him at www.neilsperry.com and follow him on Facebook.