by Louisa C. Brinsmade
My sister Christine and I are both gardeners, and we're not too friendly about it. I prefer the urban life — my little green welcome mat of a yard needed only six cubic yards of soil — while my sister is a tried and true suburbanite — kids, dogs, husband, and a pasture-sized yard that called for forty cubic yards of soil. I don't begrudge her a thing on size — in fact, we haven't fought in over two weeks this Tuesday. But when it comes to plants, we're competitive as hell. No matter. Ours is a healthy competition, because any gardening is good gardening.
As Christine will tell you, flower gardening is practically a year-round sport in the States. Vegetable gardening, however, is more limited (and it's also my specialty), so we'll deal with that immediately to get you started. Generally, there are two planting seasons — one for warm-weather crops in the spring, and one for cold-weather crops in the summer.
If you want to catch the warm-weather crop season, it's time to get going — you should really plant before the end of May. There will be another planting in July for a September/October harvest, but you still have time to fill your salad bowl before then. Follow our step-by-step guide for more fresh veggies than you know what to do with!
Louisa C. Brinsmade is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas.
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