Time to get growing

Vegetable gardeners start out with big dreams.

They picture juicy red tomatoes on strong, healthy vines. They imagine tall green stalks bearing crisp ears of corn. They envision long, tidy rows of lettuce well on their way to fabulous summer salads.

Then, they crash against reality - pitiful plants bearing little, despite weeks of work.

What they might not realize is that all great gardens have humble beginnings.

What determines their success is health: They get proper food and water, the sun finds them on a regular basis and the ground they live in is healthy and well nourished.

Getting from one point to another, though, poses a challenge for beginning gardeners who see green grass and imagine picture-perfect rows of plump peppers and firm purple eggplants.

The key for gardeners is making sure they don't bite off more than they can chew.

"Start small, build on your success," said Susan Grupp, horticulturist with the University of Illinois Extension office in DuPage County.

And - we might add - share your success.

For the past several years, the Daily Herald has participated in Plant A Row for the Hungry, a national program to provide fresh produce to local food pantries.

This year, we launch a program of our own - the Giving Garden.

We urge local gardeners to plant vegetables and then share what they harvest, delivering tomatoes, zucchini and whatever else they grow to drop-off sites throughout the suburbs.

To do that, of course, you have to get growing. And May is the perfect time to start.

This year, we thought it was time to go back to basics with a primer on preparing new gardens.

" I know this sounds basic, but the most important thing is a good spot with sun, " Grupp said.

And by "good sun," she means an area where plants will get about eight to 10 hours of direct sunlight every day.

Once the spot is selected, budding gardeners need to focus on the soil. In this area, the soil is prone to be heavy clay that sticks together and doesn't allow much oxygen or water to pass through.

For plants to get nourishment, they need air, food and water, explained Wally Schmidtke, garden center manager of Pesche's in Des Plaines.

The University of Illinois Extension Service offices can perform full soil tests, which take about four weeks for results. But homeowners also can do a quick home test. Start by rolling a ball of soil about the size of a large marble in the palms of your hands, Schmidtke said.

Roll the ball between your index finger and thumb into a ribbon that's at least three-quarters of an inch. If the ribbon crumbles, the soil's in reasonably good condition and likely only needs to have a little compost added in. But if the ribbon maintains its shape, it's pretty heavy clay and you'll need to mix in a fair quantity of good quality compost, he said.

Buy an organic material like an aged animal manure - definitely not fresh manure, which can damage plants - and add 2 to 4 inches to the top of the soil, explained Sharon Yiesla, horticulturist in the Lake County University of Illinois Extension office. Either use a roto-tiller or a shovel to mix the compost into the soil to provide better drainage and add badly needed nutrients.

"Do not work the soil if it is wet," Schmidtke cautions. "That just makes the situation worse and can actually ruin the soil. It can remove the air. People don't give soil enough credit for getting air down to the roots."

So now that the soil is ready for plants, make sure the timing is right to actually put them into the ground.

Traditionally, May 15 - today - is pitched as the date when it 's safe to plant in this region, with relative freedom from danger of frost. But that's really not true, Grupp explained.

The latest average frost-free date in the area is May 5, she said, though in truth it means only that on May 5 there is a 50-50 chance of frost.

Unless the plants are cold-lovers, like spinach or lettuce, gardeners should wait until much closer to Memorial Day.

When you do get your plants in their new beds, it is mealtime.

In today's harried world, gardeners have a tendency to come home from work, unroll the hose and spray down the gardens. Bad move.

"Do not water at night," Schmidtke said. "After 3 p.m. is too late."

The problem is that moisture hangs around on leaves and vegetables attracting diseases that linger overnight, getting a foothold on the plant. It 's actually one of the most common mistakes new gardeners make, he said.

Grupp says they recommend gardeners use soaker hoses whenever possible because they rest directly on the ground and drip water into the soil at a steady rate. If that's not possible, she recommends using a sprinkler at a time of the day when the air temperature is rising. She also suggests setting a tuna can or other container out beneath the sprinkler to gauge how much water has soaked into the soil.

Gardens need at least 1 inch of rain per week normally, and about 1 inch every five days during hot weather, she said.

The point for vegetable gardeners to keep in mind, Yiesla said, is that they're producing food, not flowers, and vegetables need to be filled with water. If they don't get sufficient fluids at some point in their development, they'll suffer - either in flavor or texture.

"You 're trying to produce a crop, and many of these things are juicy," Yiesla said. "You're not trying to drown them, but you need to be consistent."