Housatonic Amateur Radio Club
Vegetable gardening is really a fun hobby. Veggies from your own garden will spoil you, as their taste is far superior to store purchased vegetables.
Their vitamin content is superior also.
Vegetable gardening is a learned hobby. Learn by reading, learn by doing, learn by last year's mistakes and learn by last
year's successes. Everyone's garden is different. Different amounts of sun, different soil, different trees, climate, plants, etc.
That's why learning from reading and learning by doing (experience) are the best. Nothing ever needs to be perfect. It is okay not to be perfect.
Make mistakes and learn from them. That's part of the fun of it! Before you know it, you will think you're okay at gardening and then someone
will accuse you of having a green thumb. What a compliment!
If you combine gardening with food preserving, you can have garden fresh tomatoes, peppers, beans and other veggies all winter long. How great is that?
Vegetable Garden
Seed Companies
Welcome to the seedier side of this web page.
Burpee Seed Co    
Gurney Seed Co
The Rusted Garden Seed Shop    
Gardeners Supply Co
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds    
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Jung Seeds    
Seed Savers Exchange
Victory Seeds    
Hart Seed Co.
Seeds N Such    
Bentley Seeds
Shumway Seeds   
Ed Hume Seeds
Park Seeds   
MI Gardener Seeds
Botanical Interests   
Territorial Seed Co.
Strictly Medicinal Seed Co   
A seed company specializing in Heirloom Seeds
St Clare Seed Co.
For my 2022 garden, I had planted the following vegetables. All these were grown from seed and transplated either outside to my garden or to a container on my deck.
The Broccoli was planted into milk cartons and placed on my deck in February.
Happy Gardening.
My 2022 Garden
Below are pictures of my 2023 Garden.
July 5, 2024: For my 2024 garden, I planted Better Boy tomatoes, Better Boy Plus tomatoes, Gardener's Delight cherry tomatoes, Baby Boomer cherry tomatoes & Burpee's Viranda Grape Hybrid tomatoes.
I also planted CA Wonder, Great Stuffed Hybrid, Emerald Giant and Banana peppers. I harvested 4 bell peppers and 20 Banana peppers today. Blanched and froze my first bag of banana pepper strips.
Top Row: Better Boy Tomatoes, Bush Beans and Pole beans.
Bottom Row: Japanese Eggplant, Zucchini & Turnips, Grape Tomato & Peppers
2024 Garden
I planted only 1 variety of Eggplant this year, Burpee's Midnight Moon Eggplant, also from seed.
For Squash, I planted Burpee's Sure Thing & Gurney's Pride zucchini in containers on my deck.
For beans, I planted KY Blue pole for the first time and Blue Lake Bush beans, which are my standard bush bean. My KY Blue beans were a disaster. Not one germinated in about 15 feet of seeds. I replanted a second time. Three came up. I switched to 2 year old Blue Lake seeds
I had left over. 8 came up in about 15 feet. I dug another fresh strip of soil and planted again. So far 1 has come up. I am thinking of testing the soil.
My Blue Lake bush beans came up better than last year and are about 3 feet from my pole beans. When they were 4 inches tall, I fed them with Miracle Gro for Tomatoes fertilizer and they quickly grew in height
and dark green in color. They look very healthy. Today, they are ready for me to pick my first bean harvest.
Gardening Advice
Rule of thumb: For our Zone 7A, plant your seeds indoors after St Patrick's Day, plant your seedlings outdoors in the garden Memorial Day.
Remember to plant your seedlings outside after the last expected frost date.
Don't forget to harden off your indoor grown seedlings before planting outside.
Potatoes Rule of thumb: All good Christians plant their potatoes on Good Friday.
Turnips Rule of thumb: Granny Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies says to plant your turnips outside on July 25.
Keep a journal for next year to help remember what went good and what didn't work out so well.
At HARC, we are in USDA hardiness zone 7A.
For the New Gardener
Never planted a vegetable garden before? Veggies from your own garden will spoil you, as their taste is far superior to store purchased vegetables.
For your first garden, start small. Choose a spot that gets at least 6 hours of full sun a day. Then make a 3 foot by 6 foot garden and plant a few of your favorite veggies in it.
Plant tomatoes if you like tomatoes. Plant banana peppers if you like peppers, as banana peppers are easiest to grow and you should get a lot. Bell peppers can be finicky.
Bush varieties of green beans are easy to grow and make a great first garden veggie.