Tips for How to Plant Vegetables

Planting Small Seeds

• Small vegetable seeds can be a challenge to plant. To make a furrow for small seeds, lay a hoe beside a guideline of twine and press the handle 1 to 2 inches deep. Sow the seeds by squeezing the open packet lengthwise and tapping lightly to slide the seeds out, three or four at a time, spacing groups at the recommended distance. To cover the seeds, pinch the furrow and pat it flat. Cover tiny seeds with a thin layer of sifted compost or vermiculite instead of soil, which can form a hard crust and inhibit sprouting.

Planting Large Seeds

• As a general rule, plant larger seeds about three times as deep as their diameter. Follow the recommendations on the package for the distance between the plants. If you don't have the package, make a planting board by using a 6-foot piece of one-by-four lumber. Place a mark every 6 inches with a permanent marker. Place the board next to your furrow and plant the larger seeds every other mark or every 12 inches -- smaller seeds can usually be planted every 6 inches.

Start Plants Indoors

• To get a jump on the growing season peat pellets, a type of expanding pot. Peat pellets are dark brown discs about 2 to 3 inches in diameter. You can often find peat pellets complete with seeds. When you place the pellets in a tray and pour water over them, they expand. Each one rises six to seven times its original height. Use a pencil to punch three drain holes in the bottom of each pellet after it expands. When your seedlings are ready to plant outdoors, plant the seedling, pellet and all.

Space-Saving Techniques

• Always plant tall-growing vegetables so they won’t shade shorter plants -- corn (Zea mays), pole beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), for example, should be planted on the north side of your garden where they won’t block the sun from shorter plants. The seed package will list the approximate height of a full-grown plant to help you plan your garden layout.

  You can also interplant spinach (Spinacia oleracea) between rows of tomatoes -- by the time the tomato plants are half grown, harvest the spinach. A row of snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) can be planted between two rows of parsnips (Pastinaca sativa) -- harvest your beans and pull the plants to allow the slow-growing parsnips to fill in the space.