💧WaterWater deeply upon planting until established; mature plants require no supplemental irrigation except during unprecedented droughts.
🗺️Zone3a - 9b
Easy✨ deer_resistant
📏 Height: 1.5-2 feet
Ideal pH6 – 7.5
herb_non_graminoidNE
Garden Strawberry
Fragaria × ananassa
Rosaceae
☀️SunFull Sun, Partial Sun
💧WaterProvide 2.5-4 cm (1-1.5 inches) of water per week; drip irrigation is preferred to keep foliage dry.
🗺️Zone3a-10b
Moderate✨ fragrant_flower
📏 Height: 15-30 cm (6-12 inches)
Ideal pH5.5 – 6.8
herb_non_graminoidLC
Common Sunflower, Annual Sunflower, Mirasol
Helianthus annuus
Asteraceae
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterWater regularly during germination and early stem growth (1 inch/week). Drought tolerant once established, though consistent moisture yields larger blooms.
🗺️Zone2a - 11b
Easy✨ deer_resistant
📏 Height: 5-12 feet
Ideal pH6 – 7.5
herb_non_graminoidLC
Sweet Basil, Common Basil, Genovese Basil, Great Basil
Ocimum basilicum
Lamiaceae
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterWater when the top 1-2 inches of soil are dry. Avoid overhead watering to prevent foliar diseases like downy mildew.
🗺️Zone10a - 11b (Perennial); Annual elsewhere
Easy✨ fragrant_flower
📏 Height: 12-24 inches (30-60 cm)
Ideal pH6 – 7.5
herb_graminoidLC
Sweet Corn, Sugar Corn, Table Corn
Zea mays
Poaceae
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterCritical watering during silking and tassel emergence (1.5 inches/week); drought stress at silking causes missing kernels.
🗺️Zone2a-11b
Moderate
📏 Height: 5-8 feet (150-240 cm)
Ideal pH5.8 – 7
climberLC
Sweet Pea, Garden Sweetpea
Lathyrus odoratus
Fabaceae
☀️SunFull Sun, Partial Sun
💧WaterMaintain consistent root-zone moisture; water deeply at the base early in the day to prevent powdery mildew spores from germinating on foliage.
🗺️Zone2a - 11b (Annual)
Moderate⚠️ Highly Toxic✨ fragrant_flower
📏 Height: 6-8 feet
Ideal pH6.5 – 7.5
climberLC
Sweet Potato, Camote, Kumara
Ipomoea batatas
Convolvulaceae
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterProvide moderate, consistent moisture early in the season. Taper off watering 2-3 weeks before harvest to prevent root splitting and decay.
🗺️Zone9a-11b
Easy✨ Deer Resistant
📏 Height: 0.5-1 feet (15-30 cm)
Ideal pH5.5 – 6.5
herb_non_graminoidLC
Sweet Woodruff, Master of the Woods, Waldmeister, Sweet-scented Bedstraw
Galium odoratum
Rubiaceae
☀️SunPartial Shade, Full Shade
💧WaterMaintain even moisture; foliage may scorch or enter premature summer dormancy if soil dries out completely.
🗺️Zone4a-8b
Easy⚠️ Mildly Toxic✨ fragrant_flower
📏 Height: 6-12 inches (15-30 cm)
Ideal pH5.5 – 7
herb_non_graminoidLC
Swiss Chard, Silverbeet, Rainbow Chard, Mangold
Beta vulgaris
Amaranthaceae
☀️SunFull Sun, Partial Sun
💧WaterConsistent moisture (1 inch per week); avoid soil drying out to keep stalks crisp and prevent premature bolting.
💧WaterDeep, infrequent watering during establishment; thrives on natural rainfall thereafter.
🗺️Zone3a-9b
Easy⚠️ Mildly Toxic✨ deer_resistant
📏 Height: 3-6 feet (90-180 cm)
Ideal pH5.5 – 7.5
Beans: Soil pH, Planting Depth and Spacing (Green, Bush, Fava)
The three bean records in this database, green bean, bush bean and fava (broad bean), all sit in the same narrow soil window: pH 6.0 to 7.0, well-drained, and neither waterlogged nor droughted through pod fill. That window is not a preference, it is a biological constraint. Rhizobium nodules (the reason a bean feeds itself) stop fixing atmospheric nitrogen below about pH 6.0, and fava shows aluminium and manganese toxicity on acid ground before the common beans do. Lime to 6.0-6.5 if a test comes back under 6.0, then re-test: the correction takes months, not weeks.
Depth. Sow bean seed at about three times its own thickness and no deeper: 1 to 1.5 inches for green and bush bean, 1 to 2 inches for the larger fava seed. Sowing shallow is the safer error. Common bean will not germinate in soil still below 60°F (16°C) (seed sits and rots instead of swelling) while fava is the opposite and goes in four to six weeks before the last frost, which is why it also works as an autumn sowing. Neither wants a presoak: hydrate the bed, not the seed.
Spacing. Bush types are determinate and stop growing on their own, so 3 to 4 inches within the row and 18 to 24 inches between rows gives a canopy that closes without crowding; thinned stands dry out and crack their pods. Fava is taller and stiffer, so it takes 4 to 6 inches in the row with 24 inches between rows, and it benefits from a stake on exposed ground. Pole types are a different question: they need the trellis before the seed goes in.
After sowing. About an inch of water a week, held evenly through flowering and pod set: a dry week at first bloom drops the flower set, and a waterlogged week at harvest splits the pods. Inoculate seed if the bed has not grown a legume in the last four years, keep fresh manure out of the hole (it delays nodulation) and feed phosphorus and potash from a soil test rather than by habit. Full sun for all three. For the pH side of that, start from the soil pH by crop reference table and work out the rate with the lime requirement calculator.
