💧WaterEmploy the 'soak and dry' method: saturate root zone completely, then allow medium to become 100% dry before re-watering. Reduce watering by 70% in winter.
🗺️Zone9a-11b
📏Height1-2 feet (30-60 cm) (foliage); up to 3 feet (90 cm) in flower
Ideal pH6.5 – 8
Blood Amaranth, Purple Amaranth, Red Amaranth, Grain Amaranth
Amaranthus cruentus
Amaranthaceae
LCEasy
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterLow to medium. Once established, requires little supplemental irrigation except during severe hot dry spells.
🗺️Zone2a-11b
📏Height4-8 feet (120-240 cm)
Ideal pH6 – 7.5
Arugula, Garden Rocket, Roquette, Eruca
Eruca vesicaria
Brassicaceae
LCEasy
☀️SunFull Sun, Partial Sun, Partial Shade
💧WaterMaintain even moisture with 1 inch of water weekly. Inconsistent moisture induces premature bolting and leaf bitterness.
🗺️Zone3a - 11b
📏Height1-2 feet (30-60 cm)
Ideal pH6 – 7.2
Garden Asparagus, Edible Asparagus, Sparrow Grass
Asparagus officinalis
Asparagaceae
LCModerate⚠️ Mildly Toxic
☀️SunFull Sun, Partial Sun
💧WaterDeep watering during dry spells, especially during the fern-recharging summer phase; mature crowns tolerate drought.
🗺️Zone3a-9b
📏Height4-6 feet (120-180 cm)
Ideal pH6.5 – 7.8
Chinese Astilbe, False Spirea, False Goat's Beard
Astilbe chinensis
Saxifragaceae
LCEasy
☀️SunPartial Sun, Partial Shade, Full Shade
💧WaterHigh. Requires consistent moisture. Foliage scorches quickly if allowed to dry out in full sun.
💧WaterShallow root system requires consistent moisture; water deeply 1-2 times weekly during dry spells. Mulch heavily with pine bark or pine needles to retain moisture and maintain soil acidity.
🗺️Zone6a - 9b
📏Height3-6 feet
Ideal pH4.5 – 6
German Bearded Iris, Flag Iris, Common German Iris
Iris germanica
Iridaceae
NEEasy⚠️ Mildly Toxic
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterLow. Drought tolerant once established. Water primarily during active spring growth and late-summer root establishment.
🗺️Zone3a-9b
📏Height2-3 feet (60-90 cm)
Ideal pH6.5 – 7.5
Beet, Beetroot, Table Beet, Garden Beet
Beta vulgaris
Amaranthaceae
LCEasy
☀️SunFull Sun, Partial Sun
💧WaterUniform watering (1 to 1.5 inches weekly); fluctuating soil moisture causes woody, cracked, or irregularly zoned roots.
🗺️Zone2a-11b
📏Height1-1.5 feet (30-45 cm)
Ideal pH6.5 – 7.5
Bell Pepper, Sweet Pepper, Capsicum
Capsicum annuum
Solanaceae
LCEasy⚠️ Mildly Toxic
☀️SunFull Sun
💧WaterProvide consistent moisture, approximately 1-2 inches per week. Mulch to stabilize soil moisture and reduce blossom end rot.
🗺️Zone9-11 (grown as annual in zones 2-8)
📏Height30-90 cm (12-36 inches)
Ideal pH6 – 6.8
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.
