Spring Planting in the City Garden

Warm days and cool nights are upon us which means its time to plant vegetables in my New York City garden. When I moved to Manhattan several years ago, my backyard was a morass of garbage and terrible soil. I started by removing the trash and lots of bad dirt and replacing it with new compost and top soil. My first year I got a few cherry tomatoes and that’s about it. It was a steady improvement until last year I had a lush green lawn, lots of tomatoes, peppers and hops.

I prepared my bed by turning over the soil and removing any rocks, roots or trash that blew in from my neighbors. Then I spread some compost from my compost bin and worked it into the soil. You can really tell when you have good soil because it is black, moist, rich and full of worms. Plus it smells like nature!

I purchased some plants at the Union Square Greenmarket last weekend. I’d love to grow my own but it’s not really cost effective to grow 15 tomato and pepper plants from seed. I’ve noticed that smaller tomatoes do better in my yard given the moderate sunlight level so I decided to stick to the following varieties: Moby Grape, Roma Plum, Early Girl and Lemon Boy. Similarly I bought the following pepper varieties: Jalapeno, Cayenne, Cherry Bomb. Another good thing to think about when buying plants is how much the grown vegetables costs. If you’re crunched for space or time, why not grow some unique or expensive varieties that are not available in stores rather than something like beefsteak tomatoes that are abundant, cheap and high quality come summertime. That being said, I also decided to plant some standard bush beans, sunflowers and snap peas. These are just SO good off the vine, I don’t care that they’re cheap at the farmers market. Fresh off the vine has a flavor you can’t beat! Plus sunflowers are a beautiful addition to any garden.

Most tomatoes should be planted about 24-36 inches apart but check the instructions for the specific variety. Peppers can be planted closer together. I have a fence, so I planted the tomatoes next to the fence and the peppers further away. First I laid them out for spacing and then planted them in their new homes.


I also made sure to keep a few pots of herbs nearby like this basil, oregano, cilantro. Nothing adds more flavor to food than adding some fresh picked herbs. With a few plants nearby, you can jazz up any meal easily and quickly, and even save some of that deliciousness for the next winter.

I’ll be planting more vegetables in the coming weeks, so stay tuned as my garden grows.