Plan Before Planting a Vegetable Garden

In times when most families are looking hard at the amount of spending on grocery bills, planting a vegetable garden becomes a viable option that achieves two things; it helps reducing the cost of the family vegetable bills from the local supermarket, and it offers the opportunity to sell or "give away" excess produce to other family members or friends or neighbours. This will also reduce their grocery bills and will be much appreciated. Starting a vegetable garden is not particularly difficult as long as you put enough thought, time and effort into what you would you want to achieve from your garden. It's essential that you plan your vegetable garden first before planting.

LOCATION OF YOUR VEGETABLE GARDEN: This is the first decision that you must make. The location of your vegetable garden must be in an area where it is exposed to at least 6 hours of sunlight. It must not be in total shade and it must also be near to where you will source the water you will use to water the plants. You really don't want to be walking 100 metres carrying your watering can every time you want to water the plants. Ideally it should be near enough to be easily accessible to the hose that can then be connected to the water supply either inside your home or if you are lucky enough to have a water outlet close at hand. The location of your vegetable garden must be somewhere accessible so that you are able to frequently check for pests that will damage the plants and be able to pull out weeds when it is necessary.

SOIL PREPARATION: The next important factor to check is the condition of the soil. Check to see if it is suitable for growing the type of vegetables you have in mind. It must have good drainage; you don't want the ground waterlogged because this will rot the plants roots. It must be free of stones and other hard objects that will inhibit the growth of the plants. To most people soil is just "dirt", but if you think about it, to a plant its life or death. Basically this is what the plants feed off plus fertilizers that you add yourself. It's not difficult to identify your soil type. One thing to remember is whether you garden on CLAY, SANDY, CHALK or LOAM soil it will affect what vegetables will grow well. Usually whatever type of soil you have to work with, it can always be improved by adding plenty of organic matter such as well-rotted stable manure.

TYPE OF VEGETABLES: Included in your plans should be the type of vegetables you want to grow and the quantity of each. This consideration will help in determining the size of the plot you will require. Make a list of all the different types you want to grow, but a word of warning, this cannot be completely random. You must give thought as to what your garden will yield. What are your family's favourite vegetables, what do they like to eat in the winter and in the summer seasons. Consider what vegetables are often used for cooking the family meal. Will you be planting just for family consumption or do you have plans for the excess either selling them or giving them away to neighbours. Taking all these points into consideration will determine the size of the vegetable garden and reduce the risk of produce being thrown away.

PLANTING PLAN: It is worthwhile making a plan of where the vegetable plants you choose are to be planted. Consider the frequency of the yield of each type. Plants that can be harvested consistently throughout the year should be placed at the back of the plot where they will be undisturbed by whatever gardening activities you may have to do in the rest of the garden. Crops that produce early yield should be put together. These include such crops as RADISHES, SPINACH and CARROTS. Allow space for planting crops successively, so as you harvest one row you are able to plant another that produce yield later thus achieving produce all-year round.

PLANTS THAT CAN GROW TOGETHER: It must be noted that there are plants that you cannot grow along side other plants. There are vegetable plants that enhance the growth of another vegetable when planted together and there are those that restrict the growth of another plant. It is important that you take into consideration which of the plants inhibits the growth of another. If you overlook this, it could result in a much lower yield than expected. For instance, POTATOES are capable of inhibiting the growth of both SQUASH and TOMATO plants.BROCCOLI will also inhibit the growth of TOMATO plants. BEANS, on the other hand, inhibit the growth of ONIONS. This by no means stops you from planting all these plants in the garden it just serves as a reminder that when deciding what vegetables to grow, consideration must be given to which crops can be grown together without reducing the yield.

Planning is an essential part of having a successful vegetable garden that produces high yields of nourishing crops all-year round and ultimately rewards you financially by having smaller grocery bills.

The Facts Beginners Should Consider When Planting a Vegetable Garden

Planting vegetable gardens is a very rewarding pastime. Not only does it keep you fit because of all the exercise you will get, but for me it's the pleasure that you get from seeing all your hard work come to fruition. You produce healthy crops, crops that are free from pesticides because you know exactly how you have grown your produce. You have provided healthy nutritious food for your family table and have saved on the weekly grocery bill, now that can't be bad - can it!

Vegetable gardens are much easier to maintain than the flower garden because they are more resilient to the different types of weather we get. Flowers are typically more susceptible and don't adapt to the changes in the weather conditions so easily. Although a garden full of flowers look beautiful and you can decorate your living room table with them to brighten up the lounge, you can't eat them. You can't sit round the table on an evening and eat them, they don't provide a meal for you and your family like potatoes, peas, beans, cabbage, lettuce, carrots and many more types of produce can.

People think that planting your own vegetable garden requires a lot of space, especially people who live in the city, but this is not the case. An area as small as 2 metres wide by 4 metres long can reward you with produce for many months. Vegetables can be grown in tubes, boxes, containers or raised beds depending upon the type you choose to grow. Vegetables require a lot of sunlight and not too much shade.

PLANTING STYLES: The more traditional way of growing vegetables is laying them out in straight, organised lines. Some vegetables growers prefer to plant alternate rows of different types of vegetables. This enables you to harvest one type of vegetable whilst the rows in between them have another type of vegetable that are not in season. With this style of planting, you have to leave soil paths between each couple of rows so that you can tend to your crop. The one disadvantage of this planting style is that the soil path becomes compressed through walking on it, thus making it more difficult to hoe or dig at the end of the season.

A more popular way of planting vegetables these days is planting them in beds rather than the more traditional rows as explained above. The beds have to be small enough in size so that you can reach into them from the path around the beds. The advantage of this is that you can tend to the plants, pull out the weeds that will grow between the plants without having to tread on the bed, therefore not compressing the soil. This then becomes much easier to dig at the end of the growing season. Raised beds can also be used to grow vegetables, where the raised soil area is supported by wooden or brick structures about 40cm or so high. Wooden planks are ideal for a bed of 2 metres wide by 4 metres long. There is one advantage to having raised beds and this is that the soil retains the heat longer in the cold weather. A raised bed also lends itself to good drainage.

Another planting style is the "Kitchen garden" style referred to as "potager". This is a combination of planting vegetables, flowers and herbs together in a way that is aesthetically pleasing. Planting in this style brings colour and fragrance into the vegetable garden.

PREPARING THE SOIL: This is a very important fact and should not be ignored. It doesn't matter whether you plan to grow your vegetables in a small area, large area, raised beds, tubes or containers; soil preparation is an essential step that must be addressed.

Soil can be categorized in a number of ways, the most common ones are SANDY or GRAVELLY, CLAY, CHALKY,LOAMY and PEATY.

SANDY or GRAVELLY: This type of soil feels gritty when rubbed between the fingers and if you try to form it into a ball it will not hold together. After it rains, surface puddles will drain away in a short period of time.

CLAY: This type feels smooth to the touch and if rubbed between the fingers the surface becomes shiny. If you take a ball of clay, roll it and shape it into a ring it will not crumble or break. When it rains, a clay soil quickly becomes "sticky mud" and puddles take time to drain away. One point to note with clay soil, it will set like concrete and will crack when it is dry.

CHALKY: This type of soil is usually pale in colour with white pieces of chalk often visible in it. It drains freely after rain so that puddles don't last that long.

LOAMY: Dark in colour and will hold moisture well but after heavy rainfall the excess water will drain away so that puddles don't last long. If you take a handful of this type of soil and roll it, it will hold its shape, but if you try to form it into a ring it will crumble and break.

PEATY: This soil is almost black in colour when moist. Its composition is partially of decomposed organic matter from bogs or fens. If you rub it between the fingers it will crumble and after it rains it seems to glisten with the intake of moisture. It absorbs water like a sponge thus surface water only forms if the soil is totally saturated. If you pick up a handful, squeeze, the water will run through your fingers and it will hold its form.

To establish what type of soil you have in your garden, you don't have to wait for it to rain, take your garden hose and spray. Do the simple tests as described above to establish what type of soil you have to work with.

IMPROVING THE SOIL: Whatever the type of soil you have to work with you can always improve it. If the soil is SANDY, CHALKY or GRAVELLY it can be improved by digging in well-rotted organic matter (stable manure) in spring and autumn. In areas where you can't dig, leave a good layer on the surface until such time that you can dig it in. Because this type of soil is fast draining, you may have to add the organic matter on a regular basis. With CLAY soil, again dig in plenty of your well-rotted organic matter but also dig in horticultural grit to open up the soil. You can also use coarse, sharp sand or fine washed gravel, NOT BUILDERS SAND as this contains lime or GRAVEL dredged up from under the sea as this is too salty for the plants. LOAMY soil requires occasional dressings of organic matter just to keep it in good condition. For PEATY soils, again add well-rotted organic matter as this adds lots of nutrients to the soil. Because this type of soil is also acidic, applying lime will counter act this. The use of a good general purpose fertilizer will need to be applied on a regular basis as this will benefit your vegetable crops.

Perhaps you may think as a beginner to vegetable gardening, there are a lot of things to consider and no doubt question is it all worth it. Well believe me, YES IT IS! DON'T BE PUT OFF. Even whilst preparing your vegetable garden you may still have doubts, in the end when you harvest your crops you will feel a great sense of achievement. You will have tended and nurtured your plants all through their growing cycle, you will have spent many hours feeding them and then you will have the satisfaction that when you harvest your crop they are free from commercial pesticides. You have provided a fresh nutritious healthy meal for you and your family whether it is a summer salad or vegetables for the Sunday roast. THERE IS NO BETTER FEELING and all at a cost much cheaper than the vegetables you get from the local supermarket.

Laying Out and Planting Vegetable Gardens

You have made one important decision, to plant a vegetable garden. Now the next decision you will have to make will be to decide how the garden is to be laid out. This important decision rests on a number of factors, the planting space that you have available, what type of vegetables you want to grow and do you want to grow different vegetables together so that they can help each other in the growing process. This is sometimes referred to as "companion planting". Below are a few helpful tips that I believe will be useful in deciding how to layout your own vegetable garden.

PLANNING YOUR GARDEN: Firstly consider how much space you have available for your vegetable garden. You may have a large garden but still want to have a lawn and flower beds as well as provision for a vegetable garden. You may have a smaller area that you want to convert to a vegetable garden. Consider the position of where you want the vegetable garden, is the area surrounded by high walls or will it be by the side of a garden shed or garage area. If so, they could restrict the amount of light or sunshine that the vegetable garden requires.

Consider the type of soil where you will be planting your vegetables. You can discover a lot about your soil just by looking at the garden just after it has rained. If there are areas where the rain has not drained away you may have to consider putting a drainage system in, which could be costly. A simple remedy for this is to add a good layer of topsoil mixed with horticultural grit, add loam to the soil and lots of organic matter. Well-rotted manure is ideal. You could also consider planting your vegetables in "Raised Beds".

The decision as to what type of vegetables you wish to grow really goes hand in hand with the space you have available for the vegetable area. Consideration should be given as to whether you want to grow one type of vegetable like tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes etc., or if you want to grow different types. Do your research and find out the facts about the amount of light or space that certain vegetables require to produce a good crop. By making a list of vegetables you want to plant and by doing your research on the requirements of each plant, comparing this with the space that you have allocated for your vegetables, will give you an idea of where you want to plant certain vegetables.

VEGETABLE GARDEN LAYOUT: There are basically three types of layouts for the vegetable garden.

Row Style layout - This is the most popular style of layout where you plant the seeds or plants in rows. One row can contain the same type of seed or different seeds. Your research should tell you what types can go together. By choosing this method of layout you must leave wide soil paths between each row so that you can walk through the crops to work. This method requires more hoeing because weeds will grow through the paths and the soil will become compressed through having to walk on it, thus making it more difficult to dig and aerate the soil at the end of the growing season.

Bed Style layout - The bed style layout is similar to the rows style but on a smaller scale. It allows access to the plant beds from the perimeter of the vegetable area; this is particularly convenient because it avoids stepping onto the beds therefore the soil is not compressed. Using the bed layout maximizes the garden space available and as suggested earlier "Raised Beds" can also be used for easier gardening.

Kitchen Style layout - This layout is basically a decorative geometric shape which allows you to lay out your garden in circles or arrange your plants by colour or food type. You have to decide if this type of garden layout is practical for your requirements.

Consideration should also be given to "Companion Planting". This is an old gardening tradition that involves planting different kinds of plants together so that they help each other in terms of providing nutrients in the soil with the added benefit of offering protection from the wind and sun. Companion planting also attracts beneficial pests whilst acting as a decoy for harmful ones. A perfect example of this is planting small flowered Marigolds between your tomatoes. Marigolds emit a strong odour that will repel greenfly and blackfly. Likewise planting garlic underneath your roses will also ward off pests. Plant Nasturtium along with cabbages as these are a magnet for caterpillars that will then leave the cabbages alone. Other plants for companion planting are onions, which scares slugs and aphids away. Planting Carrots or Basil between the tomato crops will add flavour to the tomatoes. Growing horseradish and potatoes together will protect your potatoes from disease. It may be that companion plants emit deterrent chemicals or that they attract lots of predatory insects but it seems to work so it's worth consideration. Charts and literature on the different companion plants are available from your local seed merchant or garden centre.

In conclusion, if you give careful consideration to the points outlined above and research the different aspects of a vegetable garden, you will have a fruitful and productive vegetable garden that will give you fresh, nutritious crops all year-round. Enjoy the fruits of your hard labour, you will not regret it.