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Planning A Vegetable Garden

It may be a concern that vegetable gardening is just lots of work for minimal reward

but just don't worry even the smallest vegetable garden can give you a continuous supply of ultra-fresh vegetables whenever you want them. And with a packet of seeds costing less than the price of a pound of bananas, you get a fantastic return on your investment too.

Starting from scratch

Before you start cutting a big chunk out of your lawn or converting a flowerbed into a vegetable garden, there are a few things you'll need to consider first. Where you're planning to position your vegetable garden is one of the most important factors. Do you want it close to the house or at the end of the garden? Also think about the orientation of your garden a south-facing position will give you the most sunlight and therefore the longest growing time, yet could suffer from frosts during the colder months. If your garden is shaded this will also affect what crops will grow best and how efficient your vegetable garden will be. You also want to make sure that your vegetable plot doesn't detract from the rest of the garden, so some well planned shielding or an attractive layout may help there.

Understand the soil you have in your garden.


The next thing to find out is what kind of soil you have. This is a two-part question you will need to know what the texture of the soil is and what is its pH or acidity. For example, you may have a sandy soil that's great for drainage but will allow nutrients to leach from the soil very quickly. Alternatively, you may be on a heavy clay soil that will require a good supplement of organic matter over several months to improve the structure and nutritional content. In most cases, the quality of the soil can be improved by adding well-rotted manure or other organic matter. This will break up the soil and also introduce fresh nutrients a key requirement for healthy vegetables.

The second part of the equation is the pH or acidity of the soil. This will determine what kind of crops will grow well in your vegetable garden. If you have an acid soil you may find that some crops such as peas and beans tend to suffer from poor growth and low yield. However, once again plenty of organic matter and a good dressing of lime will help balance out the pH. You should be aiming for a pH of 6 to 6.5. This will be suitable for almost all kinds of vegetables.

Work out how much time an effort you can dedicate to your vegetable garden.


tarting a vegetable garden may be hard work in the beginning, but once it is established (and you stay on top of the weeding!) vegetable gardens are pretty low maintenance. You can make life easier for yourself by creating smaller raised beds or, if you're really not sure about committing a section of your garden to growing vegetables, try starting off growing vegetables in containers. If you don't want to change the layout of your existing garden then the alternative is to rent an allotment, although these are in short supply and you may find that there is a waiting list for allotments in your area. But whatever you decide to do, it is worth remembering that growing a range of healthy vegetables requires a degree of planning, some basic knowledge and plenty of enjoyable time outdoors - it's certainly not a five minute exercise.

What do you want to grow?

Once you have decided on your positioning and determined what kind of soil you have, the next thing is to plan what you are going to grow. Do you prefer salad crops or do you want a year-round supply of seasonal vegetables? As one crop ends another can be planted, making the best use of the space you have. Spring crops such as lettuce, radishes and spring onions give way to summer crops such as courgettes, cauliflowers, cabbages and peas. During the autumn you can begin to bring on your winter crops including various types of main crop potatoes and the hardier vegetables such as leeks, sprouts and winter brassicas. By doing some reading up online or in books before you begin gardening in the spring you can ensure that your vegetable garden keeps you supplied with wonderful, fresh produce all year round and that your supermarket bills will be considerably smaller too.

by: Mark Bartley
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Planning A Vegetable Garden Anaheim