When you decide to plant vegetables, you must make sure that you prepare your garden properly. By correctly caring for your soil and planning where specific vegetables will go, you will ensure a successful growing season, as well as plenty of vegetables for your dinner table!
Vegetable Garden Preparation: Where to Grow
It’s important to plant your vegetables where they will grow best. This may include special consideration of garden placement and/or garden structures.
- Place your vegetable garden in the sunniest spot possible; they need at least 6 hours of sun daily to survive
- While some air circulation is good, avoid placing your garden in a windy spot. Wind will dry and break your vegetables
- Make sure the location is accessible so that you can monitor pests, as well as tend to your garden easily
- Consider planting your vegetables in raised beds; it will bring them to maturity sooner
Vegetable Garden Preparation: Best Layout
It is better to keep a well maintained small garden than to have a somewhat maintained large garden. Take care to set up your vegetables in an order that will optimize growing space and sun exposure.
- Design your garden so that your rows run north and south, and layer your plants from tallest to shortest
- Tall crops, like peas, beans, and corn, should be planted in the north side of the garden
- Medium-sized crops, like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, pumpkins, and squash, should be planted in the center of your garden
- Short crops, like carrots, beets, radishes, onions, and lettuce, should be planted at the south side of the garden
- You may also want to consider a fence that will keep out dogs, rabbits, and other animals; it can serve simultaneously as a trellis for your plants that need support (beans, peas, tomatoes, etc.)
Vegetable Garden Preparation: Readying the Soil
The nutrients your vegetables absorb are taken from the soil they are planted in, so by creating the best soil possibly for your plants, you are making them as nutrient-enriched as possible. Good soil should have the appearance of being darker, more crumbly, and water-retentive as a result of absorbing more organic matter.
- Mix a good amount of organic humus (compost, peat moss, well-rotted or processed manure) into your existing soil or any other topsoil you bring in
- Make sure that your soil is well-drained, so that water doesn’t pool in it
- Remove any compaction in the soil and try to avoid walking over it
- Try to only dig or cultivate if your soil is dry or a bit moist; working wet soil will damage and compact it
- Keep the fine soil on top and the sub-soil at the bottom
- When you firm the soil, do so with the back of a rake or fork
Related Articles:
