Planning A Vegetable Garden

By gardener | Jan 29, 2008

Setting up a home vegetable garden isn’t as simple as picking up your tools, digging and planting some seeds. It entails careful planning before starting growing vegetables. This ensures that you’ll have a harvest at the end of the season. Planning for setting-up a home vegetable garden consists of major steps: selecting a site; and planning the garden.

A beginner might think that a lot of space is necessary for a garden. What they don’t know is that a 25 feet square area is adequate enough to grow vegetables for the entire family.

No matter what the size of the garden, there are five factors that should be taken into consideration in picking a garden site. First, there should be a source of energy for plants to grow. Hence, the site should be exposed to sunlight at least six hours a day. So, you have to cross out areas near buildings, trees or shrubs from the list of potential garden sites.

Another factor is its proximity to the house. When the garden is close to the house, you are more likely to pay your garden more visits to keep up with jobs like weeding, watering, and controlling pests.

Soil is another consideration. Having the ideally natural rich soil isn’t always the case. However, the soil that you use should have the required nutrients and the right texture. In cases where you have heavy clay or sandy soil, you can improve the soil by using organic matter.

Water is a requirement for a plants survival. The garden should then be receiving at least an inch of water every week. Thus, the site should be placed near a water source.

Good air drainage is the fifth consideration. Locating the garden in a low spot like the base will only bring about the formation of frost since it is impossible for cold air to drain away. So, do away with these low spots and opt to locate the garden on high ground.

As mentioned earlier, planning the garden is a major step in setting up the home vegetable garden. This major step is divided into two. The first involves the selection of the vegetables to be grown in the garden. In selecting the vegetables, you should consider space limitations, climate and other factors that may inhibit the growth of the vegetables you want to include in your garden. It is always best to look up the vegetables necessary growing conditions before including them in your garden. This saves you the time and the frustration of having nothing to harvest.

The last step in planning the garden makes use of your artistic skills. This step requires you to make a diagram containing the kinds of vegetables to be planted, the distance between plots and the time of planting. You can also put in the dates to remind you of the necessary tasks.

Vegetable Gardening may save you a fortune in buying these products from the nearest supermarket. However, it isn’t an easy task. It requires planning to yield a harvest at the end of the planting season. As what they always say, you only reap what you sow.

Have a great time planting!