Designing your first vegetable garden
While gardens can be nice to look at, they can also provide you with food. At a time when the price of food seems to be climbing ever higher, growing your own vegetables seems like a great thing to do. If you’ve never grown food before, but have always considered designing your own vegetable patch, there are a few things to do before you’re ready.
What to Grow
Knowing which vegetables you want to grow is a good start. Learn about what conditions they prefer, and at what time of year they can be grown. Work out which plants you can grow in your garden, and then move on from there.
Try to make it as easy as possible for you to grow them. Growing vegetables doesn’t have to be time-consuming, and one way of going about it is creating raised beds of no more than three feet in width. This allows for easy access when draining the soil or when you are watering your crops. Placing a compost bin in the garden will help you and save you time and effort in the long run.
Sunlight not Always Necessary
Place your vegetable patch in the part of your garden which has the best access to sunlight, as many vegetables need at least six hours of sunlight each day, although some can function in dappled shade. Interplant both quick and slow-growing vegetables for maximum yields. Also, making wide rows for leafy vegetables such as cabbage and spinach is useful.
Planting different species together to prevent infection from pesticides could prove useful: tomato cages for tomato vines or planting peas and cucumbers together in a trellis may work. It also pays to evaluate your soil as different crops grow in different soil types. To save water why not try installing a drip irrigation system?
If you are a little Short on Space
Elsewhere, you could create a herb garden in the kitchen to save space outside in your garden. If you are short on space there are things that could be grown in doors or in very limited space that you could try. I have seen grow bags on patios with vegetables in that have worked fine.
Doing all this should ensure that you have a plentiful supply of fresh vegetables for years to come. Whatever your tastes, growing something for a meal is much more satisfying than going to the supermarket and buying it.
About the Author:
A gardening expert, Leon Allerton has worked with websites such as www.bridgman.co.uk lending his expertise on areas such as patio furniture and garden design.
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