Two Old Gardeners and a Blog

The first step to starting a new vegetable garden is to map out your garden. Simply draw up an approximate plan of where you’d like everything to go, keeping as close to scale as possible. Make sure you take into account paths and such.

Sit down and write a list of the vegetables you would like to grow. A couple of tips here… 1. Check your local area and only list the vegetables that are easy to obtain. 2. Resist any temptation to list any rare, exotic vegetables. They will be hard to get, expensive and even harder to grow.

Don’t go to the trouble of drawing a plan and then ignoring it - follow it! Once you’ve roughed out your beds, it’s time to work out where your various plants go so that you keep any problems to a minimum as your crop matures. This is the reason a map is so important.

Put a lot of thought into your vegetable plants requirements. You need to know you’re planting your chosen vegetables in the best position for maximum growth. For example, learn which ones tolerate shade and which ones require full sun.

If space is a problem, here’s one simple way to fully utilize the area you’re able to use. This method is widely used in France. As an example, if you have carrots and spinach on your list you simply mix together a packet of each.

You then sow your seed mixture into a furrow about 1/2 inch deep. The spinach grows rapidly and helps break up the soil to give the carrots more room to grow.

In about four weeks, you can start to harvest some spinach to thin it, making room for the slower growing carrots. By the time the carrots start to reach maturity, the spinach will be completely used up, and the carrots will have plenty of room to grow.

You can do the same thing with vegetables such as radishes, parsley and lettuce. All you have to do is select different vegetables that take separate times to reach harvest. The French have been known to plant lettuce, radishes and turnips together.

The radishes are harvested first and are finished by the time your lettuce are ready. In a similar manner, the turnips will only be starting to mature as the last of the lettuce are harvested. All your taller growing vegetables should be planted on the north side of your vegetable garden if your rows are in a east-west direction.You do this so that your shorter plants aren’t in the shade from the shadows of the taller ones.

This is to ensure that the taller plants don’t block the sunlight from reaching shorter plants. Corn is the tallest plant that is normally grown in vegetable gardens, so it should always be placed where it won’t block sunlight from other plants.

You can also creatively use larger plants to shade shorter plants that don’t do well in harsh sunlight. For example, you could grow delicate cool-weather spinach behind large, bushy beans or peas.

This could help you grow shade-loving vegetables in your garden, even if you don’t have any shady spots available. By being creative with placement, you might be able to grow vegetables you never thought you’d be able to grow in your location!

About the Author:

Ready to load your small garden with plants and perfume? Tom Johnson has a Complimentary eBook for you called Container Gardening Secrets.