The Planning Stage of Vegetable Garden Layout Must Not be Ignored

During the early stages of learning how to vegetable garden you must take the time to consider the vegetable garden layout.

Seeing the phrase vegetable garden layout you may think that just means which vegetables will be planted in which position. Well, yes, this is part of the process but comes later rather than sooner.

Vegetables thrive in a sunny position so you are not going to get the best results of your labours by planting up a vegetable border that is in shade for most of the day. There is a great temptation to do this when you would prefer to have the sunniest spots in the garden for your patio, barbecue etc.

Begin by taking a note of where the sun rises in the morning and the passage it takes during the day. This will be important later when you decide the vegetable garden planting plan.

The next task is to draw out the area that includes your proposed vegetable garden bed. Draw roughly to scale and this can be made easier if you use graph paper. Mark immovable objects such as trees, shrubs, sheds and greenhouses. Now indicate the passage of the sun that you recorded earlier and you are ready to think about your vegetable garden layout.

Now it depends very much on the space you have available for your vegetable garden bed or beds. The traditional method was to have the whole area dug over and accessible perhaps from one side by a hard landscaped path. Paths across the plot were effectively trodden down by the gardener going along the rows of vegetables weeding, watering and cropping. In recent years it has become more popular to create four feet wide beds that are accessed from a path either side. Four feet has been proven to be the ideal width as the gardener can reach into the centre of the bed to sow, weed and crop without having to stand on and compact the lovingly prepared soil.

The passage of sun across the garden dictates the direction that you now draw out these beds and how you plant your vegetables. Remember, you want your vegetables to get as much benefit as possible from the sun’s rays during the day so take care to ensure rows of one vegetable type does not shade out another.

Vegetable garden layout is so important at the early stage of your vegetable garden design as hopefully the vegetable garden beds will be in use for many productive years to come.

Do We Need to be Taught How to Vegetable Garden

Who needs to be taught how to vegetable garden, surely all you have to do is clear a bit of ground, throw in some seeds, water and let them grow.

In a way it is that simple but it is like anything else that looks easy, it is easy until something goes wrong. As anyone who has tried to play golf will know, at first you may hit the ball firm and true and the puts go in. But then part of the way round the eighteen holes something goes wrong and how do put it right? The answer is it is very, very difficult because you have not learnt the basics. How can you put something right when you don’t know what you are supposed to be doing?

Vegetable growing is just like that, the first year you plant on a piece of land and some things grow and those successes put any failures firmly at the back of your mind. The second year you might be less successful and that disheartenment can put you off for life.

There will always be disappointments in gardening whether you are growing flowers or vegetables for the table. If anyone tries to teach you gardening and does not mention failures they are or have never been a gardener. The weather can be against you, the summer wetter and colder than normal, a pest or disease causes one of your crops to fail or not crop as well as expected. These things happen and that is why even the most experienced gardener learns new things all the time when it comes to how to vegetable garden.

A good basic grounding, no pun intended, in gardening skills when you start your first vegetable garden will stand you in good stead for all your years of gardening.

Choose a vegetable plot with the right aspect, ensuring as much sun as possible during the day. Prepare the ground well and make sure the ground conditions are right for the crop type you decide to grow,

When it comes down to it, much of knowing how to vegetable garden is common sense but like everything else something is only various obvious when it is pointed out to us.

Why not have a go by starting with a small vegetable plot and enjoying fresh vegetable that have been grown a few feet away from the vegetable door.

Start today by following How to Vegetable Garden