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.