Design A Vegetable Garden For Great Results
Design A Vegetable Garden
Design A Vegetable Garden
One of the best ways to ensure success is to plan for it. Garden design is a great way to plan for next year’s successful garden and winter is a great time to do it although it continues throughout the year.
Most garden activity slows to a crawl or disappears altogether during the months of snow and ice. All that remain are memories and dreams. This is a great time to get out pencils, pads and rulers to plan for the next growing season.
First choose all the vegetables you would like to grow. This will likely be far more than will fit in the available garden plot but it is only on paper and no money has been spent on seeds so let your imagination run wild. Now comes the hard part, deciding what not to plant.
A good place to start is in eliminating most of the plants that will not grow in your location without a lot of effort. This may mean that they require special soil, different watering conditions than the rest of the garden, or a longer growing season. The reason to eliminate most and not all of the choices is that you may be willing to go that extra step in order to obtain that choice tomato or melon that will come in no other way. However, it is best to confine such effort to only those plants that really can be gotten in no other way.
Now get rid of all those vegetables that look great in the catalogues but your family hates. There is no sense growing what will not be eaten. If in doubt about a vegetable that looks good and sounds good but it is not familiar to the family, it is time for a visit to the grocery store. Get it and try it. Family response can be a call to try something new or a time saver when it is realized that there is no point either buying or growing more.
This should leave a list of things to grow. They will work in your garden and be eaten at the family table. However, available space may determine what will work and what will not. Some plants require a lot of space for a small return like corn while others just keep on giving like chard or zucchini. If you have a lot of space this may not matter but for many urban gardeners or for those whose garden is a few containers, it makes a big difference.
One of the additions you might like to make in the list is a couple of varieties of flowers not only because they attract bees and other pollinators to the garden but also for color and for cutting, something that may not be welcome in the flower beds. Also, one or more of the family members might have a particular vegetable they like right from the garden.
Once the list is as final as it will get until the actual planting is done, it is time to draw up the plot on paper. Graph paper is handy with its grids and easily worked out scales. It is far easier to add a bed of carrots or a row of tomatoes and then move it ten feet on the paper than with a shovel and rake.
Remember the plan is just that, a plan. It can and likely will be changed several times before the planting season but that will just add to the enjoyment and the dreams.
By Darrell Feltmate
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Design-A-Vegetable-Garden-For-Great-Results&id=6163175
