How do you choose a site for a vegetable garden that will grow enough vegetables for your family's needs, but not so large that it becomes burdensome? Before you take spade to soil, sit down and do some advance planning.
Decide exactly what you hope to get out of your garden.
Do you want to grow enough to provide all the produce your family eats or just supplement it? Are you interested in preserving some of the harvest? If so, what methods of food preservation will you use? Are you interested in growing fruits such as berries? Would you like a home orchard? Most importantly, how much time do you have or are you willing to spend on your garden? The answers to these questions will dictate how big you should make the garden.
If this is your first garden, start with a plot about 12 feet by 12 feet.
This is large enough to grow a variety of vegetables, but not so large as to be overwhelming.
Take an informal survey of your property and choose a site for your garden.
Ideally it should be on level ground, but a gently sloping spot is OK.
Make sure it is far enough away from trees so that they aren't competing with your vegetables for water and nutrients.
The site for your vegetable garden needs to be in full sun for at least 6 to 8 hours a day, and more is even better.
If you have a choice between morning or afternoon sun, choose morning.
The morning sun is not as hot as the afternoon sun, which can make your plants wilt on hot summer days.
Orient your garden so that the rows are running east to west.
That way every plant in the row will receive an equal amount of sunlight.
Plant shorter crops in front (on the south side) and taller ones on the northern back edge of your plot.
Is there a source of water nearby? This is important as vegetable gardens invariably need artificial watering in order to produce an abundance of healthy crops.
Finally, and especially if you live in the city, what used to be where your garden will be? Were old automobiles once parked there that leaked toxic fluids into the soil? If you don't know, ask a neighbor who has been around for awhile.
After you've decided on your garden's purpose, how much you hope to harvest, and chosen a site, draw an outline of it on a piece of graph paper.
Make one square of the graph equal to one foot of garden space.
Indicate which way is north and also make note of any landscape features that are nearby, such as trees, bushes, streets, sidewalks or driveways.
This will help keep you oriented when deciding where to plant your crops.
Copyright Sharon Sweeny, 2009.
All rights reserved.
Decide exactly what you hope to get out of your garden.
Do you want to grow enough to provide all the produce your family eats or just supplement it? Are you interested in preserving some of the harvest? If so, what methods of food preservation will you use? Are you interested in growing fruits such as berries? Would you like a home orchard? Most importantly, how much time do you have or are you willing to spend on your garden? The answers to these questions will dictate how big you should make the garden.
If this is your first garden, start with a plot about 12 feet by 12 feet.
This is large enough to grow a variety of vegetables, but not so large as to be overwhelming.
Take an informal survey of your property and choose a site for your garden.
Ideally it should be on level ground, but a gently sloping spot is OK.
Make sure it is far enough away from trees so that they aren't competing with your vegetables for water and nutrients.
The site for your vegetable garden needs to be in full sun for at least 6 to 8 hours a day, and more is even better.
If you have a choice between morning or afternoon sun, choose morning.
The morning sun is not as hot as the afternoon sun, which can make your plants wilt on hot summer days.
Orient your garden so that the rows are running east to west.
That way every plant in the row will receive an equal amount of sunlight.
Plant shorter crops in front (on the south side) and taller ones on the northern back edge of your plot.
Is there a source of water nearby? This is important as vegetable gardens invariably need artificial watering in order to produce an abundance of healthy crops.
Finally, and especially if you live in the city, what used to be where your garden will be? Were old automobiles once parked there that leaked toxic fluids into the soil? If you don't know, ask a neighbor who has been around for awhile.
After you've decided on your garden's purpose, how much you hope to harvest, and chosen a site, draw an outline of it on a piece of graph paper.
Make one square of the graph equal to one foot of garden space.
Indicate which way is north and also make note of any landscape features that are nearby, such as trees, bushes, streets, sidewalks or driveways.
This will help keep you oriented when deciding where to plant your crops.
Copyright Sharon Sweeny, 2009.
All rights reserved.