Fine Gardening

Posts Tagged ‘Vegetable Garden Plans’

blueberry plant

Growing a vegetable garden can either be rewarding or frustrating.  It is rewarding if the seeds you put into the ground in the spring turn into carrots, cauliflower, and beans in the fall.  It is frustrating if you spend your entire summer digging in the dirt and in the end have nothing to show for it but a few wilted lettuce leaves and a lot of insects and fungus.  The only way that you can hope to succeed in your gardening endeavors is to have a good vegetable garden plan.  Taking a few days to research and plan your vegetable garden will save you months of hard work trying to coax something to grow that isn’t suited to your climate.

The vegetable garden plans should start out with the types of vegetables that are best suited to your climate.  Whether you live in a cold, temperate, sub-tropical, or tropical climate there are certain vegetables that will thrive and others that will rot on the vine.  At the same time, many vegetables can grow regardless of your overall climate as long as they are planted at the right time of the year.  For example, you can plant most tubers and root vegetables, such as carrots, radishes, and potatoes as soon as they deep frosts are over.  These vegetables are hardy and will survive in the ground even if they get a couple of cold nights before spring really kicks in.  However, vine vegetables such as tomatoes and beans shouldn’t be sown until the frosts are well and truly over and the growing season is in full spring.  If you live in the far north, you may find that you growing season isn’t long enough to accommodate vine vegetables.  If you get early frosts, don’t take chances as there is nothing worse than spending a summer growing tomatoes only to have them be killed by an early frost.

A vegetable garden plan

When to sow your vegetables is an important part in your vegetable garden plan, but it is only one of many points to consider.  You also need to think about the sunlight that you garden gets.  Try, if at all possible to position your garden so that it gets at least five hours of sunlight per day.  Also, plan your vegetable garden to ensure that taller plants don’t block the sunlight needed by smaller plants.  Generally you can accomplish this by positioning your tall plants on the northern side of your garden.  You also need to think about the amount of wind that you garden will get to create an effective vegetable garden plan.  Hot wind can dry out your soil and cold wind can freeze your plants.  In fact, any wind will tear up your topsoil; just think of the Dust Bowl.  If you don’t have natural wind breaks, plant some scrubs or put of some fencing around your vegetable garden.

As long as you take the time to research, your vegetable garden plans should ensure that by the end of the summer you are bringing in mountains of delicious vegetables for your family to enjoy.