About Vegetable Garden Layouts

 

A well laid out vegetable garden is easier to maintain, increases the yield and makes the best use of space. No matter how small or large your garden plot, your garden layout should allow you to access all your plants easily, provide both sun and shade, allow for companion planting and plant rotation. Though there are no hard and fast rules as to how you arrange your garden, there are some tried and true methods that will help you achieve a bountiful garden.

Features

Vegetable gardens are laid out in rows and beds. Rows can be single rows or wide rows. Within the rows themselves, you can use raised beds or small hills. Beds, though, can also be "boxed" beds. These are raised beds that are enclosed on each side by wood planks or large planters or boxes placed strategically around the garden space. Organizing rows and beds allows you to maximize yields. Because vegetable plants differ in their soil, fertilization and watering requirements, as well as their growing seasons, you need to arrange beds to accommodate differing needs.

Types

Single rows are traditional and practical for the large garden. For crops such as carrots, onions, celery and lettuce, the single row allows for easy access and harvest. Wide rows allow for broadcast seeding, in which you plant by spreading the seed across the row. This works well for peppers, cabbages and bush beans, as well as herbs. Wide rows also work well for companion planting. Raised beds work best for gardens with less than perfect soil conditions or if you plant a variety of vegetables requiring varying soil needs. The square foot method is useful for small garden spaces. For square foot gardening, you would divide the space into square foot sections; each section is then planted, using broadcast seeding, with a particular vegetable. You can use raised beds, boxed beds or flat soil planting for square foot gardening.

Function

Begin by planning your garden on paper. Make a list of the vegetables you want to grow, noting how much space each plant will require and its specific needs. Sketch out the garden on paper and make several copies. Draw out your options: single row planting, wide row planting, square foot sections or boxed beds. You may find that you can use a mix of these options, depending on the size of your garden and what you want to grow. For example, you may have one long section in which single rows work well. In the corners, you could use square foot sections and wide rows filling in the middle parts. It depends on the shape and size of your space.

Considerations

When planning your layout, consider trellised plants as well. Vegetables such as cucumbers, zucchini, snap beans and squash take up far less space and are less susceptible to pests when they have vertical support. Place trellises to provide shade for those vegetable plants that require fewer hours of sunlight. Companion planting works well in any garden layout. Common companion plants to ward off pests are marigolds and garlic. Other pairings include basil with tomato plants, chives with carrots, rosemary with beans and horseradish with potatoes. Your layout, then, should take into consideration the use of herbs within rows and beds. How you bring water to your garden is an important part of the layout. Drip systems and sprinklers should be installed before you plant and the systems should be compatible with the type of rows and beds you use.

Prevention/Solution

Vegetable gardening involves more than planting and picking. To keep your garden growing, you need to feed, water, mulch and weed. You need to thin the plants and control the pests. When planning the layout of your garden, don't try to fill every square foot with seed. Allow for crop rotation so soil can rest and renew itself. Leave space for a composter and your garden tools. Create a small space for a bench and table so you can relax in your garden as well. Keeping your zeal in check will prevent you from becoming overworked and overwhelmed. Your garden layout should make gardening more of a joy and less of a chore. If you need a landscaper visit el paso landscaping

Grape Vine Growing – A Fun And Rewarding Hobby

Before you buy grape vines, you have to consider what will be their use. Are they for eating, for making juices or jellies, or to ferment a good wine? Then consider the seasons in your community. Are the winters too cold or the summers too hot? The most important consideration is your backyard. Does it have enough space for planting grapes? Is the backyard sloping? Do you have a reliable drainage system? And is there enough sunlight to pass through? The nursery man will assist you in choosing the right variety for your specific ideas.

After you get grape vines at the nursery, it's time to plant them. Dig under the soil, plant the grape vine and carefully cover back the soil. Add a pole nearby and tie it to grape vine to provide a sturdy frame for the plant. Plant the grapes 8-10 feet apart from each other. Water the plant everyday to help the grape vine establish itself in the soil and grow.

Then after some time, set up the trellis. Use wires, ropes, or poles and set them horizontally three feet from the ground. Train the grape vine when it reaches the trellis. You need to constantly work on this to make the plant grow as you like. When you are successful, the grapes will grow steadily. Prune your grapes every autumn or every winter.

The fruits will appear after the second or third year. Take care not to  harvest when you see the fruit, for grapes cannot ripen on their own unlike apples. Wait for the fruits to color, and then wait a few more weeks to let them ripen further. Use a sweetness-measuring device or taste one to test its sweetness. If it is sweet, then you may harvest the grapes.

Growing grape vines can be tiring and sometimes stressful. To care for the plants continually, you must have dedication for your hobby. But after the harvesting, you can taste success. Make sure to do your research before you get started growing your grapes to avoid costly mistakes and learn some time saving tricks from the experts.

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Herb Garden Design First Considerations

Free Fertilizers Perfect for Any Garden

Herb Garden Design First Considerations

When looking at the design my first consideration is always to ask why and what am I doing this for. a simple question but necessary as we often forget why we are thinking Herb Garden Design.

Most of us will be looking at our garden and thinking we could put some herbs in there, but think what do we want to use them for?  What herbs do we use in our cooking and will we get some benefit   from growing them here.

No point using up our garden space on a Herb Garden if we are not going to use the herbs, I do realise that a herb garden can in itself look quite stunning and also have some magnificent  flowers and fragrances but the point is to use the herb in some practical fashion, mostly cooking but perhaps medicinal.

Once we know what kind of herbs we use in our cooking and want in our garden we need to find out if they will grow in our climate.

Local Garden centres will normally only stock those varieties of herbs which grow in the local area so this is an added safeguard to ensure  your project is not a disaster by planting herbs that will not grow.

A practical herb garden design will provide the right amount of the right herbs for you in a short period of time and will provide growth for years to come.

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Free Fertilizers Perfect for Any Garden

Free Fertilizers Perfect for Any Garden

Whether an amateur or seasoned garden, it is easy to forget about the vital importance of using fertilizers for both vegetables and ornamental plants. Whilst specimens may seemingly be growing well, by the addition of some nutrient rich feeds they could thrive with even more vigor. Allowing for bumper harvests of food, or gardens exploding with flowers like never before, many organic fertilizers are free and easy to make and use. And with naturally occurring nutrients adding a much needed life force to garden spaces, you can also ensure that your gardening practices are giving something back to the local environment.

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Manure

Manure is the number one way to enrich any soil and is a fantastic source of nutrients. Most stables, or even local farms, will have an abundant amount of excess manure from mucking out animals. Whilst some may charge a small fee for bags of this gardening black gold, it is often free, allowing gardeners to take as much as they wish.

It is vital that manure is used in the correct way in the garden to avoid its high concentration of richness from burning plant roots and leaves. It is therefore perfect for use through the winter months, and you can lay it on the surface of flowerbeds and vegetable plots after most plants have become dormant. Broken down by winter frosts, it can then be dug into the soil the following spring, adding fantastic enrichment. Alternatively it can be used in compost heaps at any time of the year, going through a natural rotting down process, and adding to the compost medium.

Vermicompost and Worm Tea

Another great source of free and high nutrient materials, these two fertilizers can be produced easily at home by simply having a worm farm. Easy to manage and keep, worm farms are a great way of composting kitchen scraps and waste quickly, and they produce material high in goodness in a relatively fast turnaround.

Munching their way through green waste, worms produce castes, high in nutrients, and collectively known as vermicompost. Meanwhile, the moisture from the farm drains to the bottom of the device where is can be siphoned off, usually through a tap. Known as Worm Tea, or Worm Wee, this can be diluted to one part tea, ten parts water, and is a fantastic liquid feed for plants.

Comfrey, Borridge, and Nettle Feed

Whilst Comfrey, Borridge, and Nettles are often most commonly associated as weeds, they are a fantastic source of nutrients for those who want to make a free fertilizer. The process is extremely easy, and additionally makes use of these plants as you weed them out from gardens.

Simply take a sealable tub, cram in as many nettles, comfrey, or borridge as possible, and fill approximately a quarter of tub with water. Place the lid on the tub and leave for several weeks, allowing bacteria to start the breakdown process. The resulting liquid is a fantastic nutrient rich drench that can be used for plants, and diluted by at least one part liquid feed to one part water, will make ornamental flowers and vegetables thrive.

For any gardener, the use of fertilizers should be commonplace. However, with many great enriching materials easily produced or gathered for free, there is no need to spend a fortune. And with organic products also eco-friendly, you can ensure both your garden and local environment thrive.

Small Garden Design Advice and Tips

A Small Garden Design can be just as enjoyable and in some ways effective and productive as a large Garden in the sense of crop production per plant, of course I am looking at Vegetable Garden Layouts, in the case of a flower garden they can be just as visually stunning.

However as I am looking at a crop garden you will have to accept that in many cases small gardens will be in confined spaces and we would need to consider this when selecting out planting items.

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We must of course maximise what little space we have in Small garden design so and we must therefore consider if containers will be more productive as we can perhaps move them around. If for example our Garden is shaded at certain times of the year we can easily move containers about to best maximise this available sunshine.

Building on levels can also help both in planting to maximise sunshine but also in providing an illusion of size and keeping certain crops separated. It may also allow access to more sunshine by eliminating shadows and obstruction from surrounding walls.

Just take a look at the shadows in your garden and see where the sun is hitting at the different time of day and of course season and if by having a raised container it removes this obstacle, certainly I first remember as a kid seeing some containers on tables and could not figure out why and asked the question and saw that this simple process had more than doubled the amount of time the crop was in the sunlight.

If however we plan this out and just take some time on the assessment of what we can and can’t do subject to the environmental conditions there is no reason why we can’t have an enjoyable and productive garden Small Garden Design

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Herb Garden Design First Considerations

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