Vegetable Gardening (15 page)

Even though closer planting is possible, don't plant so close that plants have to compete with each other for food, water, and light. If you do, you'll eventually get smaller harvests or lower-quality vegetables.

Following the paths

You can get so involved in the beds, rows, hills, and vegetable varieties that you forget about the paths between everything. Keep the paths at least 2 to 3 feet wide so you can easily walk on them. For larger gardens, consider a few main paths that are wide enough for a passing garden cart.

Be sure to use mulching materials on the paths to keep weeds at bay and make for easier walking. The last thing you want to do is weed your garden paths! Most gardeners tend to use whatever materials are cheap and widely available. Pine straw in the South, hay in the North, and gravel in the arid West are all possibilities for garden paths. I prefer organic materials (everything from ground bark and straw to sawdust, leaves, and grass clippings) because they add organic matter to the soil, helping my garden prosper. Check out Chapter 15 for more information on mulching your beds.

Sketching it out

After you determine the location and dimensions of your garden, you need to sketch out a simple garden plan. Your drawing doesn't have to be a work of art, just functional. All you need is a piece of graph paper and a pencil, a list of vegetables you want to grow, and maybe a seed catalog or two. Then just grab your pencil and graph paper and start drawing. First, draw the garden to scale. Leave space from the edge of the paper, draw in the first row, leave room for a path, and then create your next row. Continue filling in the rows with your favorite crops, taking into account the space requirements of the crops you want to grow (refer to Table A-1 in the appendix); whether you want to plant in rows, beds, or hills; and how much of each vegetable you want to harvest.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you sketch out your garden plan:

You can't plant everything.
Choose your crops carefully, and only grow what you like to eat. And grow only how much you think you can eat. Eating broccoli for breakfast, lunch, and dinner can get old fast.

Not all plants have it made in the shade.
Tall crops like corn should be placed where they won't shade other vegetables. The north end of the garden is usually best.

These roots aren't made for walking.
Plan your garden with walkways so you can get to plants easily without damaging roots. (For more about walkways, see the previous section.)

Planning on paper helps you purchase the correct number of seeds or transplants and use space more efficiently. It's a good way to see the possibilities for
succession planting
(following one crop with another) and
interplanting
(planting a quick maturing crop next to a slower-maturing one and harvesting the former before it competes for space). For example, you may see that you can follow your late peas with a crop of late broccoli, and you'll be ready with transplants in July. Or you may see that there's space to tuck a few lettuce plants among your tomatoes while the vines are still small. You can find out more about these techniques in Chapter 16.

In the following sections, I provide some sample garden designs for inspiration. If you're looking for a basic veggie garden design, flip to Chapter 2. Keep in mind that you can alter the designs in these sections to fit the size of your garden; you also can substitute similar-sized vegetables for those that you don't like. The options are endless!

A raised-bed greens garden

The 6-foot-x-10-foot garden in Figure 3-3 is an easy one to tuck along a house or garage or in a small space near your kitchen. It's composed of four 2-feet-x-4-feet beds with mulched paths in between. The raised beds make this garden easy to access and care for.

The key to getting the most from the raised beds in this plan is to succession crop. For example, after the spinach crop is finished, plant summer lettuces or chard. Some greens, such as the loose-leaf lettuces and mesclun, can be cut and allowed to regrow for a second or third crop (see Chapter 10 for more information on cut-and-come-again lettuce). With a little forethought you can have fresh greens and salad fixings from spring through fall.

An edible-landscape garden

The garden in Figure 3-4 is beautiful and functional. I designed it to be around the front entrance of the house. It allows you to have blueberries, dwarf apple trees, and raspberries close to the house rather than way out in the backyard.

I created permanent raised beds on either side of the walkways leading to the front door. The paths between the beds are growing grass and are wide enough for a mower to pass through. In the beds are a combination of edible flowers, herbs, vegetables, and fruits, all selected with beauty and productivity in mind.

For example, you can grow colorful heirloom tomatoes, a combination of sweet and hot peppers, purple and yellow beans, basil and other herbs, cut-and-come-again greens, strawberries, and vivid root crops. You also can try growing edible flowers such as nasturtiums, marigolds, calendula, and pansies in their own bed and scattered throughout. See Chapter 12 for more on edible landscaping and growing fruits and herbs in your garden.