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Plans for Vegetable Garden
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How to :
Prepare Your Soil
The single most important element of your allotment is how you prepare
your soil. Find out how
click here
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Grow Vegetables
Find out what to look for and why you will get much better results with
fresh seeds.
click here
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Grow Herbs
Find out how to select Herbs and how you can easily divide them for
higher yielding crops
click here
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Grow Flowers
Do you want to grow Annuals or perennials ? Why cut flowers are fun and
easy.
click here
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Sell Products
Follow our step by step plan and not only will your allotment be fun -
it can also be highly profitable!
click here
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How to Plan a Vegetable Garden
Your vegetable garden layout will depend on how much space you can
give it and what you want it to produce. Reasons why you may want to
grow vegetables include: self-sufficiency; to produce gourmet or
unusual vegetables; to grow well-flavoured vegetables; for freezer
stocking; to stretch a budget and save money. Most vegetables are
annuals, but there a few useful perennials that you may want to
include: asparagus, globe artichokes, rhubarb. These are best
planted separately from annual crops. The following steps cover most
of the major points you need to consider when making a start.
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Suitable plot of ground; tools;
veg seeds and/or plants.
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Position and Climate. You
can control climatic conditions to some extent by planning your
vegetable plot to be in a sheltered position, open to receive the
maximum amount of light and in a place where the soil warms up
quickly. Seasons can also be extended by growing under the cover of
cloches, mini polytunnels and membranes which protect plants.
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Rotation of Crops. Rotation is
varying where you grow your vegetables in consecutive years. Plant
vegetables in different places or a different bed. A four year cycle
is usual.
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Don't despair if you have very
limited space. Vegetables can be grown in containers placed on
concrete patios, low walls, balconies, roof gardens.
It has become more popular to grow vegetables in smaller, narrower
beds, evenly spaced and usually separated by narrow paths.
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Basic planning. Rotation does
make good sense, so build it into your vegetable plot plans.
For the Full article
This is only a very brief introduction
to Vegetable Garden Planning - for the full article, as well as
helpful hints and tips visit Greenfingers. Just click below
for info :
This Months Thought
How to select seeds :
companion planting
When you pour over the seed catalogues
just spend one minute to consider the easiest way to fight pests and
diseases and get great results.
Why is it that some plants grow enthusiastically, while the same
variety grown in another part of the garden or allotment is sickly or
stunted? Could it be that some plants enhance the growth of each other and
some hinder them?
Companion Planting contains information, passed down through time,
on which plants to grow together to achieve healthy, vibrant plants and
vegetables - all crammed into a simple, easy to use guide.
For details click Here!
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Recommended
"Home Vegetable Garden Secrets"
Hundreds of tips, techniques and secrets about
vegetable gardens, such as
How to create a
planting table so you don't plant the wrong plants at
the wrong time - too early or too late
How to keep your plants living, reduce water use and save
money, all at the same time
Many, many more
For details click
here |
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This month's Feature
Mistakes in Gardening Guides
Revealed
Read this special article before consulting
a gardening book or website
From
the desk of Andrew Simms (senior editor)
Just imagine that day in late summer when
you are happily harvesting your crop. The juicy tomatoes, crisp
carrots and crunchy celery. Every time you turn over the soil
there are perfect potatoes, you fill bags and bags of them. Let alone
the stunning flowers you have been cutting from late spring onwards....
Sounds great doesn't it ? When you open any
book, catalogue or website you will see perfect pictures. The
strawberries are just seconds away from being put in a bowl, even the salad
has no blemishes, bugs or imperfect leaves. When you read the books the
concept of coping with a hosepipe ban, rabbits tucking into your crops or the
mystery of the unpredicatable potatoes yields seem
years away.
Having had an allotment for many, many
years - in 2 completely different parts of the country - I have spent many
evenings consulting my gardening books. Surfing the internet for hours
looking for hints and tips. I always find it mystifying that the
'champion' allotment winners
always have PERFECT RESULTS. Yes, it could be the hours they spent but
probably more importantly they have build up a fountain of knowledge over
all the many years.
As I wanted this year to be my best year
ever I decided to make a detailed comparison of all the major gardening
books and reference guides. What struck me was how incomplete (and similar)
they are. Yes, they would all have the basics, which plants to put in
in March, April, May...... (pretty useless if your march is so wet you can't
walk on the soil, april is bone dry and your allotment is like concrete,
etc.)
Because I wanted this to be as scientific
as possible I decided to contact as many gardeners and allotment holders as
I could. They all made the same comment - books are great for background
info but "I get more useful information from Bill, Bob, etc.)
Having said that some of the champions
growers did let slip at times that they did have a few favourite books even
they would consult. Books which they would read at night and not
mention to often, as they contained snippets of information which will help
make a good allotment into a GREAT allotment or vegetable garden. There were 2 books which kept being mentioned as
containing
useful information. Not the same rehashed content as everywhere else, but
actually some very practical hints and tips.
These were the kind of books which:
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Will make the difference between 'good'
vegetables and prize winning vegetables
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The type of information you will want to
consult time and time again
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Particularly when it comes to such mundane
items like compost will make you wonder why you had never heard that
information before.
The books I managed to unearth are
mentioned below - but I am not sure how much longer they will be available
online before the publishers decide that a hardback copy in the shops (at a
far higher price) will be much more profitable.
This is the end of my search for the
ultimate gardening advice. I am glad I managed to find 2 sources of
information which will make this summer my best ever, can't wait to see the
results this season. Good luck with your allotment, vegetable garden
and growing season. I hope yours will also be the best one ever !
Top 3 Books
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"Home Vegetable Garden Secrets"
Hundreds of tips, techniques and secrets about
vegetable gardens, such as
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How to create a
planting table so you don't plant the wrong plants at
the wrong time - too early or too late
-
How to keep your
plants living, reduce water use and save money, all at
the same time
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Many, many more
For details click
here
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" How to make the World's Best Compost. "
Are you one of the many who has a compost heap at the bottom of the garden
or corner of the allotment ? Every wonder just how the most
successful horticulturalists get their plants, flowers and vegetables to
look so good?
One of the secrets is the compost they use. Rob Turners book
contains Step by step advice on how to make Natural Fertilizer.
Without using Bins, Turning Or Odour
For details click Here
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"Companion Planting"
As mentioned earlier
For details click Here!
Towns : Amberley, Arundel, Barnham,
Bognor Regis, Burgess Hill, Chichester, Crawley, East Grinstead,
Gatwick, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Lancing, Lindfield, Littlehampton,
Midhurst, Petworth, Selsey, Sharpthorne, Shoreham by Sea, Southbourne,
West Wittering, Westbourne, Woodmancote, Worthing, Yapton
allotment gatwick |
