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Beginning a Garden Plan
Plant your vegetable garden with an eye to both your needs and your garden’s location. Gardens reach their full potential when they perfectly match their climate and site.
The requirements of a vegetable gardener are quite different from those of a landscape or flower gardener. While each is striving for beauty in the yard, one with vegetables first in mind usually is seeking a bounty of flavors and tastes in addition to a visual treat.
Great vegetable gardens begin with an appreciation for the benefits of fresh, homegrown produce. They are valued for their scent, flavor, and crisp or succulent textures, which appeal to your senses; their wholesome goodness as measured by the vitamins and minerals they contain; and their addition to the pantry, a bonus for your household budget.
Planning is a Process
To grow a bounty of vegetables in your home garden, it helps to know the factors that influence their growth and production of fruit, berries, roots or leafy greens. The most important of these are your climate and your site’s conditions.
Knowing your climate helps you make the right decisions about your vegetable garden, including the plants you’ll grow and the basic layout of its beds, hills, and rows. It’s equally important to note the features of your garden site—the lay of the land, the presence or absence of sunlight, and patterns of good air circulation—to help you determine which vegetable plants will thrive in your garden and where you should plant them.
Both novice gardeners and experienced hands with several seasons under their belts will appreciate the wisdom of choosing their plantings by following some simple rules of space planning. Whether bound by the size of your garden or by the quantity of vegetables you wish to harvest, using a grid system to space your plantings is an excellent idea. After you consult the supplied diagrams with suggested space allocations for many common vegetables, you’ll soon be filling your beds with the plants you prefer and enjoy.
What other helpful hints are there for creating a productive garden? In the following pages, you will find information to help you choose quality tools, which will ease the tasks associated with caring for your vegetables, reduce the amount of effort they will require, and save you time. You also will become familiar with materials that are time-proven standards for growing vegetables, from mulches to fertilizers and soil amendments.
Finally, an array of helpful advice, ranging from the electronic answer to the spoken word, is available to you should you experience a challenge in your vegetable garden.