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How to Plant a Vegetable Garden
by blair
Here’s an Expert Village video with Scott Reil, from www.safelawns.org, giving tips on how to plant a vegetable garden. The video is shot in his own garden, which is usually a good sign that he knows what he is doing! He gives a few good tips to consider when planning and planting your vegetable garden.
It’s worth the watch. But I’ll cheat and tell you a few of Scott’s tips:
Don’t overlook the design. The design can make or break whether your garden is successful. Consider what plants need: sun and water. He planted his garden in the sunniest place in his yard, and directs water runoff from around his house towards the garden area to keep the area watered deeply. Not a bad idea.
Consider the path of the sun. He plans his garden so that small plants are on one side of the garden, and large on the other. This way the larger plants will not shade smaller plants.
Maximize gardening space by growing vertically. He grows his beans on the fence.
Be realistic. Don’t try to grow too many plants. He wanted twelve tomato plants, but could only fit in six.
It’s only two minutes to watch. But, Scott packs in a bunch of great tips to consider when planning a vegetable garden. Plus, he is wearing a must see gardening shirt!
Regarding the shading…where I live in the high altitude desert, I actually plan my garden so that the larger plants will shade the smaller ones over the course of the day. By mid-afternoon it can get so hot in my garden that it serves well to have the corn and sunflowers shading the beets, carrots, squash, chard and so on.
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Regarding the shading…where I live in the high altitude desert, I actually plan my garden so that the larger plants will shade the smaller ones over the course of the day. By mid-afternoon it can get so hot in my garden that it serves well to have the corn and sunflowers shading the beets, carrots, squash, chard and so on.