Planning a Vegetable Garden

Imagine a pumpkin pie baked with fresh and juicy pumpkins from your own vegetable garden or even fresh tomatoes and cucumbers picked right from your own backyard. For people who like to have their veggies real fresh, a vegetable garden is the perfect idea to implement. Well as appetizing and interesting as this idea sounds, you should know that planning a vegetable garden requires a lot of efforts and hard work to create a healthy and sustainable vegetable garden. There are several things, which need to be taken care of in order to create a fertile and verdant vegetable garden.

Planning a Vegetable Garden

What kind of soil should be used in the vegetable garden, which are the vegetables, which are convenient to grow in the vegetable garden? There are plenty of these questions, which need to be answered before you actually start creating your own vegetable garden. Here is a step-by-step guide, which will help you through the entire vegetable garden planning process…

Planning a Vegetable Garden: Soil Fertility and Texture

Fertile soil with a good texture is one of the prerequisites to creating a fresh and sustainable vegetable garden. The soil in the vegetable garden needs to be adequately fertile and moist. Organic humus works best for any vegetable garden. Just add wholesome quantities of organic humus and rest assured that your vegetable garden would be a success. You can create rich compost by digging a whole and filling it with leftover food at home, unwanted remains of cut vegetables and fruits or any other degradable waste from your kitchen, add some soil over the waste. Now cover the hole for a few days and then add it to the entire garden area.

Planning a Vegetable Garden: Plantation Techniques

Now that you’ve got a fertile layer of soil in your garden you need to decide how you want to plant your veggies. You can either plant it in the open soil or create raised beds. Although some people find the option of raised beds more effective, the outcome depends on the soil condition, sunlight and the watering. The only advantage the raised beds can provide is perhaps if the plantations are done in separate raised bed craters or containers, then they can be shifted easily from one place to another.

Planning a Vegetable Garden: Companion Planting

Companion planting is nothing but planting the right vegetables together. It is a known fact that some specific combination of vegetables planted together leads to improved growth, reduced menace of disease and infections, thriving of beneficial insects and bacteria and elimination of harmful pests. Here is a small list of vegetables and their compatible companions, which can be grown together in a vegetable garden:

List of Common Garden Vegetables

Although there is really no limit to the type of vegetables and herbs that you can grow in your vegetable garden, there exist certain popular garden vegetables that every vegetable garden can have easily. Here is the list of such popular garden vegetables:

Celery – Celery is a beautiful vegetable that can be a part of your vegetable garden. Although Celery is a very adjusting plant and grows well along almost any other vegetable, there are a few vegetables that are especially conducive to its growth. The common plants that are known as its companions are Onion, Tomato, Cabbage family and bush beans.

Asparagus – Asparagus, is also a great addition to your vegetable garden and is a very accepting plant, which grows well along with all the other vegetables. However, it has its favorites and hence shows extremely good results or yields when planted along with Tomato, Basil and Parsley.

Brassicas (Cabbage Family) – This family includes Cabbage, Cauliflower, Kale, Kohlrabi and Broccoli. These plants grow well when planted along with Celery, Beet, Cucumber, Lettuce, Rosemary, Onions, Sage and Tomato. However the results are visibly hampered when these are grown with their antagonist plants like pole beans, strawberries or tomatoes.

Bush Beans – Bush beans can be great in your vegetable garden. However make it a point to plant them along with Cucumber, Corn, Potatoes, Strawberry and Celery. Never plant the bush beans with onions, since it will hamper the yield for sure.

Corn – Fresh corn from your own vegetable garden to sprinkle on your freshly baked pizza sounds like heaven. Corn can be a great addition to your vegetable garden if you plant it with Potatoes, Beans, Peas, Pumpkin and Cucumber. Ironically although a fresh pizza loaded with corn tastes best with lump some amounts of tomato ketchup, tomato and corn are antagonistic plants, which cannot be planted together.

Cucumber – A fresh cucumber salad cannot get more refreshing than this. Fresh and juicy cucumbers are a must have for your vegetable garden. Cucumbers can be planted with Beans, Corn, Peas and even Radish. However cucumbers should never be planted along with potatoes and any of the aromatic herbs.

Lettuce – Fresh and crispy lettuce is a must have be it for your garden fresh salad or as an addition to the yummy sandwich. Although lettuce grows well with almost any and every vegetable plants, it shows better results when planted along with Carrots, Cucumbers, Onion, Radish as well as Strawberries.

Onion and Garlic – Onion and garlic are two of the most popular cooking ingredients. In order to have these in your vegetable garden, you need to plant them with Beets, Carrots, Lettuce and parsley and keep them away from beans and peas.

Potatoes – French fries or mashed potatoes – we just cannot do without them. Potatoes are a must-have for your vegetable garden. However in order to have good yield, you need to plant them along with Beans, Corn, Eggplant and members of Cabbage family. Potatoes should never be planted along Tomato, Cucumber, Pumpkin or any other squashes.

Peas – Lovely peas can be a great addition to any recipe. Peas can be grown in your vegetable garden with Carrots, Turnips, Cucumbers, Corn and Beans. However peas need to be planted away from Onions, Chives, Garlic and Potatoes.

Tomato – Fresh tomatoes are a must have for any vegetable garden. Tomatoes grow best when planted along with Celery, Asparagus, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Kale, Chives, Parsley and Carrots. However tomatoes should not be planted along with Kohlrabi, potatoes, fennel and cabbage.

The last and most important thing to remember while planning a vegetable garden and selecting vegetables or herbs for your garden is your own requirement. If you and your family have your favorites vegetables, include them instead of some vegetables that you just might never use. Vegetable gardening is fun when you and your family can enjoy the goodness of farm fresh vegetable and herb at your doorstep.