I get a whole lot of questions from folks about how to design a vegetable garden like mine. First you want to appear at the region where you would like to set the garden. How much sun does it get? Your backyard will produce best if it’s not shaded.
Sunlight
A vegetable garden actually likes a full day of sunlight, however if you can not get 8 hours of sunbedlight here are some tips on what can grow with less sunlight:
- Fruiting Vegetables – 8 hours of sunlight Including tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and vine crops such as cucumbers, melons, peas and squash, whatever takes a blossom to produce.
- Root Vegetables – 6 hours of sunlight Carrots, beets, radishes, etc..
- Leafy Vegetables – 4 hours of sunlight These are your”greens” such as lettuce, spinach and collards.
- Corn is a complete sun vegetable.
Now you may ask, “How do I know how much sun it gets?” Before you prepare your garden, have a weekend and go out in the morning about 8:00am and look at where the sun is in your lawn. Check again at 12:00 noon, 3:00 pm and 6:00pm. When was your backyard shaded and when did it have sunlight.
Watering
Now that you understand what you can plant, with designing a garden it’s important to know how you’re going to water your crops. Among the worst things you can do is scatter you garden. Sometimes, sprinkling creates a hard crust on the top and it makes it hard for seedlings to sprout. The best is to flood your garden or to put in drip lines. I’ve chosen to put in drip lines since I only water in which the crops are thus saving water and it cuts down on the weeds. I also have an automatic watering system, therefore I do not have to attempt and remember to water and that which becomes consistent water.
Raised Bed Garden
Are you really going to have a raised bed garden or place one in at ground level? We’ve got a raised garden because I do not like to bend down to tend to the garden. In addition, we have complete control over every box. We’ve got a salad box where we develop our leafy and root vegetables. In that box we added plenty of sand to the root vegetables.
Farmers plant hills and flooding between the hills, however they waste plenty of water. Personally, I like to create valleys and then water and plant in the valleys. The slopes hold the water and I think it’s a much better use of the water. When you plant your seeds, you’ll have to water at least once per day and perhaps twice a day. You wish to keep the very best moist so the sprouts can break through the ground. The more mulch is on your soil the easier it’s for the seeds to sprout.
More Tips
As you decide what to plant in your backyard still be conscious of the shade you’re creating. To put it differently, corn is extremely tall and will color the plants next to them, so you may want to plant leafy vegetables beside your corn. Also don’t place you cucumbers and melons beside each other since they will cross pollinate and taste funny.
