We all have good reasons for wanting to grow our own vegetables. Especially since the rise of organic consumption and the return to healthy consumption, we may want to eat everything healthy knowing where it comes from. Or you want to go further by achieving self-sufficiency. In any case, and whatever your reasons, there is a beginning. But here it is, if you don’t know how to go about it… You can quickly neglect the organization of your vegetable garden from the start and then be disappointed with the results obtained.
In this article, I will walk you through setting up your vegetable garden so you can optimize it for your garden. Whether you are in town or in the countryside, with a large garden or just a balcony, solutions exist whatever your situation. I will also give you some tools that will make your life easier for setting up and managing your vegetable garden.
What do you really want?
The first step, which may seem obvious but should not be overlooked, is to know what exactly you want to plant in your vegetable garden. If you do not organize yourself from this stage, things can quickly go into a “spin” (poor management of quantities, equipment, space to be provided, etc.). It is therefore important to think about it carefully and above all to know how much you want to harvest!
To do this, you just need to do some calculations based on the number of people in your household.
Once you’ve figured out what you want, you can then think about your planting layout. The smarter you think about it, the less you will be overwhelmed and the more space you will save, while avoiding losses caused by pests as much as possible. The yield of your vegetable garden will therefore be even better! In addition, a good distribution of your vegetables will give a better productivity they will complement each other. It’s time to talk about “companionship”.
I found for you a good example of how to organize a 12m² vegetable garden, optimized for 4 people. It’s up to you to manage the quantities needed then according to the gluttony of your household .
Organize the neighborhood of plantations
A good arrangement of your plantations will allow you to improve the quality of your culture. For this, it is therefore important to know what are the best compatibilities and complementarities between plants. As I told you above, a good neighborhood will save you space but in addition, it will repel pests naturally, and that only by putting the right things next to the plant to be protected. I am also thinking of writing a short article for you to learn more about plants that repel pests so that I can say goodbye to pesticides and let nature take its course.
To find your way around, I have unearthed two infographics that illustrate good and bad neighborhoods. I took them from two English-speaking blogs (links on the images for the most English-speaking) and therefore provide them to you in French.
Rotate your crops
This step is complementary to the previous one, and will allow you to properly manage your plantations so that your vegetable garden is permanently active. Always paying attention to the neighborhood, when a harvest has been made, you can start another one directly after. In particular, you can make your rotations by type of vegetable (seeds, leaves, flowers, fruits) or quite simply in relation to the nutritional needs of what you are planting. This rotation will also allow you to avoid diseases and pests in the ground, but above all to nourish the following plants with the nutrients left by the previous ones in this location. These obviously do not leave the same and all plants do not require the same nutrients in the same quantities.
For example, peas, broad beans, beans, etc. enrich the soil by fixing the atmospheric nitrogen that they absorb. The following vegetable plants will thus be able to benefit from it and this will thus promote their growth because their arrangement will have been strategic.
This is one of the reasons why you have to plan your crops AND keep these writings to know which plants you have placed where and when so as not to put the same ones back in the same place too soon, but I’ll talk to you about planning later. ‘hour.
To give you a concrete example, you can for example on the same square place peas (seed vegetable) then lettuce (leaf vegetable) before putting potatoes (root vegetable) then cucumbers (fruit vegetable).
Strategically choose the location of your future vegetable garden
Obviously, I will tell you to choose a sunny place and not in the shade. But if you really don’t have a suitable place, be aware that some vegetables can grow in the shade, such as kale, beets, parsley, leeks, lettuce, garlic, bok choi, l spinach, carrots, potatoes, cilantro, parsnips, chard or arugula. And then unless you only have one place in complete shade all the time, your vegetables will manage to grow. In addition, if your vegetable garden is in this semi-shaded situation, there are techniques to counter this, and I will give them to you right away.
Orient your vegetable garden to the south, it seems logical.
Lean your vegetable garden on a slope against a clear wall so that the sun’s rays can be reflected there. If you don’t have a wall, you can always install a wooden barrier that you cover with lime.