Garden planning: organizing space, beds and work

Recommendation points

• Determine the composition of the soil
• Choosing a place for landing
• Choosing the “design” of the beds and placing them correctly
• Fruit change
• Culture compatibility
• We think over a rational irrigation system

Starting any business, each person strives to ensure that it brings him both material and moral satisfaction. And this concerns work in the garden in the first place. In order for the efforts spent on growing vegetables were not in vain, it is necessary to carefully plan all garden work. Experienced farmers already know that each crop must grow in a certain place and must be planted within a clearly defined time frame – only in this case it will be possible to get an optimal harvest.

Before drawing a garden plan and deciding what vegetables you want to grow, you need to carefully consider the question of how much time you can devote to working on the ground – weekends should be rest on the backyard, and not exhausting labor on garden plantations. In order for dreams to come true, and the garden to please the soul and decorate the household farm, it is necessary to solve for yourself the issues that are fundamentally important for the successful cultivation of vegetable crops:

1. What is the mechanical and chemical composition of the soil on the site?
2. What part of the site to allocate for planting vegetables?
3. What beds to choose and how best to place them?
4. What is fruit change and crop compatibility?

Let’s take a closer look at each of these questions..

Determine the composition of the soil

Knowing the mechanical and chemical composition of the soil is extremely important in order to be able to determine for yourself which vegetables on your site are best grown. The most important characteristic for this is acidity, the level of which is determined in units of pH. Depending on the level of acidity, the soil on the site can be acidic, neutral or alkaline. And from this it will already become clear which vegetable crops will grow best on your land. All crops grown can be divided into 4 groups:

1. Plants that thrive best on neutral or slightly alkaline soils – beets, cabbage, currants of any kind.
2. Crops that prefer slightly acidic soil – all legumes, cucumbers, any type of onion.
3. Tomatoes, pumpkin, turnips, carrots, raspberries and gooseberries are best planted in an area where the soil is moderately acidic.
4. Sorrel and potatoes prefer increased acidity.

Another important characteristic for obtaining optimal yields is the texture of the soil in your area. According to the mechanical composition, the following main types of soils are distinguished:

• clayey
• sandy
• sandy loam and loamy
• peat
• limestone

Each of these types has its own pros and cons when growing vegetables. Land of different mechanical composition requires the use of different agricultural techniques for growing certain crops. In more detail about how to determine acidity and texture, how to improve the structure of the soil on the site, we talked about in the article “How to improve the structure of the soil and increase its fertility”.

Choosing a place for landing

The choice of a site for organizing vegetable beds is one of the most crucial moments when planning a vegetable garden. Sometimes no amount of effort, time and money can give the same excellent results as the right place for growing vegetables. Therefore, this issue should be approached especially carefully, taking into account the following basic rules:

1. The place where it is planned to place the beds should be lit at least from 6 am to 6 pm, in extreme cases, from noon to sunset.
2. It is best to grow vegetables out of the blue, in this case you will have much less work. However, such a possibility is not always presented. If the site is with a slope, then a southern or southeastern gentle slope is best suited for vegetables. The land here warms up and “ripens” faster in spring, which means that vegetables can be planted much earlier..
3. Try to avoid the northern slopes, where there is a lack of sunlight, and in spring, plants can suffer from unexpected night frosts..
4. It is recommended to place the beds in the selected area from north to south – so they will receive more sun during the day.
5. Vegetable crops do not do well in soil with poor drainage – if the soil is oversaturated with moisture, the root system suffers from a lack of oxygen, and the plant may simply suffocate.
6. For growing vegetables, medium to light loamy soils are best suited, which have a good structure and rich composition of nutrients. When planning a vegetable garden, it is advisable to avoid peat and limestone soil. Peatlands, as a rule, are poor in nutritional composition and have a high level of groundwater, and limestones have an increased alkaline reaction, which some plants do not tolerate very well..
7. A plot for growing vegetables must be chosen near a permanent source of water, be it a water supply system, a well, a well, and the like. Vegetable crops, especially in drought, require regular watering, without which it is not possible to get a good harvest..
8. If there is such an opportunity, then the garden is best placed on a site located in a river valley or on the banks of any other reservoir. Tops of hills or the tops of gentle slopes are also good places to grow vegetables. In such places, the frost-free period usually lasts 2-3 weeks longer, and the minimum temperatures at night are usually three to five degrees higher.

Choosing the “design” of the beds and placing them correctly

Dividing the garden into beds helps to keep the site in perfect order, contributes to the correct observance of crop rotation and greatly facilitates the care of plants. You can choose the “design” of the beds according to your wishes and possibilities – it can be either ordinary hilly beds or high beds made of materials available on the farm.

If the garden is located on an area with heavy, waterlogged soils, it is recommended to form a raised bed, which contributes to the earliest warming of the earth. In such beds, plants can be planted 2-3 weeks earlier, and it is much easier to process them – you can take care of crops without bending over. In order to form such a bed, it will take a certain amount of effort, time and money, but they will fully justify themselves in the growing process. In more detail about the varieties and methods of building, as well as filling high beds, see the article “Organic farming. How to create “smart” beds “.

When planning a vegetable garden, it is important to carefully consider the choice of the width of the beds and paths, using the most rational approach. Too narrow beds with wide paths lead to a large loss of area, which is especially true if the site is small. In addition, in narrow beds, plants planted along the edges are provided with moisture much worse. Too wide a bed is inconvenient to process, as it will be difficult to reach its middle.

The paths must be laid so wide that a wheelbarrow can be rolled along them, if necessary. The optimum width of the main path is 50–60 cm, and the paths between the beds are 30 cm. In this case, sawdust can be used as a covering, which lasts the whole season, and is re-heated during the winter. If possible, it is best to lay the paths with tiles, on which it is convenient to walk and drive a wheelbarrow. It is not recommended to cover them with gravel – although it looks elegant, such paths very quickly become overgrown with weed, which will not be easy to remove from under the gravel.

Fruit change

When planning a garden, it is necessary to take into account such a need as a fruit change. This means that one vegetable crop cannot be assigned to the same bed for a long time. If, for example, cabbage is planted over cabbage, then pests and diseases that affect this particular crop will accumulate in the soil. In addition, such planting will lead to one-sided depletion of the land, when even the best fertilizers become ineffective. Therefore, it is recommended to return this or that culture to the place where it has already grown, no earlier than after three to four years. The order of planting in this case, it is advisable to think over for several years ahead, taking into account the need for different plants in nutrients.

To organize an ideal fruit change after a strong consumer of food in the second year, medium consumers are planted in the same place, in the third year – weak ones. In the fourth year, the soil in this place is well fertilized, after which strong consumers can be planted again. Thus, the basic principle of fruit change is that plants feed on what their predecessors left them. But, as with any rule, there are exceptions here. Curly beans do not need to change beds every year, asparagus can grow in the same place for 10-15 years, rhubarb – 7-8 years, strawberries can not be transplanted for 3-4 years.

Plants are divided into strong, medium and weak consumers, depending on how much nitrogen they need for normal growth and development:

1. Strong consumers have a great need for nitrogen – all types and varieties of cabbage, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, pumpkin.
2. Average consumers – potatoes, eggplant, carrots, beets, lettuce and head salad.
3. Weak consumers – peas and other legumes, radishes, parsley, dill, coriander, basil.

If we take into account the plant’s need for nitrogen and the accumulation of pests and pathogens in the soil, it is possible to calculate with great accuracy the best predecessors for the main vegetable crops:

1. For potatoes – legumes, cabbage, pumpkin, zucchini, cucumber.
2. For cucumber – all types of cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, any root vegetables (except carrots).
3. For tomato, eggplant and pepper – cabbage, zucchini, pumpkin, any root vegetables.
4. For cabbage – tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and beets.
5. For greens – cucumbers, cabbage, onions, any root vegetables.

Culture compatibility

In order to properly plan the planting of vegetables and ensure their normal growth and fruiting, it is extremely important to adhere to such a concept as crop compatibility. For a long time, man has noticed that any plant in the process of vital activity releases biologically active substances that can positively or negatively affect the crops growing nearby. Based on these observations and the accumulated knowledge and experience, even such a subsection in plant science as allelopathy appeared. Farmers receive this information little by little, every year, carefully observing the behavior of the crops growing nearby. Taking into account the information collected by specialists, you can make a basic list of compatible and incompatible garden plants.

Combine well:

• tomato – onion, cabbage
• potatoes – beans, beans
• cucumber – salad, dill, beets, parsley, cabbage
• carrots – dill, various types of salad
• cabbage – radish, dill, tomato
• zucchini – corn, cucumber, pumpkin
• onions – carrots, parsley, salad

Feel bad around:

• beans – onions
• potato – pumpkin
• tomato – cucumber, peas, beets
• onion – cabbage, potatoes

Gardeners have been collecting such information for decades. In order to accurately understand for yourself the compatibility of crops, you need considerable experience in growing and the presence of certain knowledge. Practice shows that the organization of garden beds, taking into account the compatibility of different plants, can increase the yield by 30-40 percent, but if you plant nearby plants that negatively affect each other, then you may not get a harvest at all. We talked in more detail about allelopathy and crop compatibility in the article “Organic farming. Intensive planting of plants “.

We think over a rational irrigation system

At the time of planning the garden, it is extremely important to decide how watering will be organized. This will determine how difficult this work will become for you – you can mount a drip irrigation system and water the beds rationally and without straining at all, or you can limit yourself to an ordinary watering hose and fall off your feet after such an activity, while pouring out a large amount of wasted water. What irrigation systems exist, and what are the pros and cons of each of them are described in detail in the articles “Watering the Garden Correctly” and “Drip Irrigation – Technology of the Future”.

Considering all of the above, it should be noted that it will not work to plan the landing once and for all. Practice shows that the adjustment of various points will be carried out by you from year to year, in the course of accumulating valuable experience and knowledge. And this does not mean at all that you will become more lazy, just common sense will tell you that it is better to learn how to increase the yield of the beds than it is pointless to take care of the “hectares” of the garden. So that the time spent on caring for the garden is not wasted, it is important to correctly determine the range and quantity of vegetables necessary for your family, purchase high-quality seed material and plant on time. We will talk about this in the next article..