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Garden plot planning?
"DH" wrote in message ...
Any good reference books/sites/software out there how to plot out a vegetable/herb garden? I am moving in about a month, and am currently really trying to get a wonderful parcel on ten acres. (Wish me luck - I'm second in line depending on if the first potential buyers can drop their contingency.) I'd like to devote about an acre to a vegetable garden to start, but was wondering how best to plan it out. For example, I know that some vegetables grow well side by side, but others shade out lower-growing veggies. What distance should veggie types be from each other, what side of the garden (i.e, north, west, south, east) should particular plants go, etc. How far apart should individual plants be from each other. (I know this is on the seed packets, but I'm looking for a more comprehensive tool to plan out the garden in advance.) I love just about every veggie (except radishes), so I want to plant quite a variety, but I've never been good at placement and figuring out what to plant early enough so that I can plant a second crop later after the early crop expires. I have a lot of good gardening books, but nothing that really covers planning out the layout well, except for a little book I have about postage-stamp gardens Rodale just came out with a new encyclopedia of organic gardening which is the first truly advanced book on home gardening I have seen (at least at B&N). Territorial Seeds also has an advanced home gardening book. If you have that much room, you should consider growing, like I do, potatoes under wood chips rows. No watering, no feeding, and low yields, but I do nothing except planting and harvesting them. Ditto for Jerusalem artichokes, and of course you should also consider a 5 sqyds asparagus bed. Both asparagus and JA are perennial. There are a few other perennial crops, ask if interested and specify zone. Another thing i would do is to have maybe 50 sqaure yards under cover. You plant them with winter vegetables and start harvesting in november. It could last you into february. I cover approx. 15 square yards, and they last into mid-january. Right now I am miserable at the lack of truly fresh veggies. Other than that 1 acre is too much. My family gets half its veggies for the year out of 30 sqyds. The great advantage of large gardens is in extending the season, and in having plots devoted to low yield, no work crops. If I were to double my garden size, I would put all the new area under cover. |
Garden plot planning?
My garden is all raised bed on about 30 x50 feet. Being in the city, this is
the largest garden I have ever had. I planned it on graph paper, keeping in mind that I wanted the beds to go east to west for the best light all day. I also plant tall plants to get the morning sun first which is also by my privacy fence. I use a gardener's journal put out by Lee Valley, which is really nice, has places for everything. Some of my favorite books are Carrots love Tomatoes, which tell you what goes with what and what doesn't like what.Also the book The New Kitchen Garden is nice for garden plans, although not as big as you plan, but could be a source of inspiration. It shows plans for fruit gardens, herb and vegetable gardens. Good luck, hope this helps. O "DH" wrote in message ... "Tim B" wrote in message . .. Ahhhh I see now. Agree on the fruits. Let me suggest small fruits and berries too. (off topic follows....) You must be my long lost twin. :-) I have some blackberry plants that have traveled with me from home to home in a container, so they will be going up with me. Wanted to plant a mulberry tree/shrub as well. I am already reading up on chickens. I kept them a long time ago, when I was a kid, but they seem to have become more complicated since then! g I found out today that I got my ten acre parcel!!!! One nice thing is that it comes complete with a barn and a big fenced chicken coop, as well as those two pastures, so there won't be much I have to do there, other than install fencing so my two big pooches don't stray too far. |
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