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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. |
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