Designing the Layout for Your Vegetable Garden

Selecting the Perfect Plot for Your Vegetable Garden

One of the difficulties with beginning work on a first time vegetable garden is settling on an area that is ideal for the garden to flourish. Considerations must include the amount of sunlight, size, accessibility, and current condition of the plot. You also must consider if you want to select crops based on a predetermined plot or if you want to use preselected crops as another factor for determining the perfect garden location. It can be done either way, but make sure crop selection and plot choice are compatible.

Understanding the Needs of the Plants in Your Garden

The design phase requires that you know what crops you intend to plant. Each plant has different requirements that must be taken into consideration when designing the layout of your vegetable garden, so this is not something that can be done without knowing exactly what crops and how much of each you want to plant. Raised bed and single row plants usually run in long, narrow spaces. The width of the space in between rows for these planting styles is different for each type of plant, so be sure to research the ideal space needed for your crop choices. Vine-based crops like pumpkins and squash do better in wider, more square-like plots so that the plants can spread out along the ground. Root-type crops such as carrots and potatoes need raised beds, which are similar to single row planting but the soil is built up about six to ten inches above the normal ground level so there is soft soil for the plant to grow down into without meeting much resistance. Wide area plots are gaining popularity over single rows because it naturally defends against weeds by using the density of crop growth to not allow nutrients or space for weeds to take root.

Allocating Space in the Vegetable Garden

In our vegetable garden we are going to grow squash in a separate area from the rest of the crops and use a wide plot style. The mixed summer lettuces are going to be grown in a wide plot area since they are all similar plants with basically the same needs, and this should help minimize weeding effort in the lettuce area. The remaining crops will be planted in single rows, with the carrots requiring raised bed single rows. The various crops require differing amounts of space in between each plant, resulting in the need to make a more detailed plan of the area for each crop. Some crops require a trellis for supporting the plants, such as the peas. Below is a more detailed design of the pea plot area that shows the spacing between rows of plants and the distance between plants within a row. The thirty inch width by eight feet wide plot area will allow for the planting of four rows of six plants per row-a total of 24 pea plants. You will notice that we will have a trellis for the peas as this will help guide and support the pea plants during their development.

A detailed plan for each of the plot areas seen in the total vegetable garden layout should be completed so you know exactly how many of each vegetable to plant and how much space to leave in between rows and plants within a row. Having this thought out and on paper in advance will speed up the planting process and make it less vulnerable to miscalculation and other errors.

Retaining Walls, Fences, and Irrigation

The vegetable garden in your area may be as simple as a rectangular dirt space carved into the middle of a grassy field, but there are certain structures that can solve problems and help control the garden area. We needed to add an erosion barrier in front of our vegetable garden because there is an existing brick patio surface several inches lower than the garden surface. In order to prevent erosion of the vegetable garden’s soil onto the brick patio surface we screwed two eight foot long landscaping boards together and put it into position creating a barrier between the two different ground levels. We also located our vegetable garden in a section of the yard that was already fenced off on three sides. Having a fence is nice because it can help keep some poachers out and also creates a barrier between the vegetable garden and the rest of your yard. Finally, be sure to design some type of irrigation system. It can be as fancy as an underground sprinkler system or as simple as a rain catcher and a bucket.