There is nothing more satisfying than picking fresh fruits and vegetables from your own garden. Here are 10 essential tips to help you create a healthy and diverse vegetable garden.
1. Get your compass
Trace your rows of vegetables from east to west so that all plants enjoy the maximum sunshine.
2. Keep everything handy
- To get to the rows more easily, make sure they are less than your arms, about 1.2 m.
- Draw the main road wide enough for a wheelbarrow, therefore at least 1 m wide, and aisles 30 cm wide between the rows.
- To remove weeds and have a clean place to walk, cover the paths with straw, chopped leaves, plants or carpet scraps.
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3. Maximize limited space
- Plant vertically those species that occupy little space on the ground such as peas and climbing ocean beans.
- You can also try dwarf varieties, such as “Tom Pouce” lettuce and pickle mini-cucumbers.
- Different varieties of dwarf vegetables can also be grown in large containers arranged on a patio or patio.
4. Protect your vegetables with old tires
If you are eager to start early in the spring, plant tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers and other vegetables inside old tires on the floor.
- Tires will protect plants from strong winds and black rubber will absorb heat from the sun, heating the surrounding soil.
5. Make room for flowers
In addition to making your vegetable garden a nicer place to work, the flowers have a practical use.
- Some flowers attract beneficial insects such as bees, ladybugs, and lacewings, while others can repel unwanted animals looking at your vegetables.
- Try carnations, cosmos, and zinnias as well as edible flowers such as nasturtiums and violets.
6. Plant beans to stimulate soil nitrogen production
Beans, peas and other legumes are among the few plants that enrich the soil with nitrogen – an essential ingredient for plant growth.
- Legumes use only the nitrogen they have stored when they begin to bloom and produce fruit.
- If you remove them quickly, they will leave nutrients in the soil that can be used by other plants.
7. Harvest throughout the season
- After harvesting fresh season vegetables such as peas and spinach, replant vegetables that prefer warm weather (green beans or summer squash).
- Plant vegetables that grow fast (radishes) and slower (tomatoes) side by side. The rapid harvest will be ready before vegetables requiring more time will slow or shade their growth.
8. Get birds to flee with reflective bands
An innovative way to keep birds away is by hanging strips of reflective tape over the plants.
- Clapping in the wind, these bands emit a light through the garden, which scares the wary birds.
9. Keep insects away
For centuries, even millennia, gardeners use companionship to repel insect pests.
- Aromatic plants, such as basil, tansy, marigolds, and sage are known to keep insects away. Plant them close to your precious vegetables.
- Mint, thyme, dill and sage should be preferred near the cabbage family (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts) because of their ability to repel the cabbageworm.
10. Move it all
Crop rotation is essential to prevent an accumulation of harmful soil microbes that prefer certain plants.
- For this reason, avoid planting the same vegetable or vegetable from the same family in the same place year after year.
- As a rule, a plant must be replanted at its original location every three to four years.
Maintaining a vegetable garden may require patience and willingness, but the good fruits and vegetables you will get will be well worth it. With these 10 tips, you will avoid mistakes and will easily optimize the results of your vegetable garden. Good gardening.
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