How to Start an Organic Vegetable Garden
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
by Ned Conwell
The first step in designing a vegetable garden is choosing a site. The garden should be as close to the kitchen as possible. Making frequent trips to cut greens or harvest fresh herbs makes sense when the garden is as close as possible. Choose a site with a lot of sunlight. Most vegetables need a minimum of six hours of sun and eight hours is even better.
Soil is an essential component of your garden. It is the building block of all that is to come. Annual vegetables need rich soil with lots of organic matter. If your soil is loose and fertile already, keep it that way. If you are gardening in a depleted soil or in a yard that had its topsoil scraped away when the house was built then you will have to build your soil.
Now that you have a site in mind, it’s time to choose vegetables and varieties. The most important things to grow are your favorite kitchen ingredients. Look for varieties that grow well in your climate. The Sunset Western Garden Book, by Sunset Books gives useful climate information organized by growing zone. (more…)