How to Start an Organic Vegetable Garden
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.
Type of soil is another key piece of information you will need. Find out how much sand, silt and clay there is in your soil. This will help determine the water holding capacity of your soil. Vegetable plants do best with good drainage but also need soil that can hold some moisture so they don’t get too thirsty. Also find out the pH of your soil. Too high or low and the soil will tie up valuable nutrients and make them unavailable to your plants.
How large area will you be planting? That will depend on your use of vegetables and the time you can spend in your garden. A garden of a few hundred square feet will need a couple paths, wide enough to get a wheelbarrow down. Also, the garden beds themselves should be no wider then four feet so the center of the bed can be reached from both sides.
Now it is time to prepare the soil. Remove rocks and large chunks of wood and debris from the area. If there is sod you are digging up you will need a flat spade. This organic matter can be composted and then returned to your soil as fertility. After the area has been prepped you can add a few inches of compost or well aged manure. Then dig it in, grade the soil and rake it smooth.
The next step is planting. Read the back of the seed package for the crop specific information you will need in planting your garden. Some crops are best directly seeded into the garden bed while others like to be transplanted. Water your seeds and seedlings and get ready to harvest.
Appropriate maintenance includes watering regularly, weeding, and mulching. And composting is an essential part that allows all garden wastes to be cycled back through the garden as nutrients.