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Vegetable Gardening

"Rotating your vegetable crops is very important in maintaining nutrient balance in your soil and to ensure your plants are receiving the correct nutrients."

Plants are divided into three categories: heavy feeders, light feeders and soil builders.
As you plan your rotations, follow heavy feeders by light feeders the second season and by soil builders the third. Or, follow heavy feeders by soil builders and then by light feeders the third season.
Try never to have heavy feeder following light feeders.

Heavy Feeders:
Asparagus, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celery, Collards, Corn, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Endive, Escarole, Kale, Kohlrabi, Lettuce, Okra, Parsley, Pumpkins, Radishes, Rhubarb, Spinach, Squash; Summer and Winter, Tomatoes, Tobacco.

Light Feeders:
Beets, Carrots, Garlic, Leeks, Mustard, Onions, Parsnips, Potatoes, Rutabagas, Shallots, Sweet Potatoe, Swiss Chard, Turnips.

Soil Builders:
Alfalfa, Broad Beans, Clover, Lima Beans, Peanuts, Peas, Snap Beans, Soybeans.



Vegetables
Freshly grown vegetables are not only a delight to eat and a healthy alternative to purchasing produce from the local green-grocer but growing your own vegetables will in most cases help to balance the household budget and give you some outdoor recreation and exercise as well.

Siting Your Vegetable Garden
The site you choose for your vegetable garden should ideally be either flat or with a slight slope. A slight slope in the site will assist in providing the necessary drainage required for most produce.

Vegetables require plenty of sunshine, so use a spot on your block that receives maximum sun, is reasonably sheltered from strong winds, is easily accessable from the kitchen, has water available and is close to your compost heap.

Try to design your garden so that the rows will run from North to South to maximise the amount of sunlight available.

If strong winds prevail in the area, construct a trellis fence to protect the garden and also provide an open wall to grow climbing produce on such as beans and peas etc.

Soil Requirements
The preparation of the soil for vegetables is the most important work you will undertake when installing your vegetable garden.

Dig over the entire area to a spade's depth and turn each spade full upside down so that what was the top-soil becomes the base of the bed.

Cover the entire area with a 15cm layer of a mixture of compost and manure. This mixture can contain straw or other fibrous material. Leave the area for at least two weeks for the mixture to rot down a little. Keep the mixture damp by watering it with the hose if it becomes dry.

Dig this mixture into the soil making sure that any clods of earth are broken up during the process. This should raise the beds slightly and help to provide good drainage for the site.

Add some gypsum or lime to the soil if it has a lot of clay content and leave the area for about three weeks to allow it to break down a little. A measure of about 350g per square metre should suffice to achieve this result.

Planting Out
Use a string line to keep the rows straight and an old clothes peg or pointed stick to make the holes necessary for seedlings. The back of a rake will help to make shallow trenches for seed planting and also help to keep the line straight.

Handle your seedlings carefully so as not to damage the delicate root systems. Place the seedlings in the pre-formed holes and firm down the soil around the seedlings by hand.

Water gently with a watering can. Unless it is very hot, you should not need to water them again for several days.

Using Fertilisers
Nitrogen is very important for continued growth as are measures of potash and phosphorus. These chemicals are contained in all artificial fertilisers in different proportions for various plants and are available from your nurseryman or plant centre.

Follow the instructions on the packet or bottle as too much fertiliser is worse than too little. Liquid fertilisers are quite justly popular, as they can be applied with a watering can and are normally very high in nitrogen.

Crop Rotation
Always rotate the crops you are planting each year. As a rule you should never plant the same crop in the same position two years in a row.

The following is a guide to rotating your crop:

Root crops should never be planted in the same position for two succesive years, rather plant root crops the year after planting cauliflour, cabbage or sprouts, as these crops require a rich soil.

Peas and beans produce nitrogen from the soil, so the following year plant leafy vegetables such as silver beet or lettuce as these crops require plenty of nitrogen.

Plant peas and beans to build up the nitrogen in the soil, following root crops which require plenty of nitrogen and may leave the soil depleted. The peas and beans will replenish the nitrogen removed by the root crop.

Copyright (c) Brian Rondel,GrowIt Gold, Innovative Thinking Software, All Rights Reserved