Photo Credit: Taryn Elliott via www.pexels.com

It is an absolute dream for some, others discover the joys of gardening more by chance. Vegetable gardens are becoming increasingly common as attention grows to a more sustainable way of life, oriented to nature and its rhythms.

Now the point is no longer to have a tomato plant that will bear a few miracle fruits in the summer: You want more, you want to have a steady production and at the same time make the space dedicated to small plants look decent.

Garden supply stores are becoming more and more aware of these changing habits and customers. However, if you are still confused and do not know where to start your vegetable garden, here are some tips to get you off to a good start.

Do not do the leeks! Start now to care for your garden

You might think that fall or winter is a dull season for vegetable gardens, but it’s during this time of year that the foundation is laid for a spring and summer filled with delicious treats.

The exhibition of the vegetable garden

The first thing you should do is to be realistic: a garden facing north will give you only a little pleasure! If, on the other hand, you are lucky enough to have a garden in an exposed position, you can certainly approach the task with much greater chances of success, even if you don’t have a proper green thumb!

To help all those who want to have a vegetable garden, but do not have a garden or a garden in an unfavourable location, renting vegetable gardens is growing in popularity. Check with your city council.

Do you know your soil ?

Becoming a vegetable farmer requires some knowledge of chemistry: knowing the soil is fundamental to choose the best plants and the right fertiliser. For example, tomatoes and zucchini need a good fertiliser rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Thus, a good fertiliser is manure.

Crop rotation

This ancient technique is also easily applicable in your small vegetable garden. All you need to do is remember which plants were planted in which place the previous year. If you always grow the same plants in the same place, the soil will be leached. The best arranged gardeners try to plan the rotation of crops for about four years, however even if you do not repeat the same structure of the garden every year, you can give your soil a break and get better results with more fruits and vegetables.

Properly arrange the vegetable garden

The best vegetable gardens are therefore well sorted, and this is not just a matter of looks: it ensures that you do not repeat the exact position of the plants from the previous year, and therefore have a real rotation of crops. Pinterest is filled with pictures of perfectly laid out vegetable gardens, but what’s the key to having a garden that’s just as beautiful? It is not simple to properly arrange the soil and make sure that the seeds sown in a particular place will give an almost geometric result, perfectly aligned with the other plants. This is because there is a trick that comes to the aid of aspiring vegetable gardeners: lawn edging. It is a partition – made of wood, steel, plastic, … – between an area of the garden or vegetable garden and the rest. This provides a very even visibility and therefore an uncluttered vegetable garden. Garden borders have not only purely aesthetic advantages: they can prevent the spread of weeds, contain the growth of roots of plants and keep away slugs and slugs.

The variety of possible edging for flower beds is huge: They may be made of metal, plastic, wood, or even stone. Furthermore, plant edgings are also possible: have you ever noticed that some vegetable beds are edged with lavender? In this case, the aesthetic choice takes priority over the functional one, because plant edgings are much more demanding in terms of maintenance than metal or wooden edgings.

Eventually, certain garden borders can also protect your precious lettuces from slugs and snails. These beasts wreak havoc in vegetable gardens and are the ultimate nightmare of any vegetable grower. Suitable garden edging – in other words, with the top edges bent outwards – is an effective barrier against this pest.

Here you will find all sorts of available options to customise your bed borders and create the beautiful vegetable garden of your dreams that will provide you with lots of tasty vegetables next spring..