Spring Vegetable Garden Series - Preparing Your Garden Spot: Part 1

It is finally (FINALLY) spring here in Ohio, and I am inspired to post a spring garden series. This will focus on vegetable gardening - growing your own vegetables I feel is such an important part of living a sustainable and holistic lifestyle. As you have probably discovered from reading this blog, even apartment and condo dwellers can practice sustainable gardening - you just need a bit of creativity!

Image via WikipediaI will try to throw some tips in for us small-space gardeners throughout the series, so stay tuned, and lets get gardening!

Choosing and Preparing Your Garden Spot:

In deciding upon the site for the home vegetable garden it is well to dispose once and for all of the old idea that the garden "patch" must be an ugly or plain spot in the home surroundings. If thoughtfully planned, carefully planted and thoroughly cared for, it may be made a beautiful and harmonious feature of the general scheme, lending a touch of comfortable homeliness that no shrubs, borders, or landscaping can ever produce.

With this fact in mind we will not feel restricted to any part of the premises merely because it is out of sight behind the barn or garage. In the average moderate-sized homestead there will not be much choice as to land. It will be necessary to take what is to be had and then do the best you can with what you have. But there will probably be at least some choice available as to, first, exposure, and second, convenience.

Image by agelakis via FlickrConsideration #1: Exposure
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The first thing to consider in picking out the spot that is to yield you happiness and delicious vegetables all summer, or even for many years, is the exposure. Pick out the "earliest" spot you can find a plot sloping a little to the south or east, that seems to catch sunshine early and hold it late, and that seems to be out of the direct path of the chilling north and northeast winds. If a building, or even an old fence, protects it from this direction, your garden will be helped along wonderfully, for an early start is a great big factor toward success (especially in cooler climates with shorter growing seasons). If it is not already protected, a board fence, or a hedge of some low-growing shrubs or young evergreens may be a great addition to your gardening efforts, that will pay off well over time. The importance of having such a protection or shelter is altogether underestimated by the amateur.

Consideration #2: Convenience

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Other things being equal, select a spot near at hand, and easy to access. It may seem that a difference of only a few hundred yards will mean nothing, but if one is depending largely upon spare moments for working in and for watching the garden and in the growing of many vegetables, this matter of convenient access will be of much greater importance than at first you might think. Not until you have had to make a dozen time-wasting trips for forgotten seeds or tools, lugged a big heavy hose out to the garden and back, or gotten your feet soaking wet by going out through the dew-drenched grass, will you realize fully what this may mean.


The next consideration will be the soil, and we will cover that on Thursday, so be sure to check back for some great tips on preparing great soil for your vegetable garden.