Planning a vegetable garden

Many of you may be planning to grow your own vegetables this year – here at Meynells pet shop and garden centre we can help you make a start
It can be a bit bewildering to think of the complexity of planning a vegetable garden and hard to know where to start. With that in mind, here is some advice in the form of principles to follow when producing a good plan for a new vegetable garden.
When planning a vegetable garden it’s all too easy to jump in with both feet and try to grow as much as possible in the first year. Many experienced gardeners will tell you that this is just setting yourself up for disappointment as the amount to learn, maintain and weed can quickly become overwhelming. Far better is to make a list of your favourite vegetables and narrow it down to the ones that taste best fresh or cost a lot to buy in the shops. Plan to create a few vegetable beds each year, expanding as you become confident and find the timesaving shortcuts that work for you. Defining good paths (using materials such as woodchip and weed suppressant fabric) will pay back many times over in the time saved maintaining them.
If the area you are going to use for your vegetable garden is new then the next decision is what style of garden and planting system you would like to use: raised beds, traditional rows, square foot gardening etc. In general it’s a good idea to define garden beds 4 feet (1.2m) wide and as long as you want them to be with a 2 foot (60cm) path between them. This is about as wide as you can go before it becomes uncomfortable to lean into the middle of the bed (you’ll appreciate this when weeding) without treading on the soil (best avoided as it compacts the soil structure). If you have children around then it’s useful to clearly mark the edges and building raised beds is a good way to do this (also good if you have heavy or waterlogged soil as they drain well.)
With these general principles in mind here are some recommendations for placing plants in a new vegetable garden:

Tender Plants: Plants such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergine, basil etc are the most fussy. Unless your climate is extremely warm you’ll want to reserve the best sunny spots in your garden for these high-value crops so add them to your plan first. South facing walls can be particularly good for providing the heat that these plants like in order to produce an abundant harvest.
Roaming Plants: Next place plants that like to send out vines that roam around the garden – melon, squash etc. These need to be situated at the edge of your vegetable beds so the broad leaves attached to the vines don’t cover your other plants. Placing them at the edge lets them spread out across paths or grass.
Vertically Climbing Plants: Anything that grows up supports – peas, beans and some squash such as cucumbers, will need to be located where they won’t shade other vegetables. The one exception is areas with very hot summers where some cool-season crops such as lettuce and spinach can benefit from shade in the heat of the day.
Irrigation: Some plants perform badly in dry conditions – celery, onions, strawberries etc. Areas of your garden that are slightly lower will retain more moisture or you may need to plan to provide irrigation to get consistent growth.
Pollination: Certain plants need to be near others in order to pollinate well and ‘set fruit’ (ie produce the edible portion). The main one you need to consider is sweet corn which should be grown in blocks to ensure that it produces full cobs
Accessibility: What plants do you want to be able to regularly harvest? Herbs, salad, tomatoes etc..? These should all be placed as near to your kitchen as possible. Not only will you then be more likely to use them but it will help you to keep on top of the weeds and remove slugs regularly.
Succession Planting: If you are short of space or want a crop throughout the season, consider using succession planting and intercropping
Don't Overcrowd: Finally, tempting though it is, be very careful not to overcrowd plants as you add in the remaining ones to your plan. This is the number 1 mistake made by new gardeners and it’s easy to see why – plants look so small as seedlings and we all hate pulling up the result of our hard work to thin them out! Our Garden Planner can help with this and show just how much you can get into your space.

(credit for this advice to Jeremy Dore at www.growveg.co.uk )
Another excellent source of planning information in terms of when to sow and plant vegetables and planning spacing etc is the unbeatable Fruit and Vegetable Expert book by Dr Hessayon

If you are looking for a creative way to display climbing plants such as peas and beans in the vegetable garden or ornamental plants elsewhere , a garden obelisk could be the perfect choice for you .As well as providing essential support for your climbing plants , garden obelisks are a beautiful way to add to the décor of your garden
Obelisks give you the chance to grow climbing plants throughout your garden, rather than limit them to just your walls and fences, while plant supports are indispensable for helping prevent herbaceous perennials flopping over paths, lawns or their plant neighbours.
Although most climbing plants are simple to grow they can be hard to contain, and may take over other trees and shrubs. The right plant support helps these plants grow as healthily as possible while keeping them in check.
Plant supports can fulfil a variety of roles. They can be straightforward, discreet support for your plants or aesthetic statements in their own right. They add height and focus to borders, can help to define areas of the garden and make a feature of more utilitarian crops like runner beans and peas.They are also ideal for lants such as sweet peas and black eye susie
Spring is an excellent time to plan where obelisks and supports can go in the garden and establish them ready for this years planting

In the shop
To help you in growing your own produce there are plenty of goods inside the shop – from a veritable A – Z of vegetable seeds – from artichokes and aubergines right through carrots , courgettes , lettuce , squash, tomatoes – all in many different colours and varieties – as well as peas, beans and herbs from just £1.50 a packet.
We also have a good variety of potato , onions and shallot sets
There is also a good selection of pots and some compostable plug pots along with small tools that are essential and some fleece for early crops and netting for later peas and climbing plants
If you head down the yard you will also find plenty of compost , farmyard and organic pelleted manure as well as some used pots that are free to take away

Now in stock at Meynells pet shop and garden centre we also have a lovely selection of obelisks from the company Tom Chambers with styles to suit every garden – from willow to plain metal designed to rust naturally or style painted in green or black . There are several different designs from ornamental to more plain and in different sizes – Tom Chambers pride themselves in hand crafting all their obelisks in their factory in the UK

Jobs to do in the vegetable garden in April

By the end of March we should start to have the first of the vegetable plants coming in – cabbages and brassicas , onions , leeks ,peas and lettuce

1 .Prepare Seed beds : Remove weeds and large stones and dig in a layer of compost , green waste or well rotted manure
2.Build raised beds: Raised beds are a great solution to poor quality soil and reduce the amount of bending needed
3. Plant vegetable seeds – as the weather warms up – it’s a good time to start planting
4.Support pea plants – support emerging pea shoots by pushing sticks around them
5.Harvest asparagus spears
6.Mulch fruit trees – feed with garden compost or well rotted manure
7. Protect fruit blossoms from late frosts – cover the trees with fleece on colder evenings
8.Vegetable crops to sow this month : peppers,chillies,beetroot, onions, leeks, lettuce radish,spinach ,peas, kale , broad beans, broccoli, cabbages ,parsnips, sweetcorn and in the greenhouse tomaotes , cucumbers , marrows and squash