When to Plant Preparing Your Garden Plot Preparing Your Garden Rows How to Plant Garden Journal Chores Calendar Soil
Before Anyone Digs
Ask the property owner, choose the area together, and have an adult arrange the official utility-locating service. Never rely on memory to find buried power, gas, water, drainage, or communication lines.
Choose a reasonably level, well-drained place near water. Most vegetables need at least six hours of direct sun; observe the site because trees and buildings cast different shadows through the season. Avoid contaminated soil, septic areas, roof runoff from questionable materials, busy roads, and low places that stay soggy.
On paper, draw:
- the bed's length and width;
- permanent paths wide enough for every gardener who will use them;
- each crop at its mature spacing from the packet;
- tall plants where they will not shade smaller ones—often toward the north in the Northern Hemisphere;
- water, compost, storage, fences, and supports; and
- room to reach the centre without stepping on growing soil.
Start smaller than your maximum available space. A cared-for 1-by-2-metre bed teaches more than a giant weedy plot. Record the plan and results in a Garden Journal, then improve next year's version.