Growing Vegetables: A 7-Step Growing Plan

Creating a grow plan can be complicated, but it doesn't have to be. Here's the best way to go about planning your vegetable garden.

Which plants get along, how much space do they need and which location is ideal for growing vegetables? Anyone who grows vegetables in the garden for the first time is confronted with quite a lot of questions. It is therefore worth creating a cultivation plan beforehand in order to clarify all questions and to keep track of things. But even here, especially beginners in vegetable cultivation are quickly overwhelmed. It's not as complicated as it first seems. We show what you should consider and how to create your own cultivation plan step by step.

Growing vegetables: the right location

When you create a new vegetable garden, the first question to be asked is the right location. Although you can grow vegetables almost anywhere with the right choice of plants, certain basic requirements make working in the garden much easier. Most vegetable plants prefer loose, well-drained and nutrient-rich soil in a sunny position. You should also include the proximity to your house or at least to the nearest water connection in the planning, because in the summer, lugging full watering cans can be a real burden.

Once you have found the right place, enter the basic dimensions in your cultivation plan. Now it's about the right size of the individual beds within the garden: A width of about 1.20 m has proven itself here, because this way you can easily reach the vegetable plants in the middle from both sides. If you prefer rather wider beds, you should still divide them into about 1.20 m wide sections with a small path between them. In this way you can easily reach all plants without having to step into the individual rows. Draw the beds on your plan and don't forget other details, such as a wider path for the wheelbarrow or a place for a greenhouse.

Growing Planfor the vegetable garden: the right plants

Now it's time to choose the right vegetable plants. Basically, grow what you like to eat. A kitchen garden is supposed to spoil us with delicacies and it is worth growing vegetables that you like - it would be a shame if the garden vegetables ended up in the bin because nobody liked to eat them. For the same reason you should also consider how many plants you want to plant of one species and variety so that you don't have too much excess.

Otherwise, beginner-friendly and robust plants are ideal, especially when planning your first vegetable garden: herbs, lettuce, zucchini (Cucurbita pepo ssp. pepo convar.giromontiina), Pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima, C. moschata &C. pepo), Radish (Raphanus sativus var. sativus), Beans ( Phaseolus vulgaris) and leeks (Alium ampeloprasum) easily forgive one or the other culture mistake and are particularly easy to care for. Make a list of all the plants you want to grow this year and think about how big the area you want the plants to be. The planting distance of vegetable species cannot be generalized, because depending on growth and use, they require different distances. One square meter should be calculated for a single zucchini plant, while for example carrots (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) should only be 25 - 30 cm away from other crops need.

Tip: Growing vegetables is particularly easy with a special cultivation set. Our Plantura vegetable growing kit contains everything you need to harvest five different colorful vegetables.

Growing vegetables: separate or mixed crops?

Now let's start assigning each vegetable to its exact place. You have to keep in mind that not all plants get along with their neighbors. So which vegetables can you plant together? Often closely related varieties such as potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) and tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) do not understand each other, because both belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). ). On the one hand, they compete for nutrients, on the other hand, both are affected by the same diseases and can transmit them to each other. In contrast, there are also a number of types of vegetables that differ in growtheven support each other. Carrots and onions (Allium cepa) are an excellent example of this: while the carrot fly (Psila rosae) doesn't like the smell of the onion and prefers to go up Conversely, if you keep your distance, the scent of the carrot drives away the onion fly (Delia antiqua) - in this way both protect each other from the unloved pests.

But not only carrots and onions are a good duo: celery (Apium graveolens) drives away cabbage pests, dill (Anethum graveolens) increases it the germination of many plants and lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. capitata) and kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes) keep each other's pests at bay. Such effects are even stronger when the plants not only stand next to each other, but share a bed. So-called mixed cultures not only protect against diseases, but also protect the soil and require less space. So now think about which plants are suitable as neighbors - this way you can decide which plants should grow where and enter these combinations in the drawn floor plan of your garden.

Vegetable Garden Grow Plan: Scheduling

Many main crops require a pre-culture on the warm window sill long before it is warm enough outside to sow the vegetables. Please allow for the fact that particularly heat-loving species with a long growing season, such as tomatoes and melons (Cucumis melo & Citrullus lanatus), can be planted from mid-February have to be preferred. Pre- and post-cultures can be planted at precisely the times when the main crop cannot yet be planted out or has already been harvested. Especially fast-growing vegetables such as lettuce, radishes or spinach (Spinacia oleracea) are perfect as a pre- or post-culture. Next, write down the periods of time that each main crop takes from sowing to harvest and consider whether you can sow other vegetables before or after. Tomatoes, for example, usually only find their way into the vegetable garden after the ice saints from mid-May, so there is enough time before then to grow a round of radishes - sometimes there is even enough time for two or more harvests due to the rapid growth of the pre- and post-cultures. The follow-up crops in autumn can also have a decent harvest, especially in mild yearsbring. Cold-tolerant vegetables such as winter purslane (Claytonia), lamb's lettuce (Valerianella locusta) and spinach are ideal as autumn follow-up crops and also provide vitamins in the winter months and fresh greens in the kitchen.

But not only fast-growing preceding crops can share a bed with main crops, sometimes two main crops can be grown in the same year. A classic crop rotation between two main crops is, for example, switching from early potatoes to kale (Brassica oleracea var. sabellica): Since the early potato harvest begins in May, the kale has time to develop well into the winter and the bed remains occupied most of the year. If you've also established the pre- and post-crops, it's worth making a separate schedule. In this you enter for each month which vegetables have to be planted or sown and which plants will soon be ready for harvest - so you can see at a glance which tasks still have to be completed this month.

Growing vegetables: Observe crop rotation

It is important that you treat your soil with care so that your vegetable garden still promises an abundant harvest in ten years' time. Growing just one species in monoculture can tire the soil within a few years and require extensive maintenance. Instead, you should work in the vegetable garden according to a rotation system: Since different types of vegetables also have different demands on the soil and its nutrient supply, this is not unilaterally overexploited. But even if the bed is often empty in winter and the vegetables have no direct contact with each other, not every plant is compatible with the plant of the previous year. Soil pests can sometimes remain in the soil for several years and thus also infest plants the next year if they are among their hosts. But diseases caused by fungal spores can also survive a winter in the bed. Therefore, plants that are particularly susceptible to the same diseases and pests should only be placed in the same bed at a certain distance from each other. This includes mainly related vegetables from the same plant family, such as tomatoes, peppers (Capsicum annuum), aubergines (Solanum melongena) and potatoes. Celery, carrots, fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and parsnips (Pastinaca sativa) are also all part of itFamily of the umbelliferae (Apiaceae) and do not get along well with each other.

But the nutrient requirements of vegetable species should also be taken into account in the crop rotation: a rough distinction is made between heavy, medium and weak consumers. Heavy consumers - such as tomatoes or cabbage - have a high nutrient requirement and should therefore only be planted if the soil has been well prepared (e.g. with compost). At the same time, these plants often tolerate additional fertilizers in order to thrive properly. A primarily organic organic fertilizer such as our Plantura organic tomato fertilizer is ideal, as it optimally supplies a wide variety of vegetables with nutrients.

In the following year, it is advisable to grow medium-feeders, which will benefit from the fertilizer application of the first year, but will not remove as many nutrients from the soil as the heavy-feeders. Medium eaters include carrots, spinach and onions. In the third year it is the turn of the weak consumers - like almost all herbs, lettuce, radishes, beans and peas (Pisum sativum) - which have the lowest nutrient requirements. In the fourth year, the soil gets a closed season, only green manure is sown. It covers the soil and replenishes it with nutrients from the plants that die off in winter. So when designing next year's growing plan, divide your vegetables into the three groups and rotate the different beds so that the soil isn't monotonously used.

Vegetable Garden Growing Plan: Summary

Would you like to create a cultivation plan for your vegetable garden? Here is a brief overview of the required steps again.

1. Select a suitable location for vegetable beds, paying attention to the soil conditions, sunlight and proximity to the nearest water connection.
2. Divide your garden into beds. 1.20 m is considered a good width, with larger beds, paths should be taken into account.
3. Make a list of all the plants you want in the garden. Also note that the number of plants should suit your needs.
4. Assign a bed to the individual plants. Note the respective planting distances of the individual species. Also, keep in mind that some vegetables are not good neighbors, while others support each other. A mixed culture can be beneficial for many plant combinationsentail.
5. Write down how long your main crops have been growing and consider adding a pre-crop and post-crop to get the most out of the bed.
6. For a better overview, a list with the sowing and harvest dates for each type of vegetable is helpful.
7. Plan next year's crop rotation already. Heavy feeders should always be followed by a medium feeder and then a weak feeder so that the soil is not overloaded. Schedule a recovery year for the soil with cover manure every four years.

In most gardens, flower beds and vegetable beds are strictly separated. However, in our article you will find out the advantages of also planting flowers in the vegetable patch.