Even if there isn't enough space for a large vegetable garden, you don't have to go without crunchy, home-grown vegetables. Spring is the ideal time to create a new vegetable bed that can be integrated into almost any green space.
How do I create a new vegetable patch?
To create a new vegetable patch, first plan the area, remove the grass, prepare the soil by turning and loosening it, add compost and/or organic fertilizer and finally sow the selected vegetable plants.
Planning a vegetable patch
Before you create the bed, you should think about how much space you can spare and how much area you want to cultivate. If you don't overdo it at the beginning, then the joy of gardening won't turn into annoying work.
A bed width of 80 centimeters to a maximum of 1.20 meters has proven successful. This means you can easily reach the middle of the bed and don't have to step on it to weed and harvest. Several small, divided areas have the advantage that planning mixed crops and crop rotation becomes easier.
Planting the vegetable patch
Draw a cultivation plan, this will make it much easier to later create the vegetable bed.
Prepare the bed
- Stretch a batter board at the point where you want to create the vegetable patch.
- Dig off the lawn within the bed area.
- Bed borders made of wooden boards are very practical and you can easily make them yourself. They prevent the lawn from growing back into the bed and make the work noticeably easier.
Soil preparation
Vegetable plants love well-ventilated substrates with high water storage capacity. Therefore, dig the earth at least to the depth of a spade. Sandy soils are improved with a little compost. Loamy topsoil gets a crumbly structure when sand and compost are added.
Fertilize
To optimally supply the soil with nutrients, you can also incorporate an organic fertilizer.
The sowing
Now smooth the substrate carefully. Depending on the type of vegetable plants, they can be sown directly into the bed after the Ice Saints. For frost-sensitive varieties, we recommend growing them in cold frames or indoors.
Very practical for beginners are seed tapes (€16.00 on Amazon), which are simply placed in previously drawn grooves, lightly covered with soil and watered.
Tip
A soil analysis definitely makes sense for new plants. If the soil is depleted, the vegetable plants thrive poorly and produce little yield. Through the soil analysis you know exactly which nutrients are missing and can fertilize specifically organically.
