Flowers, Plants & Gardening

Nothing is more important to the long term success of your vegetable garden that the location you choose.  There are a whole host of things that you can do to improve a garden once it's in place, with compost and fertilizer and many soil amendments, but the location is pretty much fixed.

To be successful, there are a few things that your garden needs:

Close to the house: If the garden is too far away, you may tend to forget it's there, and won't want to put in the effort to go out and pick fresh vegetables when they need to be picked.  When the time comes to pull out the tiller or haul in some waste material for the compost pile, it's just more work and less likely to get done if it's a long way to the garden.  And if you need to water, hauling that garden hose out there is a pain.

Hiding it from view:  If you are not one to keep the garden neatly weeded and free from worn out plants year round, you may want to hide the garden from open view, at least from the house.  This goes double if you plan to have an open compost pile nearby instead of a tidy compost bin.

Adequate Sunlight: To get most vegetables to grow well, an adequate amount of sunlight will be six to eight hours of full sun a day.  Many times this will require at least some southern exposure.  Nestling the garden in on the north side of the house won't usually work.  When planning your location, it's a good idea to survey the local trees, and anticipate those areas that will be shaded in a few years as well.

Proximity to trees and bushes:  Most gardeners know they will have to contain weeds, but sometimes the biggest drain on the garden soil moisture and nutrients are from trees and large bushes. Large spreading trees like willows that have shallow root systems are to be avoided.  Another source of problems can be aggressive spreading bushes like trumpet creepers and honeysuckle.

Adequate Drainage: Be sure to not the slope and natural drainage of the area you plan to use.  Stay away from low spots as they will lead to puddling and pooling, and most vegetable root systems don't do well in saturated soils.

A garden will bring you benefits for years to come.  Make sure to invest the time up front for the site selection, and you will be paid back many times over in time and aggravation saved.

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