Hello, and a very warm welcome back to the Kellogg Garden Channel! I'm your host, Resh Gala,
founder of Hundred Tomatoes, and a small space urban gardener from New Jersey, growing zone 6b.
In today's episode I'm going to teach you how you can plan your vegetable garden this year;
and I know, it might seem like we're in the midst of winter and there's a lot of snow,
but this is the best time to dream and plan for your garden. In today's episode, I'm going to talk
all about sunlight, choosing the right location, soil considerations that you must think about, and
raised beds - how to plan and design them. So, let's get started, but before we do don't forget
to hit the subscribe button, the notification bell, so you don't miss another great gardening
video from Kellogg Garden again. So, let's get started. So, the first thing to consider
is sunlight. Sunlight is essential for plants growth and development and depending on how
much sunlight your area can receive, you can plan your vegetable garden that way. So, for example,
leafy green vegetables and herbs will do just fine with four hours of sunlight or less. Next come
your root crops such as carrots and beets, which need at least six hours of sunlight. And finally,
your fruiting and flowering vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and peppers;
they need a lot more sunlight, preferably more than six hours and ideally eight hours at least.
Now that is the main consideration, however, the other thing you need to consider in terms of
sunlight and picking a location for your vegetable garden is, try and choose the southernmost spot
which gets the maximum sunlight. You also have to be aware that if you have certain trees
and structures, then those can cast a shadow as well on your garden, so keep that in mind. Now,
in winter months, especially in the northeast like where I am, the trees around your garden
might be bare and you might think "hey, this area is pretty sunny and I'm not getting that much
of shadow and shade." But keep in mind that in summer when the foliage grows those larger trees
will cast a larger shadow on your garden; and one of the things to also consider, especially
if you're a northeast gardener like me in New Jersey, is that in the winter months you get
fewer hours of sunlight but in the summer months your garden will get longer hours of sunlight.
As the earth moves and it tilts and it gets closer to the sun, especially the
areas that are in the northern hemisphere, they tend to get more hours of sunlight than
the areas in the southern hemisphere. And, the opposite is true in the winter months,
the areas in the south will get more hours of sunlight as opposed to the areas in the north.
So, the second most important thing to consider is soil. As you can see, I'm in my vegetable
garden right now and I'm growing in raised beds which is my preferred method. Now, if your native
soil is very good and friable, there's nothing wrong with growing in in-ground beds as well,
but I prefer to grow in raised beds. and this is because I can control the quality of the soil
and I can make sure it's exactly what my plants need to thrive.
Now, one of the most important things to consider when choosing your soil,
is you want the texture and quality to be really good. In terms of texture, you want it to be free
from rocks and big particles and materials, and you also want it to be very loamy and
fine. And, in terms of quality, you want the soil to be high in organic matter,
especially things like compost, peat moss, or coco coir, so that it has good drainage as well.
Now, one of the most important things that you have to consider in terms of planning
your vegetable garden is actually drawing out your garden space and doing your correct measurements.
Now, you can just take something as simple as your measuring tape and measure out the area the length
and the width of your garden, so you get a sense of how much space you have, and then plan to draw
out your garden beds within it. I like to use something as simple as graph paper,
and draw out for each square a foot to be considered, and draw out my raised beds as such.
Now, if you cannot use a measuring tape, and you have a ton of snow in the ground like I do,
just use something as simple as steaks. Now, if you don't have steaks you can
even use sticks. It's very easy. All you have to do is push them in the ground,
like this, and take a twine or something that you have
to tie it from one end to the other, so you can have your correct measurements for your garden.
Now, apart from this the measurements, and then drawing out your raised beds
on graph paper in order to plan it, the next most important thing you have to consider is spacing.
In terms of spacing, this is crucial because I like to have at least two and a half to three feet
distance between each of my raised beds, and the reason for this is so that I can comfortably move
a wheelbarrow in between the place to put soil, or to you know, take out plant material things like
that. And initially, when you're planning your garden, especially in spring, the seedlings are
so small and you might think "hey, I have a lot of space between my beds, did I make a mistake?" But
no, you didn't because when the plants grow, and they start fruiting, and they get bushy,
you will be, you know, feeling that you don't want to be tight and lost for space. So, you want some
comfortable area to move between your plants and between your raised beds as well. So, two and a
half to three feet is ideal, especially when you have multiple raised beds like I do. Now, if you
just have like two raised beds, and you don't have that much space, and you want to push it
against the wall or against some structure, then you don't need that much space against the wall
and between your raised beds. Just having about, you know, one foot distance is more than enough.
Now, in terms of height for your raised bed, that is also important. If you need a garden
that's accessible for older people, then you want something that's higher in height. Especially,
maybe one and a half to two feet like 18 inches to 24 inches high. If it is just kids who are
going to be using it, it might be okay to have something that's much shorter than that. Now,
one other thing to consider in terms of height, is what are you planning to grow in your raised beds?
If you're planning to grow just things like leafy greens, like spinach and lettuces,
you can get away with just six inch high raised beds. If you want to grow root vegetables that
go deep into the ground, especially carrots, ideally you want 10 to 12 inches tall raised beds.
And things like tomatoes, they are also okay with 10 to 12 inches but I find that, especially
in a restricted raised bed area, the challenge is that you want the roots to go as deep and wide as
possible. So, I like my raised beds to be higher. Here, as you can see, or maybe you can't so much,
my raised beds are actually 18 inches tall. So, that's about one and a half feet. So,
I hope you found these tips helpful in planning your next vegetable garden. Just to recap,
the most important thing is, of course, sunlight and picking the right location. After that is soil
consideration, in ground versus raised beds. And, if you do choose to grow in raised beds,
you want to think about the height of the raised bed as well as the spacing between them.
And finally, don't forget to get your pencil and graph paper out, and draw everything out.
But before you do, take the right measurements with a good measuring tape, and if not put some
sticks in the ground and tie a twine between them and take your measurements that way.
I have to say goodbye now, but don't forget first, to subscribe to the Kellogg Garden Channel,
hit the notification bell, and put in the comments down below,
how you're planning to grow your vegetable garden this year. Take care and see you next time, bye!