Features Of Garden Planning - How To Correctly Place The Beds And Fruit Trees On Your Site

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Country Geography

The crop has long been harvested, and it is snowing outside the window. It would seem that it's time to take a break from summer cottages, but the thoughts of many gardeners are already devoted to the future summer cottage season: what and where to plant, what fertilizers and seeds to buy, how much and what kind of film is needed for greenhouses and hotbeds … And it seems that there is nothing complicated here - just - then place potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets, onions and garlic, green crops on their weave, because everything else: trees, shrubs, raspberries and strawberries have long had their legitimate plantings.

But in practice, everything turns out to be more complicated - you have to compare a lot of different factors in order to make, sometimes, only one single correct decision. Moreover, for this it is not enough to know which cultures are photophilous and which are shade-tolerant - it is also necessary to take into account the fertility of this or that site, which crops grew here in the past, and preferably, and not only last year, and which crops will grow nearby peacefully and without conflicts.

Therefore, truly enthusiastic gardeners and gardeners have to plan and record in their garden no less painstakingly than accountants do their reporting. For example, my grandfather had a huge ledger with detailed garden plans for several decades, starting in the 50s. In fact, for so many years, information is not needed - in most cases, it is enough to have data for 3-4 years, but here the truly accounting nature of the grandfather affected. Everything is simpler for me, since I have a computer at hand, and it is enough for me, on a plan drawn once in the corresponding program, to simply record the year and mark where and what cultures I grew up with. But most, probably, still have to draw such a plan by hand - in this case, it is wiser to draw a plan once, indicating trees, shrubs, greenhouses, greenhouses and permanent ridges,then make a dozen photocopies, and on each one already mark the crops planted in one year or another - this will be much faster.

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How to reconcile all the pros and cons

Even with all the information you need, finding the right solution can be tricky. You start placing, and it seems that almost everything was planned out, but at the last stage it turns out that, for example, there is a bed for cabbage, on which this same cabbage grew the year before last and at the same time was sick with keel. This means that you cannot plant her here, and everything starts all over again. Again you have to redo the plan, look for a new solution and draw it again.

If you are familiar with a similar situation and every year you bring yourself to a headache by planning and moving crops around the garden again, then try an interesting solution that I recently read about (I don't need it, since I do everything on a computer, but most gardeners will probably come in handy). True, to use this approach, you must have rectangular beds that are close in size, and each vegetable must be planted on its own bed (that is, not in company with others).

In this case, you can plan like this: take last year's site plan (or better plans for 3-4 years) and a blank sheet of paper. Draw this sheet into identical rectangles and write on them: potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, garlic, etc., listing everything that you plan to plant. Moreover, if you always occupy two ridges with garlic, then, accordingly, there should be two rectangles with the name "garlic", etc. Cut the paper into separate rectangles and begin to collect the puzzle called "entertaining garden" on your plan, placing the ridges-rectangles in the right way in the chosen places of your plan. It is not scary to be mistaken here, because it's easy to fix everything by moving the "wrong" rectangle to a new location. Try,and this method will turn out to be much easier to replay all situations in your head and repeatedly and painstakingly redraw your plan.

What factors need to be considered when planning a vegetable garden?

First, all vegetables love a sunny place. Only green crops, which include onions on a feather, and perennial onions like chives and slime, partially put up with penumbra. This means that in a small shade of the house, fence, trees and shrubs, you can sow and plant onions and some herbs. Although you will not get a large harvest in this case, you still cannot grow anything else in these places.

The second is the compatibility of vegetables: who is good with whom or, on the contrary, is bad. Cabbage does not live with tomatoes and beans. Cucumber - with potatoes. Tomatoes - with fennel. Potatoes - with tomatoes and pumpkin. Peas and beans are very unpleasant onions and garlic, radish - hyssop. Only now carrots get along with everyone, although from the point of view of protection from carrot flies, it is preferable to sow it in the company with onions. It was about bad neighbors.

And the good ones? Here are other examples. All vegetables of the celery family (carrots, parsnips, parsley, celery) go well with the onion family: onions, garlic, leeks, and shallots. White and black radishes work well for other vegetables. Radish grows very well between rows of bush beans - it becomes very large, tasty and not wormy. Beans, corn, cabbage, horseradish and onions do not interfere with potatoes. But each separately, because there are several irreconcilable couples in this group.

Compatible with cabbage, onions, celery, potatoes, dill and lettuce. Tomatoes can be planted alongside greens and cabbages, asparagus and beans. Peas can coexist with carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, radishes, corn. Etc.

The third rule is no less important - it must be borne in mind that phytoncides secreted by some plants scare off pests of other crops or prevent some diseases from developing. For example, onion phytoncides scare off carrot flies, and carrot phytoncides scare off onions. Dill protects cucumbers from disease, while onions and garlic protect tomatoes. Planting strong-smelling plants such as celery, thyme, or sage near the cabbage will drown out the smell of the cabbage and make it less attractive to pests. And basil is a good idea to plant near beans for protection from legume weevil, garlic - near roses to protect against aphids, parsley - near asparagus.

When planning, you must also take into account the predecessors, that is, did a suitable vegetable grow in the last season in the place where you will plant another in the spring. And here again there are numerous schemes! And the most important thing to learn is that you cannot plant the same culture in the same place. And, in addition, cabbage cannot be placed after any cabbage and beets. Beets - after beets, cabbage and tomatoes. Tomatoes - after all the nightshades and peas.

The fifth thing to consider is the long-term alternation of cultures, the prospect for 3-4 years. It's even more complicated here. Agronomy teaches you how to rotate vegetables according to their nutrient needs, in particular organic. Conventionally, in the first year (i.e. on fresh organic matter), cucumber, zucchini, pumpkin, cabbage of medium and late ripening periods, leeks, etc. are grown, that is, those crops for which a lot of organic matter needs to be applied. In the second year, they are replaced by onions, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes. The third is the turn of root crops (carrots, beets, radishes, etc.), which have to add a hefty portion of mineral fertilizers.

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Garden planning features

With the garden it is still more difficult, because we plant vegetables every year, and if one year your layout was unsuccessful, then, perhaps, the next year everything will turn out to be much better.

We place trees and shrubs in permanent places for a long time, and once planted apple trees will supply you with fruits for the rest of your life. Therefore, when drawing up a garden plan, it is imperative to allocate separate permanent places for each tree species, for vegetables, for flowers, and everything must be correctly calculated in advance where and what will grow in 10-20 years. And there are many rules here too.

Rule oneconsists in the presence of a permanent place for each group of crops (fruit trees, berry bushes, vegetable and ornamental crops). A common mistake is the combined arrangement of crops, when vegetables, strawberries, berry bushes are placed among young apple and pear trees. At first, everything turns out well: trees do not take up much space, there is enough light and nutrition for other plants. But over time, trees grow, and then catch crops fall into the shade, their productivity becomes low. Therefore, the first rule of site planning is to allocate a separate permanent place for each crop. Of course, you can temporarily grow berry bushes, strawberries and vegetables among vigorous tree species, but then, when there is a strong darkening, they will have to be removed and moved somewhere else,what you need to think about in advance.

Second ruleis to provide for the possibility of renewing strawberries, berry bushes, cherry and plum trees. Say, strawberries bear fruit well in one place for 2-3 years. In the fourth or, in extreme cases, the fifth year of fruiting, it must be completely eliminated. Therefore, one garden bed is vacated annually in order to grow vegetables here the next year, and the vegetable bed is planted with strawberries. Therefore, it is more convenient to attribute strawberries not to the garden, but to the garden and to change strawberry ridges with vegetable ridges. Bushes of currants, gooseberries and raspberries theoretically in one place can bear fruit for a very long time, and then everything depends on competent care. It is more profitable (from the point of view of saving your own time) to look after these crops well and regularly prune and spray,then in one place, subject to rejuvenating pruning, they can bear fruit for 10, 15 years or more. And everything will be fine. And if you take care of it badly, then they will not last long, the bushes will weaken from diseases, pests, malnutrition and thickening, and you will have to look for another place for them and start growing and shaping again.

The third rule of planning is respect for the rights of the neighbor. Your trees should not shade the adjacent area too much. The distance from the tree trunk to the border should be at least half of the generally accepted row spacing: for vigorous trees 3.5-4 m, for medium-sized trees - 2.0-2.5 m. In the strip between trees and the border, you can plant currants, gooseberries, raspberries … And in no case should you plant tall trees and shrubs 20 cm from the border, which, alas, is not uncommon.

The fourth rule of planning is to reduce the height of plants as they approach the house. In order for the housing to be dry and light, the lowest plants should be placed near the house - flowers, lawn grasses, part of strawberries, vegetables, shrubs, and tall trees should be taken further into the interior of the site.

The fifth rule is taking into account the characteristics of certain plants. From berry bushes in drier, but well-lit places, it is better to plant red currants, gooseberries, and on lower, more humid (but not swampy) places - black currants. Raspberries and sea buckthorn are planted separately in specially designated areas of the site, since the former gives many root suckers, and the latter develops long roots that interfere with the growth and development of other plants; strawberries are planted in places where snow lingers well in winter. Growing strawberries between fruit trees is undesirable.

Chokeberry and Sea Buckthorn look good when planted in groups closer to home. Schisandra and actinidia are planted near the wall of the house so that there is protection from the wind and the possibility of creating reliable vertical supports for them. Barberry and lilac are planted away from all other crops (somewhere apart), because their root secretions do not give life to other plants.