How to make a simple vegetable garden

Thursday's are our gardening days. So today when I woke up I decided that I wanted to make a small vegetable garden for some winter vegetables. I've been wanting to grow some things for the family over the winter and our normal garden bed hasn't been producing very well because it gets too much shade.

I thought I would walk you through the process to make a simple vegetable garden in a couple of easy steps.

1. Choose your spot. You want a place that is going to get as much sun as possible - even in the winter. This is probably the most important thing.

2. Clear it. You want to get rid of grass, weeds, other plants and things that you don't want in your veggie patch. If you have a compost heap, then most of the things that you take out could go into that. The spot that I used today was relatively clear because we used to grow herbs there last season.

3. Turn it. Grab a spade or pitch fork and start to work the soil. You also want to be adding some form of compost at this stage. Make sure that it's all mixed well. You want to mix the top 20 - 30 cm of the soil. Once the soil is well mixed you can get a rake and flatten it out into the shape of your bed. Try not to stand all over the soil as you do this, because you have just worked a whole lot of air and oxygen into it, and if you stand on it and compact it, you're going to lose some of your hard work. Plants grow better in soil that is not compact because it's easier for them to push their roots down.


4. Trim. It's vital that your crops can get sun to grow. If there are any trees or bushes nearby, then trim them away so that your veggies can get the sun they need. You can see that I took quite a bit of the tree away here, which is fine. I also added some old roof tiles that are broken. These are going to be my stepping stones so that I don't have to compact all the soil. Place them so that you use as few as possible, but that you can reach any part of your garden from them.


5. Plant! Choose what vegetables you want to grow and stick them in the ground. Because we're going into winter here I have decided to grow some cabbage, brussel sprouts, beetroot, peas, kale & cauliflower. I started all of them from seed about 3 weeks ago.

6. Water. Your plants need plenty of water. Ideally everyday, but every second day will do too. The more they get watered, the faster and bigger they will grow.
I'm not a professional gardener by any means, in fact this is the first vegetable garden that I have ever made by myself from start to finish. It doesn't take a lot to make one, but it is a ton of fun.

There are so many different kinds of gardens - I just wanted to make mine super simple. If you don't think that something like this will wuit your needs, or if you don't have the space to do this (living in a flat, etc.), then check out google for some more ideas. I hope I have inspired you to consider planting some vegetables in your own yard!