Help with Backyard Garden Plan

[helloworld142]

Hello everyone,

I have gotten a project in one my high school courses which requires me to plan a backyard vegetable garden (I am not actually growing one.). As part of the project, it is needed that I have my garden "reviewed" by someone who has significant gardening experience. I would be very thankful if someone would give me some critique and advice on my planned garden (such as which plants don't go well together etc.).

The following is the generic plan of my garden
[img]https://oi43.tinypic.com/2q36wk7.jpg[/img]

Thank you!

[cynthia_h]

Some considerations every gardener must think about:

1) Which way does the sun hit the garden? Across the width or the length, or along a diagonal? Will any plants shade others due to height or angle of the sun?

2) How many hours of sun does the garden get on average? Is it enough for the kind of plants I want to grow?

3) What are the watering needs of the plants I want to grow? It's best to plant veggies/herbs together which have similar water needs. No use planting "dry" plants next to "wet" ones.

4) What are the nutrient needs of the plants I want to grow? Some plants want "lean" soil, I.e., soil without a lot of nutrients; others want "rich" soil. Again, it's not advisable to plant these next to one another due to potential interference.

No doubt there are other considerations, but these should give you something to focus on.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[gumbo2176]

Asparagus beans and cucumbers do much better on a trellis in my opinion. I grow both and they are trellised. The space saved is real nice for my relatively small garden. If you have one 16 ft. long trellis with a row about 2 ft. wide under it, that will support 8 ft. of each plant. Asparagus beans can be planted about 4-6 inches apart and cucumbers a little more spacing needed. That will produce a lot of crop for a space of only 32 sq. ft.

Your 3m x 1m is too generous for the plants you have labeled to go there. That is roughly 10 ft. x a little over 3 ft. You can plant leaf lettuce, spinach, chard, kale with spacing intervals of only about 6 inches between plants in all directions.

Herbs need little space and can grow fairly compact. Things like sweet basil and rosemary can get pretty tall and bushy and will need more space than like thyme, sage, oregano, mints, parsley or chives. They all stay pretty short but mint plants will really travel and overtake a plot.

[cynthia_h]

*ahem* if this is a school assignment, when was it assigned and when it is due? perhaps (she said in her very best school-teacherly manner) things are coming down to a deadline?

Be sure to use Search the Forum, as I advised in my PM, and the British/American "translator."

Cynthia