Vegetable Garden Plans Part 4 - In the Garden

Our vegetable garden plans nave been designed with easy care in mind. It should take no more than 1 hour a week to keep your garden thriving. Here's where you learn how to plant your garden, and also about the 'gardener's WWF': weeding, watering, and feeding!

Planting your garden. Here's a quick checklist for planting your garden:

• Harden off your transplants, starting a few days before planting out


• Gather all the equipment you will need - trowels, watering cans, etc


• Water your transplants very well, soaking the peat pots thoroughly


• Final bed prep: Rake the beds smooth, and pull any weeds you see before planting


• Mark out the beds, and dig holes for the seedlings


• Put the seedlings, pots and all, in the holes. Make sure the pots are well buried, no edges exposed


• Water in thoroughly with dilute fish emulsion

Weeding. Because our vegetable garden plans are compact, and the plants are closely spaced, weeding in your garden will be minimal. Just pull by hand any weeds that you see; if you have taken our advice and 'pre-sprouted' your garden beds, you will have few weeds to deal with at this stage.

Watering. Your garden will require, on average, about an inch of water each week, including rainfall. If you are growing lettuce or mesclun mix in your garden, its a good idea to water them more frequently - i.e. 3-4 times a week. This keeps them growing quickly, and helps prevent them getting bitter or 'bolting' to seed. Other crops will thrive on just once a week watering.

Feeding. About once every three weeks, give your garden a feeding with an organic liquid fertilizer - e.g. fish emulsion, available in most garden supply stores. Again the exception to this is 'cut and come again' crops like mesclun; you should give these crops a feeding every time you cut them, to help them regrow quickly.

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