A well-planned vegetable garden can increase yields and reduce the amount of work required in maintaining it. A few general caveats should help your vegetable garden remain healthy and productive. Does this Spark an idea?
Garden Location
The first part of designing the layout of your garden is to select a good general location. An ideal vegetable garden location will have full sun most of the day. If that isn't possible, select a location that gets the most sun possible. The garden will also have to have water for irrigation and be protected from animals that could trample the sprouting plants or eat the vegetables before their harvest. If no natural protection is available, simple wire fencing will work well.
Garden Type
The next thing to decide when planning your garden is the type of garden you want. If you opt for an intensive gardening method, where seeds are over-planted and the weaker seeds culled as the plants sprout, either a ground-based garden or raised bed will work. For this type of garden, the garden area is divided into 2- to 4-foot squares. Make sure to leave enough space to get into the patches for weeding and harvesting. Each square is over-planted with seeds. Plant more seeds than the square can support, and either eat the young plants, as in the case of carrots, or cull the weaker plants, as in the case of tomatoes or peppers. If you are planning on doing very little culling, intensive gardening can produce very good yields with proper fertilization.
The other garden type to consider is a traditional rowed garden, where vegetables are planted in rows. Leave enough space between the rows to allow easy access for weeding and harvesting.
Plant Heights
Whatever type of garden you plant, make sure to plant the vegetables so that lower growing plants have enough sunlight. For example, if you plant corn, place the corn so it doesn't shade the carrots or jalapenos as the corn grows. If your plot gets more sun in the morning, plant tall crops like corn in the west. This will allow the lower growing plants adequate sunshine. Conversely, if your plot gets better afternoon sun, plant the tall plants in the east.
