Sun Patterns :: Planning Your Herb Garden

One of the first things Sue & I stumbled across when we started planning our herb / vegetable / kitchen garden was a really simple thing. We simply forgot to take the sun into account when we designed our patch. Having a good 4 to 5 hours of sun a day is very necessary for good growth.

Don't get me wrong....... we have sun.... and lots of it, but in winter, a fair part of our patch would be in permanent shade. We only really figured this out once we had run through 10 or 12 itterations of our layout and had the herb part of the kitchen garden in place.

It became very apparent that if we followed our original design, the vegetable part of our kitchen garden would be 50% permanently covered by shade in winter.

So a change was needed....... & back to the drawing board we went.

After 3 or 4 more changes and some spikes in the ground, we had decided on the final veggie patch layout........ With a little less overall space, but more available growing space in the winter sun.

So, on the basis that you are probably here to learn about organic gardening and all of it's little idiosyncrasies, remember to take the pattern of the sun into account when you are planning an organic garden.

It's fairly simple to do and all you need is a day or 2 of easy work (A hammer and a couple of pegs also required). Simply pick a day where you are going to be at home for the day and go out into the garden every 2 hours, armed with the said hammer and trusty peg (Tent pegs work really well......)

Locate the point that sun turnes into shade and knock a peg in.......... This, over a period of 8 to 10 hours, will give you a pattern. Keep this information in a small kitchen garden diary (or log book) if you are worndering about planing organnic veggies in the sun...... You can always refer to the book if you have a memory like mine!!!!!!!!

Planning A Vegetable Garden :: The Vegetable Garden Plan

Planning a vegetable garden is probably the most important part of your veggie patch. Get the planning wrong and nothing works.........

Here are a few tips of getting it right.

Sun, Sun and More Sun
The most important thing to remember when choosing the location for your vegetable garden is that almost all vegetables require sun to really produce. Try to put your garden in the sunniest spot of your yard.

Access to Water
This might go without saying, but make sure that the location of your vegetable garden has access to water via a hose or sprinkler system. Water is critical in most climates to growing a successful vegetable garden and consistent watering leads to even better results.

Water Drainage
The only thing worse for your vegetable garden than too little water is too much water. Make sure that water drains off the location your planning on using for your vegetable garden because standing water can cause disease and attract unwanted insects.