Choosing your site.
So you’ve decided that you’d like to grow your own vegetables. Well it’s not surprising really, the amount of people growing their own food has risen dramatically in the last 10 years. Some of the main reasons for this, is knowing where your food has come from, knowing what has been put on it to keep pests and diseases away and help it grow, and the pure pleasure of providing extremely tasty vegetables for the kitchen.
The first thing you need to do is to choose the right plot. Choosing the wrong plot will cause you no end of problems including poor crops and many more pests and diseases than what you would normally have. The right plot would be one that is South facing, free draining, gets little frost, is sheltered from wind and easily accessible for maintenance and watering. Don’t worry if you cannot fulfil all these requirements, here are some ways of making use of what you have. >
If you don’t have a south facing plot, then choose the area of your garden that has the most sunshine hours in the day. The type of soil that you have will decide on how well water drains away but it is also important for the soil to not drain too quickly as valuable nutrients will be washed away. You can improve the drainage and nutrient holding qualities of your soil but if the area is waterlogged for most of the year then this would not be a good site to choose. You need to try and find a site that is not in a frost pocket. The problem with frost pockets is that the frost is much more severe, takes longer to clear away and you are more likely to get frost there later in the year, just when you have planted and sowed your frost tender vegetables. A frost pocket is usually in an area where the sun doesn’t reach or reaches late in the day. Having shelter from the wind is very important because the wind can uproot plants, break stems and cause wind scorch on leaves. Wind also brings in more weed seeds and pollutants. If your site is too exposed then it is best to provide some sort of windbreak for the area, at least on the side where the wind mostly blows from. Suitable windbreaks would be hedges or walls but you could also fit some trellis which could then be used to grow climbing crops such as runner beans and peas. It is obviously important to choose a site you can access and maintain easily. The easier it is, the more likely you are going to enjoy going to it and working in it. You must make sure that you can provide water to the thirsty plants and to the whole plot if there is a drought. Using a watering can may be acceptable for a small plot but for a bigger one or one which you intend to expand, you will need to consider how easy it would be to get a hose pipe or an outside tap to the area. Other things to consider when choosing your site is where to site the greenhouse, shed and compost bin.
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