Design and organize your organic vegetable garden

Growing organically isn't just about removing products containing synthetic chemical molecules from your shelf and replacing them with so-called "natural" ones. It's about being aware of the significant impact humans have on the ecosystem. Growing organically means treating yourself, rediscovering simple gestures, and limiting the impact we leave on this earth as much as possible. What exposure should my vegetable garden have? Choosing the location and size of the vegetable garden is crucial to its success. It should be as close as possible to the house for obvious practical reasons, but also to easily offer the simple pleasure of walking around. There are almost no vegetables and very few aromatic plants that grow in the shade. At best, a few appreciate partial shade, but rarely more. The chosen location must therefore be well exposed: neither in the shade of a neighboring building nor in that of large trees. A vegetable garden installed under or near an orchard of tall trees should be absolutely avoided. The shade of trees and the inevitable "food" competition won't give the unfortunate vegetables a chance. For the lucky ones who already have a garden enclosed by hedges or walls, know that these natural "barriers" have an exceptional effect on the vegetable garden. Wind barriers, thermal buffers, heat storage: their benefits are multiple. How much space for my vegetable garden? Be careful not to bite off more than you can chew when determining the area allocated to the vegetable garden. Not that it requires colossal work, but, like playing a musical instrument, it requires enormous regularity. Thus, you must plan your area according to a changing lifestyle. Between weekends and vacations, it is common to be away more and more, even if the cost of fuel may reverse this trend. Upon returning, finding a vegetable garden full of herbs and crops lost due to not having been picked on time is often discouraging. Traditionally, it is estimated that for a family of four who want to produce all their vegetables, including storage potatoes and asparagus, it is necessary to allow 500m² while 200m² is enough for a good production of early vegetables, summer vegetables and some roots to store. However, a gardener, after a few seasons of experience, can obtain quite impressive harvests on a well-managed surface of 100m². A living environment in the vegetable gardenThe auxiliaries Completely plowed from the fall and bare as on the first day except for a few cabbages and leeks, the other half of the year filled with vegetables and impeccably weeded - chemically if necessary, right up to the fence - many of our grandparents' vegetable gardens did not encourage daydreaming! If they were unattractive places for humans, they were no more so for auxiliaries (hedgehogs, ladybugs, hoverflies, etc.) who found no refuge there to set up their home, while pests (aphids, white butterflies, etc.) delighted in such a place composed solely of plants to which they are dependent. It is therefore essential to try to bring a little balance to the vegetable garden. It is important not to forget that cultivating means upsetting a balance that existed before the passage of the broadfork, the spade or the cultivator. Places of lifeHedges, a pond, or even a simple buried basin near the vegetable garden are almost essential. It is quite impressive to see how quickly a small pond "comes to life". A few months after its creation, dragonflies and other insects are already having a great time. It is difficult to dig a pond in many modestly sized gardens. But there are small, ready-to-install molded ponds in multiple shapes and sizes that allow you to have, at little cost, a watering hole in which birds and other garden inhabitants can come to drink or frolic. A natural barrier Be careful, when we talk about hedges, to define them well; hedges have been victims of an improbable standardization. Thus, they are not these absurd walls of "vegetable concrete", most often made from Leyland cypress, but a set of different species adapted to the climate and the soil. To make your choice, the simplest thing is to look around your home for trees that seem well adapted, have good growth and do not seem affected by a specific pest, as the horse chestnut tree may currently be. For those in a hurry, there are interesting intermediate solutions for creating curtains of greenery rather than real hedges: bamboo, Provence cane, Miscanthus, Jerusalem artichokes, etc. Gardeners "suffering" from cold, heavy soil that easily waters down will have the chance to "have fun" with willow and osier cuttings: aligned, crossed, pollarded, etc. Make a crop rotation planEven a rough plan of your vegetable garden is essential.