vegetables
Vegetable Garden

Vegetable garden in March 2024: A New Beginning

Yay! After four years I finally have a vegetable garden again. My fingers may not be as green as before, but I’m eager to get started. It’s March, so the sowing season is just around the corner. Before I get my hands dirty, though, I need to make a solid plan first.

Food from the Garden

More than just food

Fresh vegetables from your own garden aren’t just delicious; they’re also full of energy. Eating homegrown food comes closest to your own energy, as emphasized in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Moreover, it is self-sufficient and socially active. Therefore, my vegetable garden falls under the food category; it is not just about food, but also about connection with the environment and self-sufficiency.

vegetables

The Vegetable Garden Plan

The sowing calendar

The sowing calendar, with an overview of vegetables that grow during the year, with sowing and harvest times, is a valuable tool for planning the vegetable garden. It gives you insight into when to sow which vegetables and when you can expect to harvest them. Having a clear schedule will help you keep track of your plants and ensure there is enough growing in your vegetable garden all year round. Below is an example of a cultivation planner for vegetables and herbs.

Vegatable garden in March. Sowing calendar.

The colors

The use of colors makes this overview even easier to understand. By using different colors for different vegetables, you can see at a glance which vegetables are growing and when. By coloring the annual schedule yourself, vegetable garden planning becomes more fun and clearer. Regularly updating the schedule also helps the vegetable garden to better manage and adapt to changes. The image below shows an example of an annual vegetable garden schedule, showing you how to plan and grow the different crops throughout the year.

Annual vegetable garden schedule.

July: planning and planting

In July, when the high season for the vegetable garden begins, the vegetable garden must be full. Planning which vegetables you want in July can help you make the most of the space. Flexible sowing and harvesting enables efficient use of the soil.

Take for example a certain vegetable, such as New Zealand spinach, which can be sown from mid-May and harvested in October. If you want to have a full vegetable garden in July, you can choose to sow something else in the same spot earlier in the season, and plant something else again after the New Zealand spinach harvest. This way you use the soil optimally throughout the entire growing season.

By being flexible with what you plant, your vegetable garden always remains active and you use all available space. This way you get the most out of your vegetable garden and enjoy fresh vegetables that you have grown yourself all season long.

Daisy

Space and Layout

Small-scale and well thought-out

It is essential to make optimal use of the space in your vegetable garden. A well-thought-out layout can help with this. For example, consider placing low vegetables at the front and high vegetables at the back. This way you prevent the tall plants from blocking sunlight for the smaller crops in front of them. This way, all plants receive the required amount of sunlight and can grow optimally. A path in the middle of the vegetable garden ensures that you can easily reach everything. This way you don’t have to walk over the plants and everything remains easily accessible.

Vegetable garden layout.

Good Neighbors, Bad Neighbors

A harmonious vegetable garden

A smart strategy in the vegetable garden is the concept of “good neighbors, bad neighbors.” Some vegetables thrive when planted next to each other, while others can hinder each other. Take the green bean for example: it thrives next to strawberries, cucumbers and celery, but avoid planting it near peas, leeks and fennel. By taking this dynamic of good and bad neighbors into account, you can optimize the growth of your crops and create a more harmonious vegetable garden.

Shady Vegetable Garden

Choice of crops

In a vegetable garden that gets a lot of shade, you should look for vegetables that can thrive with less sunlight. My vegetable garden is in the shade behind a large tree, which influences the choice of my crops. Tomatoes need a lot of sunlight and will therefore not grow well in my vegetable garden. Spinach, on the other hand, thrives in the shade, so that’s a crop I can grow.

Weeds

Clean up and explore

Weeding is a must to start with a clean slate. However, some ‘weeds’ can be useful. If I plant the March violets from the roadside in my vegetable garden, they can produce beautiful edible flowers next year.

March violet

Vegetable Gardening

Good planning is half the battle

Well-thought-out planning lays the foundation for a flourishing vegetable garden. With the right approach we can make optimal use of our vegetable garden and enjoy an abundance of fresh vegetables. I look forward to seeing my vegetable garden grow and will keep you posted on my progress. Are you also going to start vegetable gardening?



Travel guide vegetable garden in march.

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