Planning A Vegetable Garden

It's time to start planning your vegetable garden and here's a tip to help make it easy for you.

Use "Post-its" - those small note pads that are sticky. They make it easy and fast.

Here's How:

1. Work on a hard surface - a board or tabletop

2. Decide the scale of your garden - example: 1 inch (2.5 cm) equals 1 foot (.3 m)

3. Each Post-it equals a plot in your garden

4. Write each crop name on a Post-it

5. Simply lift and restick each crop as many times as you want until you're happy with the arrangement

This works very well with succession planting as well because you can simply layer Post-its on top of each other.

For example if you plan to follow an early crop of lettuce with a crop of beans, you can use two Post-its on that plot to show the succession.

Post-its also work really well when figuring out how you want to rotate your crops to keep the soil and plants as healthy as possible.

We'll be getting into that next week and we'll also be giving a four-year plan to show you how to successfully rotate your crops.

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine - www.weekendgardener.net

Talk to you next week!

How Does Companion Planting Work?

Part 2 of 2

Last week we discussed what companion planting is, how it works, and gave a few examples. This week we will finish off by giving a few more examples for you to try out in your yard or garden this year.

If you have never tried doing this, do, it really does work!

Here are a few more companion planting examples:

Potatoes and sweet alyssum: Sweet alyssum has tiny flowers that attract delicate beneficial insects, such as lady bugs, and predatory wasps. Plant sweet alyssum alongside bushy crops like potatoes, or let it spread to form a ground cover under plants like broccoli. What is also nice, is that sweet alyssum is so fragrant that it gives a nice scent to your garden all summer long.

Radishes and spinach: Radishes lure leafminers away from spinach, and since the damage the leafminers do to radish leaves doesn't prevent the radishes from growing nicely underground, it is a nice compromise.

Lettuce and tall flowers: Tall flowers such as Nicotiana (flowering tobacco) and Cleome (spider flower) give lettuce light shade, giving it a cooler environment, which is what lettuce grows best in.

Corn and beans: Beans attract beneficial insects that prey on corn pests such as leafhoppers, fall armyworms and leaf beetles. Plus, bean vines climb up the corn stalks, which means you don't have to stake them, the corn provides a natural trellis for them.

Cauliflower and dwarf zinnias: The nectar from dwarf zinnia flowers attracts ladybugs and other predators that help protect cauliflower; and since cauliflower is already a tough crop to grow, any help is beneficial!

Collards and catnip: Studies have found that planting catnip with collards reduces flea-beetle damage on the collards.

Marigolds: Plant these all through your garden. They discourage Mexican bean beetles, nematodes, and other insects. Called the "workhorse" of companion plants for all the benefits they bring to the garden.

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine - www.weekendgardener.net

Talk to you next week!