Vegetable planting advice

Preparing your seed bed

Planting out

Guidelines for spacing out plants

One of the great advantages of growing your own vegetables is that you have full control of exactly how they are grown. You can choose whether to grow your plants organically, conventionally or a mixture of the two.

The main requirement for growing any plant is light, water and nutrients; with control of weeds, pests, and diseases should they occur. You do not even need a garden. Window boxes and patio tubs will grow lovely tasty plants as well.

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Preparing your seed bed

Prepare the ground by digging it over well. This is a good time to fertilise the soil. If you wish to grow organically this can be done with compost (especially homemade!) or a product such as worm cast. Otherwise use a general purpose universal fertiliser with an even nitrogen, phosphate and potash index. This is readily available at most gardening outlets.

Rake the soil to break up the clods to create a fine seed bed. Most vegetable do not thrive in an acid soil, a pH of 6.5-7 is ideal. If this needs correcting in your garden there will be products available in your local garden centre to do this, such as ground limestone.

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Planting out

When planting out your plug plants make sure that they are in the ground firmly. Give it a little tug and it should stay in the ground. Water the plants in well once they’re planted. As they grow keep them weed free by hoeing or mulching around the plants. Do not plant out if the soil is too wet. It is always best for the plants and the gardener to wait for good conditions!

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Guidelines for spacing out plants

However you may wish to plant more thickly especially if space is limited. Remember to take into consideration how big they will grow.

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