The Traditional Vegetable Garden

Keen vegetable gardeners like to set aside an area of the garden exclusively for vegetables.The entire area can be cultivated and the primary purpose of the plot is to provide optimum growing conditions for vegetables, rather than any decorative merits.That said there is something inherently beautiful about a well maintained vegetable garden.It has natural geometry because the crops are grown in rows so that you can move freely between them to tend them.

A vegetable plot should not be undertaken lightly, since maintaining one is truly a labour of love.It will need to be dug over every autumn weeded regularly, and the vegetables nurtured tenderly and protected against marauding pests and the elements.

There is also considerable work in the planning the plot effectively, in order to maximise the space, prevent gluts and to keep pests and diseases at bay by careful crop rotation.Inter cropping is a good way of saving space in a traditional plot but does need careful planning.EG. Sow fast maturing crops such as salards, between slow maturing vegetables like carrots.The fast growing crop will have matured and been harvested before the other crop needs the space.

Crop rotation Vegetables should not be grown in the same place each year.Soil dwelling pests and diseases endemic to a particular crop would steadily increase if reapeatedly given their favourite host.Continually cropping the same vegetables in the same place can lead to an imbalance in soil nutrients.

Crop rotation can be seen so dauntingly complex that some gardeners abandon it altogether.It is far better for the novice vegetable gardener to practise a very simple 3 year plan.Devide crops into 3 types roots,brassicas and others, than to embark on a complicated regime that may be impossible to follow long term.

A very simple rule is that if a vegetable from one group does particularly badly one year.Never follow it the next year with a crop from the same group, unless you are willing to risk having the same poor results.

Vegetable Crops

Legumes and pod crops

• Okra

• Scarlet runner beans

• Lima beans

• French beans

• Peas

• Broad beans

Alliums

• Bulb onions

• Pickling onions

• Spring onions

• Shallots

• European Welsh onions

• Orental bunching onions

• Leeks

• Garlic

Solanaceous, roots and tuberous crops

• Sweet pepers

• Tomatoes

• Aubergines

• Celery

• Celeriac

• Beetroot

• Carrots

• Sweet potatoes

• Parsnips

• Scorzonera

• Salsify

• Potatoes

Brassicas

• Kales

• Cauliflowers

• Cabbages

• Brussels sprouts

• Purple sprouting broccoli

• Galabrese

• Oriental mustards

• Chinese cabbages

• Kohlrabi

• Swedes

• Turnips

• Radishes

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