3 planting techniques for successful gardening

You want your vegetable garden to grow as well as possible. It isn’t just down to the fertilizer and soil you use. There are planting methods that can help your patch thrive. These tips will help you decide which are best for you.

Although not based on any scientific theory, companion planting works on the basis of certain plants working well when grouped together.

It can be useful to control insects as certain herbs like tansy and thyme emit aromas that are effective in repelling pests.

They also attract harmful insects away from certain vegetables. Other herbs confuse insects with the result of them literally losing heir sting.

Companion planting also works in other ways:

• Certain taller-growing plants, such as sweet corn, can provide shade and shelter for lower-growing species, such as pumpkins and squash.
• In return, the large leaves of the pumpkin provide shade for the partially exposed roots of the corn.
• Root crops and leaf crops place different demands on the soil, and when planted closely together will not compete for nutrients.
• Legumes help to fix nitrogen in the soil and make it available for nearby plants. This is why onions, which dislike high soil nitrogen levels, are best planted well away from nitrogen-fixing peas or beans.

If you’re an experienced gardener, you’ll know that there such a thing as overproducing. If your garden is designed to produce regular crops you might find you sometimes have a glut.

You can store some crops for long periods by freezing or preserving, but many vegetables grown in backyard gardens are best if you eat them fresh.

The method is particularly useful for leaf crops such as lettuce and cabbage, which do not store well.

What do you do to avoid over production? Succession planting provides a common-sense way to provide a steady supply of basic vegetables, rather than an overabundance that will either run to seed or rot on the vine.

• Plant out small numbers of seeds or seedlings at planned intervals, so that the mature vegetables can be harvested successively rather than all at once.
• In the garden layout, make space for successive sowings:for each row allow, for example, six lettuce and six cabbages.
• Sow rows at two-week intervals. The same can be done with Swiss chard, carrots, tomatoes and zucchini.

This is a great method for essentially getting the maximum crop from the minimum space.

In garden beds built up with plenty of well-rotted organic matter, you can grow plants plants much closer together than if they were in soils with low fertility.

In short, interplanting means high-density planting by filling gaps and spaces between rows of larger vegetables with smaller, usually faster-growing vegetables.

These tips will help:

• Choosing the right accompanying plant to fill these gaps or spaces will help avoid any brake on the development of the main crop.
• Plants such as radishes are a small enough to be planted in rows between most vegetables without causing a problem.
• Carrots, onions and parsley are ideal for planting in the spaces between tomato bushes, and are suitable companion plants.
• Herbs such as thyme and marjoram can be interplanted in any position in the vegetable garden, where they will help other plants to thrive.
• With interplanting the main aim is to maximize use of the available ground space without causing a situation where plants are competing with each other for sun, moisture or nutrients

There are means and ways of getting the best out of your garden if you give some thought to planting for optimum yields. One or a combination of these 3 types of planting methods will help you grow healthy vegetables at just the right quantities for you and your family.