I have rather ignored talking about the vegetable garden until now probably because I am back in a flower phase. I have planted and harvested many vegetable gardens however and they augmented our diet for many seasons.

Growing vegetables was also a necessity early on in life, both for my parents and then my own family in Canada if we were to have a diet filled with fresh vegetables. Let’s face it there is nothing like carrots pulled straight from the garden or peas from the pod. My own daughter and a friend, when they were about three would sit in my vegetable garden pulling carrots and eating them, soil and all. They loved to play outside and would make tea with water and leaves in a plastic teapot. How much they drank I will never know but I do know my daughter is a great gardener and still prefers vegetables to flowers.

When I first studied horticulture, one of the handbooks we had to buy was ‘The Vegetable Garden Displayed’, put out by the Royal Horticultural Society. It is still in publication today with a much prettier cover but it still displays all the tools required with instruction for the best digging techniques, how to cultivate each particular crop and their susceptibility to pests. This book has been in publication since 1941 and I am guessing it came out during the World War Two, when everyone was expected to ‘Dig for Victory’ to grow food while the farmers were fighting. It was a step by step ‘how to’ for all the city dwellers who had never grown anything and all the novice gardeners at the time. It is still a great little book but times have changed and new methods of growing have become popular such as the Raised Bed, No Dig, Hydroponics, Food Forest, Permaculture, Companion Planting. There are methods to suit everyone but to be honest the old tried and true has worked for decades so there is nothing wrong with it. I have raised beds in my garden but to be honest they drain quickly and in our area of drought, I don’t believe they are the best suited to a really dry climate with water supply issues.

My own raised bed vegetable garden. The pots contain horse radish to prevent spread. The row cover is to protect from critters including some four legged ones. the second photo is of the potatoes before flowering.

The most important principles I learned way back for successful vegetable crops were: Rotations, Essential Sunshine; Use of Compost, Fertilizer and regular supply of water. Those things never change. The most important digging techniques I learned were: One Spit and Double Digging for a newly cultivated area. If making any garden for the first time , double digging is a method where a trench is dug and the top layer of weedy turf or grass is turned out to one side. The trench is then dug again two spits deep and the soil is placed to the other side. The turf is then turned over back into the trench with the growing side down to kill the weeds. The soil from the second dig is placed back on top. Rototilling a new garden turns up the weeds and seeds. Best techniques sometimes require manual labour! I have to say my most used tool in the garden is a rabbiting spade. It is small and perfect for women. Mine frequently disappears so although it is my spade I know its use is not limited to me!

Groups of plants, often similar families, have certain needs and are prone to the same pests and diseases. If grown in the same area year after year those pests and diseases build up in the soil, so to break the cycle the goal is to rotate through different areas, raised beds or however you grow. The same crop should not be grown in the same area two years in a row.

Vegetables are grouped in basic ways according to their needs and for the purpose of rotating. However it is done, the basics remain the same. My general learning taught me to group this way;

The Brassicas: cabbages, kale, broccoli, cauliflower

Root Crops: potatoes, carrots, parsnips , rutabaga, beets, onions, garlic

Legumes: peas, beans and Salad Crops, tomatoes, spinach and cucurbits (Cucs, Squash)

However the  groups could be broken down further:

Legumes: peas beans

Alliums: onions, leeks, garlic

Umbels: (referring to family) parsnips, dill, carrots

Cucurbits: squash cucumbers

Brassicas: cabbage, cauliflower, kale

Nightshades; tomatoes, peppers, potatoes

Legumes are nitrogen fixers and the root nodules put nitrogen back into the soil. Brassicas frequently need to be protected from the larvae of the Cabbage White Butterfly. They require nitrogen rich soil so are best planted the year following the legumes used that patch of the garden.   Cucurbits are all heavy feeders and require plenty of feeding. All groups require feeding with compost and fertilizers and all grow best in a good loam. I have to fence my garlic, onions, chives and walking onions as my dogs devour them. Alliums are supposed to be poisonous to dogs but my Scotties will totally consume all chives and walking onions within their reach and all have lived to be thirteen.

The important thing to remember is that crops need to be rotated from one year to the next. I used to map out my vegetable garden for every years planting and kept the records for many years. It is amazing when spring rolls around how you forget what was grown where! I went looking for my scribblings but alas have thrown them out now with my different growing needs. Farmers do the same thing and rotate their crops although with the monocultures that have taken over from mixed farming it doesn’t always happen and a lot of artificial fertilizers are used to replace the farm produced manures.

One of the reasons I don’t grow vegetables anymore is because I have precious little areas of full sun left and vegetables need a good supply of sunshine for most of the day.

The choice of fertilizer and compost is individual but when you think of how much nutrition is taken out of the vegetable garden, you realize it is important to put it back. Home compost is an especially important addition to the vegetable patch as it opens the soil and improves porosity. It is not particularly nutrient rich so the compost needs to be accompanied by fertilizers of choice and availability. If adding manures which will certainly boost production, it is important to compost well first, otherwise many weeds will be introduced at the same time.  

A very typical perfect Italian vegetable garden of peas and tomatoes growing in my home town.

This diagram is copied from the book Vegetable Garden Displayed and shows a few interesting differences between vegetable gardening in the U.K. in the 1960’s and the Rocky Mountains of Canada. The grouping of Curcubits are missing. At that time very few grew cucumbers unless they were in a greenhouse and the popularity of squash was just not there. It is now and with warming temperatures it is more possible to have success in the U.K. The other interesting note is use of lime. Lime is used to ‘sweeten’ or neutralize the acidity of an acid soil. Soil can become acid in a wet climate with a lot of composted matter. Generally in a dry climate, this is not required and in the Rockies of Canada the soil is generally on the alkaline side already. Another difference is the mention of succession crops. Rarely can we follow one crop with another in zone three because our growing time is not long enough. It is possible with salad leaves however.

If growing veg for the first time, good luck and maybe start small. You don’t have to grow everything the first time you try! If I were to recommend the simplest crop, I would say spinach in the cool weather, potatoes, Swiss Chard and some salad greens. Tomatoes are rewarding but more attention is required. Zucchini is prolific and requires a good food supply.