Cold Season Garden Planning. Koue Weer Tuin Beplanning

I started avidly growing veggies in my backyard about 9 months ago, in the depths of 2013's winter. I was so eager to start, that I totally ignored the time of year and therefore got miserable results. Results which should have been expected, but nevertheless disappointing beyond belief. Yes, most new gardens are over-eager and make the fatal mistake of focusing on the vegetables/fruit trees/plants, instead of the soil. All the research I did beforehand warned me of this fact, so I had no excuse.

I won't make the same mistakes again, or I will at least try to improve on what I did wrong last year. Planning is one thing I'm very good at; sometimes so good that I plan and plan and plan, but never really implement. A character flaw I know. This is how the planning for my autumn and winter garden is coming along so far:

Calculating how much space you have

This was the logical first step for me, since the available space (and the type of space) will tell you the type and quantity of vegetables to plant. No simple task for me, as most of my space isn't square or rectangular beds, but have weirdly winding or circular edges. Blame my parents for their creative garden planning! For any other person this wouldn't be such a hassle, but I'm a sucker for precise calculations and mathematical formulae. Yes, I'm not only a garden geek, but a geek geek as well haha. After countless tries with a broken tape measure, pen and paper, and even calling in the help of a genial best friend (those damn formulae!) I had calculated my veg garden size to near precise dimensions. And so the real fun began...
 

Backyard Veg Patch - cold season crops to follow/Lappie vir herfs en winter groente

Deciding on which veggies or varieties to grow

The four factors which influence me on what to grow and where to plant it, are;

• What do I like to eat? More specifically, what does my family like to eat?
• What worked in my (or the granny's) garden before?
• Which plants or vegetables benefit most from each other? (Companion Planting)
• Which plants or vegetables are most suited to my soil type and amount of shade?

Drawing up a Garden Plan

This is one step that small-scale backyard gardeners don't have to spend too much time on. Being the kind of person that I am, I've spent hours and hours planning, calculating, drawing and re-drawing my very first Garden Plan(s).

I only have three spaces suitable to vegetables and the occasional fruit tree; they measure:

• 6.1 sq meter (of which 4.8 sq meter can be used due to perennials)
• 7.8 sq meter (of which 1.4 sq meter can be used due to shade and trees), and
• 1.52 sq meter (all suitable for planting)

This leaves me with only about 15.5 sq meter. Not much by any stretch of the imagination, so therefore pre-planning is vital to optimise my space.

The most wonderful tool I've discovered online is the GrowVeg Garden Planner. Not only is it free for a 30-day period, but all features are available to users of the free trial programme! The first step in the design is to tell the programme the length and width of your bed. Then you simply choose a veg/fruit/flower type and plan out the rows or blocks desired. The nifty little programme will tell you automatically how many of said plant you can chuck into said space. Marvelous!

Here is an example of my backyard vegetable patch:

Backyard Veg Patch Plan/Agterplaas Tuinplan [copyright www.growveg.com]

See the full plan, all suggestions, and how wonderful this site really is at GrowVeg.com

Preparing the soil

As soon as the summer veggies and flowers start looking a bit straggly and production comes to a grinding halt, it is time to pull them out and either compost or destroy them, depending on whether they are still healthy specimens. This normally happens the last month of summer or in early autumn. In areas where chilly weather comes sooner (like the Free State or Gauteng) it would most probably be end Feb, and the Garden Route area where I live it's more likely to be March. There is no hard and fast rule to the month of the year though. 

From Pumpkin Patch to Onion Bed/Toekomstige wit-ui tuiste?

Now comes THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK IN GARDEN PLANNING... Soil preparation. It is very important to spend most of your available finances on preparing the soil well and the smallest amount on buying plants or seed. The type of soil you have is also very important. This is because you will need to add coarse sand to hard, clay soil or huge amounts of compost to loose, sandy soil. I have a mix of good garden soil and heavy, clay soil in my own garden.  

A rule of thumb is to add two bags of good, organic compost to a square meter of your garden. That is roughly equivalent to 2'' of compost (5cm) on top of your bed. It is also a good idea to add a complete fertiliser to your garden. 10-10-10 fertiliser is the best one to go with (equal amounts of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium). Manure is an alternative to compost, but must be well-rotted. A good indication on whether it is suitable for your veg patch is to smell it. If it doesn't reek to high heaven, it apparently is black gold!

A scattering of red onions to follow/'n Paar rooi uie midde-in die vrugte bedding?

All the preparation stuff must be done at least two weeks before any planting. I've just realised it's already March, and I haven't done even a square foot of soil preparation. I will definitely have to order a bakkie-load of compost from Norgarivier Nursery, some fertiliser... and get in my garden, sweating away!