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| Getting Ready to Sow | |
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| You can grow a whole range of delicious vegetables and herbs in your own garden even if your busy lifestyle leaves you with little time to spend tending your plants | |
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| There's no need for acres of space; vegetables will flourish on the balcony of a city apartment or tucked among the blossoms in a sunny flowerbed | |
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| This chapter explains how to plan a new garden or adapt an existing one to allow you to grow vegetables | |
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| Vegetable gardens can be beautiful as well as practical, and we will give you ideas for ornamentalpotagerscombining herbs, salads and edible flowers, tub gardens for patios, and easy-access raised bed gardens with decorative paths | |
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| Your garden will make use of a whole range of time-saving tricks which will be fully described and explained | |
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| For example, you will find out how to avoid the need for laborious digging by using deep bed systems use mulch to save hours | |
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| Spent watering and weeding install automatic watering systems that work while you sleep choose the best easy-care vegetables and varieties keep pests and diseases at bay draw up and follow a cropping plan to keep you on track | |
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| Now that you have decided what you are going to grow and how much space you can devote to it, it's time to start the preparations, and lay the basis for your plot | |
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| This chapter tells you exactly how to get it right from the start in just a day! do-it-yourself soil tests improving the soil for healthy growth | |
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| How to dig D and how to avoid digging altogether creating raised beds and laying paths getting the best out of containers the magic of mulch* installing an automated watering system. | |
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| Sowing and Planting | |
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| In this chapter, youoll discover how to pace your planting and sowing to create a garden that will yield harvestable produce at a steady pace over the longest possible period | |
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| Youoll learn about succession sowing D how to sow little pinches of lettuce seeds every week for a long harvest of salads throughout the summer, instead of a whole row that matures all at once and ends up going to waste | |
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| We will also guide you on how much space to give to each crop D and when to hold back, no matterhowmuch youod like to try six different varieties at once! | |
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| Youoll also see how the harvest needs of a crop fit with your lifestyle, and make realistic choices about crops you may want to grow less of D or not at all | |
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| preparing the plot for sowing: using cloches or fleece to dry out and warm up the soil for an early start sowing techniques: sowing in rows or scattered, how deep to cover seeds, dealing with very small or large seeds | |
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| Which crops can be bought as young plants to save time raising them from seed helping transplants get off to a good start strategies for sowing and planting in both hot and cold conditions | |
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| Two crops for the price of one D interplanting demystified care of seedlings and young plants | |
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| Stretching the planting season through the summer and into early fall little and often: why planting and sowing your garden gradually in small doses keepsyouin control of how the garden develops | |
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| Making Your Vegetables Grow | |
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| As your garden develops, your gardening pastimes will include watering, fertilizing, staking, mulching, and keeping an eye out for pest and disease problems | |
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| Watering strategies: hoses, sprinklers, drip irrigation, automated syste | |