Vegetable Garden Ideas to Prove Lawns are Overrated
Sustainable gardening that puts food on the table? Is that even possible? You bet it is!
Many people say they would rather have a lawn than an ugly vegetable garden in their yard. They obviously haven't checked out vegetable garden ideas lately.
No-Dig Raised Beds
We cannot emphasize enough how much creativity is involved in planning and designing raised gardening beds. These can be done cheaply by recycling pallets. Other materials you can use are split poles, or logs.
Typically, the best-raised beds are about one foot high, but then can be higher. If you have sloped ground, each row of raised beds can form a terrace.
The advantage of wooden raised beds is that they are friendly to the environment and can be made to any shape you required.
Aside from making it easier on the back, anecdotal evidence abounds on how they are more fertile and produce better vegetables than vegetable beds in the ground. That might have something to do with them getting less frost in the colder months, or being a suitable environment for worms and helpful bacteria for the no-dig way of gardening.
Pathways - Vegetable Garden Ideas
With raised beds for your vegetables, you can make your pathways a feature. Pebbles, flagstones, round cut tree trunks, and natural stone are all possibilities.
Your pathways will help open up new spaces, and new places to plant vegetables and fruit trees. It's an adventure!
Archways
With two rows of raised pallet beds, about four feet apart, you can build arches using rebar, or other forms of trellising, including wood and bamboo. You need these archways for all the vegetables that grow on vines. Giant squashes (and anything from the cucurbit family) all have lovely yellow flowers, and all are capable of growing on the vine. Loofahs are another interesting plant to grow on vines.
Root crops are quite happy to grow beneath the vines; carrots love the shade provided by trained tomato plants, for example. This is one of the best vegetable garden ideas in recent years, which accounts for its increasing popularity.
Archways provide shade and interest in your garden. And perhaps you'll find a nice little table and a couple of chairs at which you can enjoy an afternoon tea, or watch the sunset?
Herbal Spirals
Not everything has to be in straight lines, you know. Interest shapes can have you wandering round and round as you gather herbs for that lovely stew you are cooking in the kitchen.
A wide variety of herbs will give you a wonderful range of smells. You'll also attract bees (and they're great for pollinating your squashes).
Decking
Decking is great, especially if it is multi-vel, as it can double up as storage, and even as part of your garden furniture.
Enough To Keep You Busy
Who needs a lawn when there are so many fascinating and ongoing projects that you can have when you incorporate landscaping into a vibrant, productive vegetable garden?
Read our blog for more landscaping and vegetable garden ideas, or give us a call if you want to come up with better uses for your land than a flat lawn!
