Growing vegetables in your own garden and watching how crunchy radishes, carrots or kohlrabi grow from small seedlings is not only fascinating for children. But mixed culture, crop rotation and supposedly complicated care deter many beginners. With a little planning and our vegetable varieties with "growth guarantee", the vegetable bed planted for the first time is guaranteed to be a tasty success.
Lettuce is easy to care for and develops quickly
Laying out the vegetable patch properly
Simply dig up a corner of the garden and sow - unfortunately this does not work.
The right location for the vegetable patch, which should not be too large at first, is a sunny corner. Prepare this already in autumn:
- cutting off the lawn.
- Dig up and remove all weeds and their roots.
- Improve the soil with some compost and, in the case of heavy soil, sand.
If you want to try out whether you like growing vegetables, you can do without edging the vegetable patch.
Which vegetables are suitable?
When it comes to vegetable plants, you prefer to use well-established varieties. These get along with a minimum of care and still thrive well:
| kind | information |
|---|---|
| radish | Can be sown at any time and grow very quickly. The first harvest can take place after two to three weeks. |
| carrots | Different varieties, also in unusual colors, enrich the raw food plate. The only thing to note is that the soil must be loosened well before sowing. Carrots are ready to harvest after just one month. |
| salads | Lettuce varieties that don't form heads are good for beginners. You should only pay attention to snails, because they love the delicate green. |
| beans | French beans grow quickly and offer an early harvest. Snap beans that climb need support and are therefore the visual highlight of the vegetable patch. |
| tomatoes | These are much tastier when you grow them yourself than when you buy them from the shops. There are now many disease-free varieties that can be easily cultivated in beds or pots. |
| chard | A vegetable that is very fashionable again. After about two months you can harvest the first leaves. By winter, chard will sprout again so that you can remove leaves a second time. |
| spices | Thyme, marjoram, chervil, savory, chives and parsley: What would a vegetable garden be without these herbs. They require almost no care and score with their intense aroma. |
| strawberries | These are extremely easy to cultivate. If they are allowed to mature in peace, they develop a wonderful taste. They not only fit on the fruit plate, but also complement the self-grown salads. |
tips
Don't just plan the size of the vegetable patch based on who lives in your household. A crop bed is a lot of work: it has to be watered, weeded, harvested and the food processed promptly. The rule of thumb is: You have to calculate about thirty minutes of work per week for every ten square meters of bed area.