Start 2010 by planning a vegetable garden
Following in the footsteps of the Obamas, the Queen and the Prime Minister, planting a kitchen garden is one of the most environmentally friendly ways to start the new year. More and more people are including fruit and vegetables in their gardens as they experience the superior taste and health benefits of home grown food. But growing vegetables has traditionally needed more experience than picking out plants from a garden centre. Many crops need to be grown from seed, spaced correctly and ‘rotated’ in groups to prevent the build-up of pests or loss of soil nutrients.
GrowVeg.com simplifies the planning of a vegetable garden or allotment by making it easy to work out what to plant, where to plant it and when to do so. The website enables the gardener to build a personalised interactive plan of their garden using the unique online Garden Planner software. Gardeners simply sketch out their growing space, then add vegetables to it by clicking and dropping them onto the area. An intuitive colour-coded circle around each plant shows how much space it requires and which crops to keep together. Plants can easily be rearranged by dragging them into another location until the perfect layout is achieved.
Once the vegetable patch is planned GrowVeg.com will send email reminders twice a month listing which vegetables need sowing or planting out. A complete list of plants and their spacing can quickly be printed giving a useful summary of what to buy, when to plant and when to harvest. Plenty of information on the likes and dislikes of each vegetable is built in, including which plants to sow together and how much water, feeding and maintenance they require.
In addition to the interactive Garden Planning software, the site has a number of expert GrowGuide articles on everything from keeping your plants pest-free to gardening with children. The GrowBlog section contains topical news and comments for budding kitchen gardeners, with new content added regularly.
GrowVeg.com offers a free 30-day trial of the Garden Planning software together with all the features of the site. New features are continually being added such as the ability to add garden notes and vegetable varieties.
