THE MAKING OF AN ORGANIC GARDEN (Part 1)

STOP! Don’t go outside, lick your finger, put it in the air, to test the wind and use that act to decide where to plant your garden. A little more thought is needed. The organic garden, if possible, should be planned out on paper. The plan is a great help when the real planting time comes. It saves time, energy, and unnecessary buying of seed. Plus your crops will actually grow.
The first thing in organic garden making is to select the location. Without a choice, it means simply doing the best one can with conditions. With space limited, it resolves itself into no garden, or a box garden. Surely, a box organic garden is better than nothing is at all.

But we will now suppose that it is possible to really choose just the right location for the organic garden. What shall be chosen? The greatest determining factor is the sun. No one would have a north corner, unless it were absolutely forced upon him; because, while north corners do for ferns, certain wild flowers, and begonias, they are of little use as spots for a garden in general.

If possible, choose the ideal spot - a southern exposure. Here the sun lies warm all day long. Just like, you need the sun, so does your garden. When the organic garden is thus located, the rows of vegetables and flowers should run north and south. Placed this way, the plants receive the sun's rays all the morning on the eastern side, and all the afternoon on the western side. One ought not to have any lopsided plants with such an arrangement.

Suppose the organic garden faces southeast. In order to get the best distribution of sunlight run the rows northwest and southeast.

The idea is to get the most sunlight as evenly distributed as possible for the longest period. From the lopsided growth of window plants, it is easy enough to see the effect on plants of poorly distributed light. So if you use a little diagram remembering that you wish the sun to shine part of the day on one side of the plants and part on the other, you have a win-win situation. The southern exposure gives the ideal case because the sun gives half time nearly to each side. A northern exposure may mean an almost entire cut-off from sunlight; while northeastern and southwestern places always get uneven distribution of sun's rays, no matter how carefully this is planned. Next, we’ll talk about the actual spot.