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Planning Your Garden

Create a thriving garden

Done in 2 hours
Skill level easy

For a proper harvest, good garden planning is important. Follow this instruction before you set up your own garden.

Published under CC:BY-SA by

Abalimi Bezekhaya

How you make it

Observe your available plot of land or space

Before planning your garden, observe the following aspects: sun, wind, water and slope of land.

Choose your site

Make sure that the garden gets more than six hours of sun per day, is on a flat surface or gentle slope and has protection from wind and animals.

Estimate how much space you have

If you only have very little space, choose to set up a container garden or vertical garden. These can also be realised in a very small space. Find the instructions here. If you have e.g. a RDP house or a bigger plot of land, go on with this instruction.

Clear and level your site

Clear and clean the site, removing all the weeds and other plants. Level your site, removing all the big rocks.Water your soil well before you begin to work.

Mark out the beds

Make your beds 1m wide and 2m long or longer if you have the space. Make a path between each bed which is wide enough for you to walk along. Then you will be able to reach the plants on both sides of the path without damaging them. A spade is 1m long, so you can use your spade to measure the size of the bed. Mark the bed with sticks and string (one stick in each corner).

Protect your garden

Make sure your garden is protected from animals and the wind. Build a fence with sticks or nets around your garden to protect your vegetables from animals. Plant bushes or tall grasses to make hedges on the windy side of your garden to protect your vegetables from the wind. The wind damages plants and dries out the soil.

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