Here are three small things you can do in your veg patch to improve your crops. It’s food for thought and we hope it’ll give you the upper hand next spring!
- Use Companion Plants
Even doing this on a totally informal, unplanned way will greatly help your veg patch. By simply planting lots of nasturtiums, marigolds and other companion flowers and herbs, you will attract more beneficial wildlife to the garden. You can take a more structured route, by carefully pondering which plants will be planted together for maximum results, but as a starting point we would recommend dotting marigolds and violas etc in between rows of veggies wherever you can, or growing them in pots in and around the veg patch. - Reduce Slug Habitats
Slugs are the number one pest, and they can seriously damage crops. There are ways of protecting your crops, but nothing is going to be as effective as reducing the appeal of your veg patch – removing hiding places is the key. Slugs like to hide underneath stones and rocks, at the edges of raised beds, under old tyres and broken pots (and normal pots – check underneath them regularly!) A tidy plot free from debris and hiding places will quickly reduce the number of slugs you have to contend with. - Improve your Soil
Successful growing all starts with the soil. We like to think about it in terms of replicating nature. In nature, trees and plants drop leaves, plants die and decompose and so on, and all this organic matter rots down and improves the soil. To replicate this we always advise adding a layer of compost or well-rotted organic matter to the top of relatively undisturbed soil. It may take a little while for you to see how the soil is changing, but the change will be there!