Organize the garden space is useful for optimizing it: if you design the plot well, it will be comfortable to work and at the same time will make the most of its size . For this reason, before preparing the land and planting it, it is worth drawing a map of the garden and deciding how to divide it into beds.
The flower beds will be divided by paths which, in addition to starting the spaces, are useful for moving around the field, without ever walking on the cultivated land. To give each element at the right size this is very important, to allow comfortable work without having to go through the plots.
It can be useful for those who are about to start farming some practical advice on how to fix it in relation to its spaces, so let’s see from the point of view of the design of a new garden how to divide it rationally.
The measurements of the flowerbeds
It is important to be able to design a garden and define the dimensions of the different elements , without forgetting the service spaces, such as the tool shed, the rainwater collection, the compost heap. The basic unit of the garden is obviously the cultivated bed.
guess what to do rectangular flower beds : is the best way to use space. The traditional scenario is to divide the field as if it were a grid, with parallel or perpendicular corridors between them.
Flower beds should be formed to a maximum width of 120 cm , which makes it possible to carry out work indoors, without having to climb on cultivated land. A space of just over a meter is easily accessible if it has walkways on both sides. The length of the flower bed can be determined at will, although it is convenient not to overdo the length and create more connections to walk on.
It might be worth it enhance flower beds Compared to crossings, this offers several advantages when it comes to farming, as we discussed in more detail in the Brave Breeding article.
In the synergistic garden, sometimes circular or spiral beds/stretchers are created that come out of these patterns, very aesthetic creations. This type of design must necessarily be personalized for each space and does not lend itself well to a general discourse. In any case, the width of 120 cm must also be respected in these eccentric vanes.
Since often the address of the parterre it also determines the orientation of the rows, for comfort and better use of space, it is good to remember during the design phase that having the rows of vegetables oriented from east to west can mean better lighting for plants, which will provide less shade between them. It’s not easy to explain it in words, but if you look at which direction the shadow is facing during the day, you can tell.
The dimensions of the walkways
The walkway is the space that separates a flower bed from the others, at the same time it is the streets where those who cultivate walk to cross the garden. The width of this passage should be sufficient to pass comfortably, at the same time it should not be exaggerated, since the passages are unproductive spaces.
A good width might be 35/40cm if it is a small orchard managed with hand tools. If instead we want move between flower beds with a wheelbarrow or motorized hoe it is good that the spaces are adequate and that the walkways can exceed even 50 cm .
If queremos un compromiso podemos hacer unos pasillos de mayor anchura, que serán las “main arteries” y nos permitirán el paso con las ya mencionadas carretillas o azadones de motor, mientras que otros los sujetaremos con fuerza y sólo servián a los que culturen para pasar on foot.
For convenience, we can decide mulch walkways with straw, sawdust or cardboard, but also pave them with planks or sand. This, on the one hand, prevents walkers from getting their feet too dirty and, on the other hand, does not allow weeds to grow in the paths.
Draw straight paths
This seems like an exaggerated point but I assure you that it pays to have a wire and pegs to draw the edges of the flower beds with precision and create a regular vegetable garden, made up of parallel lines and always 90 degree angles . If passages are dug with the naked eye, without a measured and stable reference, curved lines are drawn, resulting in small portions of arable land being left unused.
Obviously you don’t always have a perfectly rectangular plot, so there will be triangular or trapezoidal beds around the edges, with some sides a little crooked, that’s inevitable.