Simple or Easy Vegetable Garden Design

Quadrant 1

• Legumes and pod crops are one of the four main rotation groups. These include okra, hyacinth beans, scarlet runner beans, lima beans, snap beans, peas and broad beans. Many depend on pole supports such as those made of sturdy bamboo and grow up on them.

Quadrant 2

• Alliums, or plants that are in the onion family, include bulb onions, pickling onions, scallions, shallots, welsh onions, oriental bunching, onions, leeks and garlic.

Quadrant 3

• The third rotation group may consist of solanaceous, root and tuberous crops, such as sweet peppers, tomatoes, wonderberries, eggplants, celery, celeriac, beets, taro, carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, scorzonera, salsify and potatoes.

Quadrant 4

• The fourth quadrant can be filled with brassicas, the cabbage family. These leafy vegetables often make up the bulk of salads and includes kale, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprout, broccoli, oriental mustards Chinese broccoli, bok choi, mizuna greens, Chinese cabbage, komatsuna, kohlrabi, rutabaga, turnips and radishes.

Keeping a Calendar

• According to "The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening," it makes keeping a basic vegetable garden much simpler if you make a chart with a column for each month of the year. For every vegetable on your list fill in the months during which it will be in the ground. Some crops are only sown once a year, such as parsnip and cabbage. When they are done, it opens space to grow something else. Others, such as lettuce, benefit from repeat sowings and provide continuous growth throughout a season. Keeping a detailed record of what worked well or didn't is a valuable resource when you begin planting next year.