Ten steps to… improve your garden: How to make your own vegetable garden

Why go to the bother of buying mass-produced, over fertilised vegetables when you can easily grow your own out the back garden. Here’s how you do it.

Do you ever stop to think ‘how fresh are my vegetables’? You do know that some of your fruit and veg come from as far afield as Africa and Brazil. So how fresh are they? To make sure you’re getting the freshest of the fresh why not start a vegetable patch out your own back garden? Here’s how to do it in just ten easy steps.

---

What you’ll need:

Length of wood x 4
Wooden blocks/pillars x 4
Hammer
Nails
Planting mix
Seeds
Plastic lining

Step 1: Planning

First things first, you’re better off putting some planning into making a vegetable garden before you start sowing any seeds. Find the best place for your garden, one with plenty of natural light and also decide how big you want it to be.

Step 2: Get your materials

Once you’ve planned out how big and where exactly you want the garden to be, you can get cracking on collecting the materials to make it. Pick out four lengths of wood and four wooden blocks. The blocks sit into the corners of the lengths of wood to make the corners much more secure. Have a look at the image below to see what we mean.

Step 3: Dig a big hole

When you know how big your veg garden is going to be, dig a hole about half a foot deep. It's really up to you if you want it flush with the ground or if you want it raised.

Step 4: Line the hole

Once the hole has been dug you can line it with plastic sheeting so that no rats or weeds try to get into your veggie patch. Make sure to leave enough room so that the plastic crops out over the edges. You can cut this later.

Step 5: Build the frame

You can now put your frame together. Cut your wood so that when you assemble the pieces, they're the same size as the hole. Now, join the four lengths of wood together so that they make a square or rectangle shape. Any other shape and you may have gone wrong somewhere. Secure them together by hammering some nails through the lengths and into the blocks of wood that we talked about in step 2. Once fully assembled you can place the frame in the hole. Once it's in you can begin to cut the excess plastic away.

Step 6: Fill with mix

When the frame is in the hole you can fill it with planting mix. Make sure to leave an inch or so of room at the top of the frame so that the mulch won't mess up the rest of your garden.

Step 7: Flatten the mix

Once the frame is filled with the mix you must then flatten it. You can rent a really expensive and complicated machine to do this, or, you can simply walk on it until it’s flat. Your choice.

Step 8: Sow your seeds

Once the planting mix is nice and flat you can begin on sowing your seeds. Poke your finger into the soil until your first knuckle is submerged, place the seed in the new hole and then cover it over. Repeat this for all your seeds.

It's a good idea to separate your seeds into different sections like in the image above

Step 9: Water

When all your seeds are sown you can give your new vegetable garden a good old dose of water.

Step 10: Give it time

Finally, you should now be finished and it’s up to the sun to work it’s magic from here. You won’t believe how good vegetables taste when you’ve grown them yourself. Just remember: if your plants don't grow, at least you got off the couch for a few hours.