With the 2023 growing season approaching, we have prepared the vegetable garden plan for the Veggie-Bed.

We rotated all the vegetable plots according to our crop rotation practice. The crops selected produced a high yield in the previous growing seasons.

Over ten years in the making, the Veggie-Bed is a no-till, raised-row, organic garden in which the vegetables are grown in succession to avoid depleting the soil and to control weeds, pests, and diseases. The garden is section-off into two 20 by 10-foot gardens. Each section is divided into two ten by 10-foot plots where vegetables are grown according to their type (root, leaf, legumes, fruit).

Our backyard garden is located in the suburbs of the Western Branch area of Chesapeake, VA. The property is less than 3/4 of an acre, and we use approximately 450 square feet in the backyard.

Concentrating on quality and not quantity, we give each plant plenty of room to grow and increase its yield. We mix organic compost from our compost pile into each row during the winter and use no fertilizer, pesticides, or herbicides in the garden.

Writer: Tom Myrick