Techniques
Aphids in the Vegetable Garden: Deciding When and How to Intervene
Observe each crop, preserve beneficial insects and choose a physical method suited to the aphids, the plant’s growth stage and the risk of viruses.
Techniques
Understand the technique, then put it into practice.
Practical guides to observing, sowing and caring for your vegetable garden, with guidance and explanations you can follow.
Available guides
Techniques
Automatic Watering in the Vegetable Garden: Testing and Adjusting Drip Irrigation
Organise zones, measure emitter flow rates and adjust the programme to soil moisture. Learn which checks to make before you go away.
Techniques
BRF in the Vegetable Garden: Understanding the Material Before Mulching
Identify ramial chipped wood and assess its use in the vegetable garden based on crop, soil, the condition of the shredded wood, and nitrogen availability.
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Building a Wooden Raised Bed Directly on the Ground
Prepare the dimensions and cuts for a low wooden frame, assemble it on well-drained soil, and adapt the filling to the existing ground.
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Cabbage Pests: Observing Damage and Choosing Prevention
Distinguish flea beetles, caterpillars, slugs, and root problems in Brassicaceae, then adapt observation, netting, and rotation to the target.
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Companion Planting in the Vegetable Garden: Choosing Crop Combinations
Choose crop combinations by comparing space, light, growing time and care needs, while distinguishing practical arrangements from proven effects.
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Container Permaculture: a Vegetable Garden for a Balcony, Terrace or Courtyard
Set up a container vegetable garden on a balcony or terrace, or in a courtyard: light, containers, potting compost, drainage and care suited to your crops.
Techniques
Crop rotation: organising a small vegetable garden
Plan crop rotation with a plot history, vegetable families, and guidelines tailored to the constraints of a small vegetable garden.
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Fertilisers in the Vegetable Garden: Deciding Whether an Application Is Necessary
Soil analysis, previous applications, NPK, and product instructions: choose a fertiliser based on vegetable garden needs, without confusing deficiency with cultivation issues.
Techniques
Flax Mulch in the Vegetable Garden: Flakes, Application, and Precautions
Understand flax shives, prepare their application, and monitor wind, soil moisture, and sowings to adapt this mulch to your vegetable garden.
Techniques
Free Mulching: Using Your Garden’s Resources
Grass clippings, leaves and small prunings: sort your resources, prepare them and organise their storage to mulch without buying material.
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Green Manures in the Small Vegetable Garden: Choosing and Clearing Space in Time
Living cover or mulch? Select a green manure based on available space, season, and crop rotation, then plan when to cut it down before vegetables return.
Techniques
Growing Microgreens: Seeds, Light, and Harvest
Distinguish microgreens from sprouted seeds, choose a tray with drainage holes, monitor light and moisture, then harvest with proper hygiene.
Techniques
Hardening off young plants: preparing them for the garden
When should you move indoor-grown seedlings outside? Arrange gradual exposure to sunlight, wind, and outdoor temperatures before planting.
Techniques
Harvesting and Storing Your Seeds for Future Sowing
Choose plants for seed saving, check maturity and adapt extraction, drying and storage to each vegetable, without promising offspring true to the original variety.
Techniques
How often should you water the vegetable garden?
Organise your checks based on sowings, pots, soil and weather. Decide whether to water according to actual moisture, not a fixed schedule.
Techniques
Indoor Permaculture: Designing a Realistic Small Vegetable Garden
Choose a small indoor vegetable garden based on light, space, temperature and watering, with suitable crops and modest harvests.
Techniques
Irrigation and FAO-56: Understanding ETo, Kc, and ETc
Learn how ETo × Kc is calculated, what its units and limits mean, and which further data are needed to decide how to water.
Techniques
Leggy Seedlings: Understanding Long and Fragile Stems
Seedlings stretching and leaning? Check light, heat, and space, then distinguish etiolation from damping off.
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Making your own compost: materials, moisture and maturity before use
Prepare compost suited to a small garden, balance materials, correct odours or dryness, and distinguish mature compost, mulch and potting compost.
Techniques
Mineral Mulch: Where to Use It in the Garden and Vegetable Patch
Gravel and mineral mulch: select their placement based on plantings, maintenance, organic matter, and sun exposure.
Techniques
Miscanthus mulch in the vegetable garden: selecting and applying shredded material
Particle size, depth, sowing and watering: use miscanthus as ground cover and adjust application to your vegetable garden's conditions.
Techniques
Mulching in the Vegetable Garden: Choosing the Material and the Right Time
Leaves, grass clippings or straw: select your mulch, prepare the soil and adapt application for young seedlings, moisture and slugs.
Techniques
Ollas in the Vegetable Garden: Installation, Testing, and Planning Refills
Learn how porous clay pots water the soil, where to place them and how to check moisture, with limits for sowings, time away, different soils and frost.
Techniques
Organic mulching: choose according to the work ahead
Successive sowings, established crops or perennial plantings: select an organic mulch based on the work ahead and how often it needs topping up.
Techniques
Permaculture in the Vegetable Garden: Observe, Design, and Start Small
Understand the permaculture approach and prepare a first trial in your vegetable garden based on your plot, resources, and available time.
Techniques
Potting compost, garden compost or fertiliser: which to choose for your vegetable garden?
Potting compost, garden compost and fertiliser: compare their roles, choose based on your project in pots or in the ground, and check what the product already contains.
Techniques
Preserving Harvests: Choosing Storage Based on Your Vegetables
Without a cellar or with a damp space, decide what to store: distinguish roots, cured bulbs, and squashes, sort batches, and monitor their condition.
Techniques
Protective Netting in the Vegetable Garden: Choosing Netting for the Pest and Fitting It Properly
Choose netting based on the identified pest, secure edges, and monitor growth, water, heat, pollinators, and wildlife.
Techniques
Rainwater for the Vegetable Garden: Collection, Storage and Watering
Choose a suitable collection method, protect and maintain the tank, then check French regulations and local restrictions before watering.
Techniques
Raised vegetable beds: choosing height and filling
Open-bottom bed or elevated planter: adjust dimensions for access, then plan the filling, drainage and how you will monitor watering.
Techniques
Seed compost: which should you choose for starting your seeds?
Special seed compost, sieved multipurpose compost, garden soil or compost: compare options for sowing in pots, then prepare a moist, aerated substrate.
Techniques
Seedling Heat Mat: When to Use It and What to Measure
Assess the need for heat, measure the potting compost temperature, adjust the device according to its instructions, and adapt conditions once seedlings emerge.
Techniques
Seedling propagator: managing the cover and seedling emergence
When using a seedling propagator, monitor moisture, warmth and light. Remove the cover at the right stage and do not rely on it for frost protection.
Techniques
Seeds That Fail to Germinate: Wait or Resow?
No seedlings emerging: check time elapsed, temperature, moisture and depth, then test remaining seeds before deciding whether to resow.
Techniques
Slate mulch: where to apply it and how to remove it
Choose a suitable area for slate mulch, prepare its application and removal, then monitor heat and moisture beneath the fragments.
Techniques
Sowing Seeds: Preparing the Session and Monitoring Each Batch
A practical guide to gathering materials, recording variety-specific instructions, sowing, and choosing care after emergence, including when to prick out.
Techniques
Square vegetable bed: choosing the location, size, and crops
Design an accessible square vegetable bed: sunlight, arm's reach, usable depth, drainage, and spacing suited to the chosen vegetables.
Techniques
Successful Seed Sowing: From Seed to First Leaves
Direct sowing or in pots, depth, moisture and light: key guidelines for starting your vegetables and understanding emergence problems.
Techniques
Tomato neighbours: choose based on space and evidence
Basil, lettuce or French marigold near tomatoes: select according to light, water, plant access and the limits of companion planting trials.
Techniques
Unheated greenhouse: ventilating, watering, and monitoring the cold
Manage an unheated greenhouse based on measurements and crops: ventilation, night frost, watering where rain cannot reach, shading, and monitoring during absences.
Techniques
Urban vegetable garden: assessing the site before cultivation
Unknown history, fill materials or former activities: document urban soil, identify contacts and prepare appropriate analyses for vegetable gardening.
Techniques
Using Hemp Mulch in the Vegetable Garden: Application and Precautions
Understand hemp hurds and adapt application for wind, moisture, and sowing. Key steps for effective hemp mulching in the vegetable garden.
Techniques
Vegetable Garden Diseases: Observe, Identify, and Prevent
Distinguish between disease, pest, and cultural disorder; gather useful clues and adapt prevention in the vegetable garden before choosing an intervention.
Techniques
Vegetable Garden Edges: Choosing Based on Access and Maintenance
Do you need an edge for your vegetable garden? Compare materials based on mowing, pathways, surface separation, and required upkeep.
Techniques
Vegetable garden ideas: three layouts and a small-scale start
Compare three vegetable garden layouts based on access, water, and space, then choose a small area to start and assess its upkeep.
Techniques
Vegetable garden in sandy soil: tracking water and preserving fertility
Recognise the limitations of sandy soil, test organic amendments, and adapt mulching, sowing and watering to how deeply the soil is actually moist.
Techniques
Vegetable Garden on Chalky Soil: Selecting Plants Without Blindly Acidifying
Distinguish chalk, pH, depth, and drainage. Plan a suitable vegetable garden and check yellowing before adding amendments or iron.
Techniques
Vegetable garden on clay soil: working the soil when conditions are right
Sticky, hard or compacted soil: observe your clay soil, preserve beds and choose between garden compost, waiting or raised beds.
Techniques
Vegetable garden plan: designing your first manageable garden
Location, sunlight, water, pathways and crop selection: design a small vegetable garden suited to your plot and the time you have available.
Techniques
Vegetable gardening in shade: observe the light before choosing crops
Shade from a wall, under a tree or during the hottest hours: record sunlight received, select a trial crop and know when to relocate the vegetable garden.
Techniques
Vertical vegetable garden: choosing plants, containers and supports
Trellises or tiered pockets: choose a vertical vegetable garden based on light, roots, watering, access and support stability.
Techniques
Watering the Vegetable Garden: When to Water and How to Apply It
Soil moisture, vegetable growth stages, containers, weather, and mulch: key checks to decide when to water and ensure water reaches the roots.
Techniques
Weeding the vegetable garden while minimising root damage to crops
Distinguish annuals from perennials, use shallow weeding near crops, and monitor bindweed and couch grass regrowth.
Techniques
What can you plant after potatoes in the vegetable garden?
Radishes, spinach, lamb's lettuce or soil cover: choose what follows potatoes based on the season, your climate and the plot's history.
Techniques
What to plant next to courgettes? Choose based on space
Lettuces, radishes, tall crops or flowers: select courgette neighbours by space, water and pollination, with no guarantee of protection.
Techniques
Which neighbours to choose for potatoes?
Choose potato neighbours while allowing space for earthing up and harvesting, then compare light, water, growing period and shared risks.
Techniques
Wood-chip mulch: where should you apply it in the garden?
Choose wood chips of known origin, keep them on the surface, and plan their removal before sowing. Understand the risk of nitrogen drawdown.
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