Life is a Garden | South Africa |

With a bit of careful planning and preparation during July, you can have a thriving vegetable garden this summer. Top kitchen garden expert, Bill Kerr, advises gardeners to start thinking about their vegetable gardens now, so that they can reap the rewards of their hard work come the summer months. "Although frosts may be at their worst at this time of the year, it is nevertheless a good time to plant certain vegetables and certainly a good time to prepare for the busy season ahead," he says. Bill offers the following great tips for preparing your vegetable garden for summer:

Veg for many months

Many gardeners make the mistake of sowing all their vegetable seeds in one go. "This results in only one harvest for the season," says Bill. "To ensure multiple harvests, calculate the quantity required for a week of a particular vegetable, establish how long it will bear its crop and then plant accordingly," he adds. If you determine how long it takes for the vegetable to bear its crop and have your second sowing ready to harvest when the first is finished, then you can have vegetables ready for picking over a longer period of time. For example, beans will take 60 days until they are ready to be picked, be in harvest for a month and deliver a crop of about 1kg per metre of row.

Prepare the soil

Most gardeners have a kitchen garden that is quite bare at this time of the year. So take advantage of this and prepare your soil well for the season ahead. "Condition the soil by adding generous amounts of compost or kraal manure," says Bill. These will help to make the soil loose and friable and will also act as a sponge for holding and retaining more water. Compost will also aerate the soil for better root development, germination and fewer soil-borne diseases.

Vegetables to sow this month

"In cold areas, a rise in day temperatures usually occurs during the middle of July. This is your cue to start sowing cold tolerant vegetables such as carrots, beetroot, leeks, spring onions and cabbages," advises Bill. "For those who wish to do their own seedbeds of tomatoes, brinjals and peppers, now is the time to sow these in a warm, protected area for transplanting in the middle of September. In the frost-free areas of the country, sow beans, sweetcorn, cucumbers, gems, marrows and pumpkins," he says.