If you've been reading the past few issues of TheKitchenGardener.com, you may have noticed that I have been sort of writing around the general subject of vegetable gardening, but haven't yet talked much about the nuts and bolts of how to do it yet.  Well roll up your sleeves, because autumn is here and it's time to get out in the garden and start renovating or preparing new beds for next growing season!  Novice gardeners often ask "When is the best time to start a new garden bed?"  The proper answer is "Last fall."  So don't get caught next spring wishing that you had room to cram in a few more seedlings, and struggling to build new beds when you aught to be tending to other spring chores.  Build your beds now and sow them with a cover crop, and when planting time comes, the soil will be in prime condition to grow great vegetables.

So what's involved, you may ask?  The procedure is not as difficult as you may think.  The first step is to identify where you want your new garden beds located.  Remember that most vegetables require an absolute minimum of 6 hours of direct sunlight per day during the months of the growing season.  On the other hand, some veggies will benefit from a few hours of shade during the late afternoon heat of midsummer.  Observe how the sun moves across the sky, and where shadows fall on your property at different times of day during the spring and summer months.  For the sake of convenience, I strongly advocate placing the vegetable garden close to your house.  A telltale sign of a novice gardener is a garden placed far away from the house.  I have often seen gardens placed right up against the perimeter of the property, as far from the house as possible.  Indeed, I have seen gardens planted closer to the neighbor's house than the house of the gardener.  This is sheer silliness if you ask me.  Perhaps nothing will contribute more to the success of your crops than having them accessible so that you can tend to them on a regular basis.  What's more, good healthful cooking demands frequent trips to the garden for fresh vegetables or herbs.  If it's not convenient, you won't use it.  Perhaps it is some misplaced Colonial American design aesthetic that pushes the garden out into the Back 40, because gardens in Europe (and I'm sure most of the rest of the Old World) march right up to the front door step.  Whose is the prettier landscape?

Once you have your site selected, the best way to prepare a new garden bed in fall is by adding rough organic matter, and then planting a cover crop.  My preferred method of bed preparation involves 1) Framed raised beds, 2) Autumn preparation, and 3) The use of a cover crop.

Vegetables can certainly grow without framed raised beds, but using such a system makes gardening so much easier and neater that I would never recommend anything else.  The compliment to permanent framed raised beds is of course permanent paths between the beds.  I recommend laying out your paths first, keeping them a uniform width of at least 3 feet (4 feet is preferable).  The area between the paths will be your gardening space.  The first time I re-made my potager, I made the mistake of laying out the garden beds first, using the space left over for paths.  The second time I re-made my potager was because I realized that uniform paths are pleasing to the eye.  The eye will overlook slight irregularities in the shape of the garden beds (which will get gangly with verdant vegetables by late spring anyway), but won't be so forgiving if the paths are crooked.