Growing Vegetables Garden Nursery Landscaping Guide
Growing Vegetables In Your Garden
By Leaf Treehorn
Growing vegetables is probably the most rewarding activity in
the garden. By sowing a few seeds or planting your favourite seedlings,
you can be rewarded for your efforts within a few weeks or months.
Growing vegetables for your own use is fun and healthy and there
is a reward of a delicious harvest.
With your own organic vegetable garden you can finally take back
control over what is going into your body and have fun doing it.
Growing vegetables without chemical pesticides, herbicides and
weedicides provides healthy benefits for the body and the mind.
Organic fertilizers are derived from once-living material. They’re
excellent for improving soil, but their nutrient levels can be
very variable.
Tomatoes, peppers, beans and other growing vegetables need plenty
of sunshine. If your yard is short on sun then you may consider
growing lights. Tomatoes are one of the most rewarding of greenhouse
crops and grow well under growing lights.
Vegetables For Your Dinner Table
You’ve doubtless noticed the soaring cost of groceries lately.
Yes, we all know about the price of gas raising the cost of transporting
goods, thus raising the price of food. Now we hear that bees are
disappearing from their hives at a truly alarming rate - at last
report, it’s estimated that fully 30% of all the bees have mysteriously
disappeared just in the past year.
The implications for the future prices of produce don’t bear
thinking about when you put the two factors together. Just as
in the World War II era of the so-called victory garden, we may
well think about growing vegetables in our own gardens this summer.
This is not to say that growing vegetables for food is a dreary
prospect. On the contrary, putting in a vegetable garden is fun,
good exercise, saves you money and gives you a delicious reward
at the table.
Organic Gardening
If you take an organic approach to growing vegetables and don’t
use pesticides, you reap even more benefits. You don’t have to
shop, pay for or carry the produce from the store. You save space
in the frig, since you pick what you need for the day’s meals.
When freshly picked, more of the vitamins and minerals are retained.
Best of all, home grown vegetables taste fabulous.
If you’ve never grown veggies, start with a small garden of your
family’s favorites. A four foot by eight foot space makes an admirable
salad garden for a family of four. Plant just two tomato plants
- you’ll have an abundance, with enough left over for a winter’s
supply of marinara sauce.
Easy To Grow Vegetables And A Herb Garden
Lettuce, radishes, spring onions and carrots are quite easy to
grow. Zucchini plants, like tomatoes, are prolific bearers. When
growing vegetables, don’t overplant. It’s easy to do.
If you’re going to grow vegetables, you’d be remiss if you didn’t
put in a small herb garden. Fresh herbs are far superior to any
dried herbs. Dill is great with fish and in potato salad. Basil
is a tomato’s best friend. Sage, rosemary, parsley, marjoram and
oregano are good in any savory dish. Growing vegetables almost
demands an herb garden.
Preparing The Ground For Growing Plants
The biggest challenge before you is preparing the ground. Till
your plot thoroughly, add quantities of compost and test for the
proper pH, which is generally 6.5 to 7 for most veggies. When
the soil is soft and crumbles easily through your hands, it’s
good to go.
If this is your first try at growing vegetables, buy started
plants from a reliable nursery. Plant them as soon as possible
after purchase. Don’t let them sit around for even a few days.
Water regularly and don’t let the ground get dry. Feed the plants
once a month and keep your garden weed free.
Seeds For Your Garden
If you want to use seed, you can buy seed packets from your nursery
or garden centre. Seed packets generally state the proper time
to plant. The timing for locally purchased transplants usually
takes care of itself as the plants will only be available in season.
Seeds such as broccoli, cabbage and arugula use moisture efficiently
and germinate promptly without presoaking. But slower-starting
parsley and parsnip seeds benefit from presoaking. Seed is scattered
thinly over the whole surface where the crop is to grow, then
covered with the appropriate amount of soil.
The emerging seedlings are then thinned to the relevant spacing
on all sides of the plants thus producing a solid area of crops
rather than rows.
Controlling Weeds Without Chemicals
Keeping weeds out of your garden is a laborious task but you
will be rewarded with garden fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs.
Weeds are suppressed by uniform spacing since the mature vegetable
crops with large, broad leaves form a natural canopy over the
soil. Thus, there is insufficient light to allow weeds to grow.
Weeding is easier when garden soil is moistened before you weed.
This makes the soil looser and more workable. Weed control with
mulches may require the continual addition of new material to
smother weeds as they emerge. Keep all mulches 2 to 3 inches back
from the stems of plants.
A little effort goes a long way to rewarding you with a plentiful
harvest when growing vegetables.
About the Author:
Leaf Treehorn has written a number of articles on recreation,
gardening and landscaping including National
Parks Recreation Camping, National
Parks And Wildlife, National
Parks, National
Park Service, Whitewater
Canoeing, Kayaks,
Mountain
Biking, Cyclocross,
Yosemite
Rock Climbing, How
To Rock Climb, Rock
Climbing, Rock
Climbing Gym, Rock
Climbing Wall.
Keep a lookout for more of her articles on this website.
Little Known Gardening Facts....
How do organic foods affect the land?
Since organic farmers do not use the conventional
pesticides to rid their crops of blight, or in the case of animal
farmers not using antibiotics or growth hormones, larger plots
of land must be used. They must plant more crops to account for
the loss from disease or insects.
RECOMMENDED READING
|
