The Basics Of Vegetable Gardening
Vegetable gardening is a wonderful way to feed your family safe and healthy food at a fraction of the cost. Most Americans spend just 2-5 hours per week cultivating their gardens and, in the end, they wind up saving 0 in food! With just , you can begin home vegetable gardening, growing tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, squash, peppers and more! Here is everything you need to know to get started — from picking a spot, to making raised beds, to cultivating the ground and choosing your planting patterns.
The first step in starting a vegetable garden is choosing the right size and location. First, be sure your location is very, very sunny. Most vegetables need a good six to eight hours of direct sunlight each day for the best results. If you have a shadier area, you can stick your spinach and lettuce there. As you assess your yard, be sure to take into account the shade cast by the deciduous trees and the house during certain times of the day. Ideally, the garden will be conveniently situated near the kitchen, so you can tend to it more easily and harvest without hiking long distances. The best soil will be full of nutrients and drain well, so you may need to add organic compost and use garden tools to aerate the soil before you begin.
First you must plan how large your garden will be. Usually, several beds in a 20 x 20 plot for space hogging vegetables like corn, tomatoes or squash is good, or a 12 x 16 plot for cucumbers, peppers and herbs. Once you plot out your garden, you’ll need a few garden supplies, such as a tape measure, string, 12 to 18-inch stakes and a hammer. Situate the rows running from east to west, with the taller plants on the north end. Stake down the four corners of your garden and then set to work roto-tilling to turn up the soil. Get rid of all the weeds and test the soil before your vegetable gardening can officially commence. Ideally, you want a pH between 6 and 6.8. For low pH, use limestone. For high pH, use sulfur.
Over the years, you’ll begin to fine-tune your vegetable gardening. You may find some crops do extraordinarily well, while others are a flop. You may decide to add new veggies to the mix or plant more of a certain crop that worked very well. Once your cool season crop finishes its season (like peas), you can try planting a warm season crop (like zucchini). You may also try a technique known as “interplanting,” which involves planting a quick-maturing crop like lettuce next to slow-growing broccoli. The idea is that you’ll harvest all your lettuce by the time the broccoli is looking to stretch out. Try growing plants from several different varieties to increase your chance of success and to find the best performing types.
Kenny Leichester is a foremost expert in the interior design industry specializing in the outdoor or patio settings using outdoor heaters, patio umbrellas, outdoor cushions, patio lighting and so on to create exquisitely beautiful layout. His work on patio umbrellas are widely distributed and is a regular contributor to PatioShoppers.com.
