How To Have A Healthy Vegitable Garden

Vegetable Gardening – Planning Your Vegetable Garden

Growing vegetables is much easier than many other plants. With just a minimum of good planning, proper planting and a little bit of care you’ll have a bounty of tasty, natural things to eat.

But before you sow a seed, think.

Consider your climate first and foremost. The type of vegetables you plant and, just as important, when will be influenced by whether you live in a tropical, temperate or cold climate. Within these broad categories there are several sub-types. The range of climates in the U.S., for example, runs across a dozen zones. You should not plant tomatoes – a heat-loving vegetable – when you can anticipate a frost after winter’s end.

On the other hand, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, onions and more grow well when in cooler climates. They like 50F-68F (10C-20C) weather and will tolerate frost fairly well. Cabbage, carrots, lettuce and others will prefer slightly warmer temperatures, about 60F-75F (15C-25C). Tomatoes, corn, eggplant and potatoes prefer it hot.

Next, consider the total area and location of your planned vegetable garden. A family of four might do well with a 100 square meters, but that’s far more than a novice gardener will want to care for at first. Beyond size, think of the specific needs and nature of each plant. Corn grows tall, so it will produce shade. But you don’t want that shade to block sun desired by those tomatoes.

When considering the location, think about what you might have to do to protect the vegetable plants from excessive shade and wind.

Some places are shaded naturally, and perhaps too much so. Vegetables like sunlight. At least five hours per day is needed by most. You’ll be able to tell they aren’t getting enough if your vegetables are far below average size, if the leaves are wimpy looking and by other signs. Plant the taller vegetables, like corn, to the north of the shorter ones. Plants low to the ground, like lettuce, need to be nearer the south edge.

Your garden can get too much wind. Providing a wind break might be a good idea. Wind can dry the soil and break tall plants. Cold winds, in particular, tend to stunt plant growth. They remove the heat provided by the sun. A garden lattice or an appropriately designed fence can solve the problem.

Give your vegetables plenty of water, though. Unlike herbs and some other plants, vegetables like lots of water. They’ll need good drainage in sandy loam in order to avoid root rot. But beyond that, the more the better. Watering the base and roots is more important than keeping the leaves wet. A drip system can provide the perfect solution here.

Be prepared to do what the pros do and rotate your crops from year to year. Different plants take different things from the soil in varying quantities. Some of that can be replaced with compost, fertilizer and other soil treatments. But help out by changing your design once in a while.

The healthiest and best way to save money in today economy is to plant a garden for you and your family. Fruits and Veggies can get expensive, but with a little time and effort you can have a garden full of your favorites at a fraction of the cost and very little work. In fact, you’ll probably end up with more than you can possible eat in a season which then leads to canning and freezing for future use, saving you even more money!

Most vegetables need between 6 and 8 hours of sunlight,quick growers like lettuce and radish can be grown between the rows of plants that take longer to mature, like beet or corn, thus making full use of the area available.

Throughout dry periods, vegetable gardens need extra watering. Most vegetables benefit from an inch or more of water each week, especially when they are fruiting.

During the growing season watch for insects that will eat up your crops and kill plants. If you discover a bug problem early it will be a lot easier to get rid of them, but be careful not to use pesticides once the vegetable are close to being picked unless it becomes absolutely necessary. Organic gardening is one healthy and environment-friendly option. Once you have reaped your crop, put the vegetable waste into your compost pile so that it can be recycled for next spring.

It is important to protect your vegetable garden from wild animals looking for a tasty treat. Make sure your garden is surrounded by a fence that will keep out dogs, rabbits, and other animals. The harm done by wandering animals during one season can equal the cost of a fence. A fence also can serve as a frame for peas, beans, tomatoes, and other crops that need support.

All of this work will be payed back 10 fold with a season full of delicious and healthy veggies and fruits!

Vegetable Gardening – Indoor vs Outdoor Vegetable Gardening

Whether you prefer to grow your vegetables indoors or out, there are trade offs involved. Soil type and preparation, watering practice, light control, disease and pest control, and other tasks will differ between the two environments. Which is preferable can only be an individual choice, based on individual circumstances.

Preparing and maintaining the soil for outdoor vegetable gardening can be a major chore. Nutrients can be exhausted by yearly planting of the same crop. Fertilizers get leached away. Soil disease is more difficult to control. Breaking up clay or changing pH in a large area requires considerable effort. But you do save the effort of preparing multiple containers and changing them out.

Indoor soil preparation requires less fertilizer, but one has to be more careful to control the amount. Excess is more readily retained. The soil has to be prepared precisely in order to provide the right balance between drainage and moisture retention. Outdoor soil is much more self-regulating. More plants are killed by overwatering than underwatering.

But it is much more difficult to devise an automatic watering system for indoor gardens. Outdoors, a simple and inexpensive drip irrigation system is easy to install and use. Indoors, an automatic sprinkler system would be very costly and messy if it isn’t done just right. But if you have only one or two containers and enjoy hand watering, it might well be a negligible effort.

In outdoor vegetable gardens there is rarely a problem with adequate sunshine, provided they’re planned correctly. In most climates during the Summer it’s not difficult to give plants the five or more hours they need daily. Inside the house that can be tricky. Few will want to move plant containers around all day, but finding a single window that receives adequate light without burning the plants can be hard.

But the type of light and shade is certainly much easier to control indoors. Drawing a window shade or closing louvres when the sun is too hot is simple. There are even automatic systems that will do it for you. And putting a plant near a glass window provides something of a natural greenhouse effect without the expense of a greenhouse.

Diseases and pests can be a problem in either environment. But fighting them outdoors is decidedly harder. It requires constant vigilance and generally more chemical assistance. Fungi are more likely from moisture on the leaves during the night. Insects have easier access to lay eggs that become larvae.

But the smell of controls, either in the form of artificial chemicals, organic substances or trap crops can be more unpleasant than many would want inside. Most insecticides don’t have pleasant odors. Even plant-based oils can be overpowering, and they are much more expensive than other types of chemical control.

In the end, each grower will have to weigh the pros and cons for his or her particular situation. Either form of vegetable gardening requires effort, but both bring great rewards when done well. There’s nothing quite like fresh vegetables for good taste and great health.

Related articles

• Organic gardening: How to Grow an Organic Vegetable Garden (hbb2obm.com)
• Three Simple Steps To Start An Organic Garden (backyardgardeningtips.com)
• Natural Vegetable Gardening – How To Control Pests (backyardgardeningtips.com)