The Novice's Guide to 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 500 dollars in food! With just 70 dollars, 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 thing you'll need to do when creating a vegetable garden is choosing the best size and location. To start with, make sure your location gets a lot of sunshine. Most vegetables require a good six to eight hours of direct light each day for optimal results. If you have a less well lit location, you can place your lettuce and spinach there. As you evaluate your yard, be sure to take into account the shadows cast by your house and trees throughout particular times of the day.
Ideally, the garden will be handily situated close the kitchen, so you can take care of it with less effort and gather your crop without walking a long way. The ideal soil will be full of nutrients and drain well, so you might have to add organic compost and use garden tools to ventilate the earth 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.
There are several strategies when it comes to choosing which plants to use in your vegetable gardening endeavor. Some vegetables are grown from seeds in a method known as "direct-sow." A few weeks before the last frost (check the Farmer's Almanac to get this date), sow your beets, carrots, parsnips, peas, radishes, chard, turnips and salad greens. After the last frost, sow your beans, corn, squash and herbs like dill and cilantro. Next, you may want to use some transplants for broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, parsley, peppers and tomatoes. Your summer squash, lettuce and broccoli will grow equally well from seeds or transplants, so that choice is up to you. Growing plants like beets, chard, green beans, lettuce, parsley, peppers, tomatoes, radishes and summer squash is rather easy in most parts of the country, so you may want to include a lot of these crops to start.
Eating healthfully doesn't have to be expensive when you plant a vegetable garden. From container vegetable gardening to edible landscaping, you'll find the information you need at the Vegetable Garden Site.
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