Vegetable Gardening – A Rewarding Hob

Vegetable Gardening

Vegetable Gardening - A Rewarding Hob

Vegetable Gardening

Article by Richard Wong

More and more people are taking up vegetable gardening as it is gaining popularity. Vegetable gardening will provide you with cheaper vegetables compared with those from the stores. Moreover, your home vegetable garden will produce far better tasting vegetables. Vegetable gardening is very similar to growing herbs or flowers in your garden and if the proper procedures are taken and proper care has been given to the plants, they will flourish and provide you with great tasting vegetables.

When you want to start vegetable gardening, the first thing to do is to decide on the size of the garden you want to have and choose a suitable place for it. The place you want to plant your vegetables should have good drainage, good and deep soil, and good air flow. It also needs to have as much sunlight as possible. Because vegetable are so tasty, many animals, such as rabbits, deer, dogs, and others will try to get to your veggies. A good way to prevent this from happening is to build a fence around your garden. You may also want to put out some traps to catch moles, mice, and other small animals.

Before planting your vegetable garden, you need to prepare the soil properly. You achieve good soil for vegetable gardening by cultivation and the addition of organic materials. In order to control weeds, you need to till or plow the soil while mixing mulch into it. For those with a small garden, instead of plowing you'll be better of with spading.

A vital part of soil preparation is mulching. Minerals, nitrogen, and other nutrients that plants will need to thrive are released when organic matter is added to the soil. Compost is the most popular and ideal type of mulch you can use. Usually, the soil and the types of plants will determine the type and amount of fertilizer to be used. Some plants have specific needs. For example, leafy plants, like lettuce, spinach, and cabbage usually need more nitrogen to grow better, while root crops like carrots, turnips, potatoes, and beets require more potash. Less fertilizer is needed by tomatoes and beans, while plants like potatoes, celery, and onions need a larger amount.

The garden arrangement is a factor that is very important in vegetable gardening. Due to varying conditions, there is no one plan of garden arrangement that will work for each and every garden. One popular way is to group vegetables together according to the amount of space they require. Plant vegetables needing only limited space together, such as spinach, beets, radishes, and lettuce and plant together those that require more room, such as potatoes, corn, and pumpkins. You should also consider planting tall growing plants towards the back of the garden while planting shorter ones towards the front. This will prevent sunlight from getting blocked and ensure that every plant will have sufficient sunlight.

You should begin planting your vegetable garden at the right time of the year. However, if you really want to get started early even when it is not the right time, you may want to start your vegetable gardening in a hotbed indoor and then transplant them later when weather permits. After completing your planting, make sure that your vegetables get the right amount of water. How much to water depends on the type of plant. Usually, most plants will require about an inch of water per week.

Weeds take up nutrients, light, and water that are meant for your vegetables. Hence, they must be controlled in vegetable gardening because they often bring insects and disease into your garden. Cultivation or mulching can get rid of weeds. You may also want to consider using controlled chemicals or buying seeds that are disease resistant in order to protect against disease and insects.

Because you get to eat the vegetables at the end, many people have made vegetable gardening their favorite form of gardening. Home grown vegetables taste much better than those from the supermarket and it is rather inexpensive to start vegetable gardening. If you provide proper care and maintenance to your garden and put in the effort, your vegetable gardening will be fruitful and you'll be rewarded.

About the Author

Get more vegetable gardening tips from Richard's website. Request for a free copy of "Indoor Gardening Secrets" report from his gardening website.

Vegetable Gardening question by pcbeachrat: Are there any Vegetable garden CHAT ROOMS anywhere?
I DO NOT want gardening Forums..they are millions of them.I want actual chat rooms..I have searched all over and have found none concerning growing veggies in the USA..I have asked this once before and people keep sending me to gardening forums such as "Daves Garden"..which totally sucks...You have to become a member and then the knowledge you get from thier members are totally incorrect(about 40%)..Chat Rooms Only please...AGAIN NO FORUMS..thumbs down for them

Vegetable Gardening best answer:

Answer by Rustskipper
Hey PC Beach Rat,

The South Carolina Extension service has a Chat line, and they have a show "Making It Grow", that has a chat while the show is live. The splash page for MIG has Chat Rooms as a link.

Vegetable Gardening: Three Sisters Update

Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl, and her daughter Ale, check up on the Three Sisters Garden in a raised bed. Companion planting what the Iroquois(and other Native American Nations) valued as the sustainers of life: beans, corn, and squash. Watch the video and learn how to plant them in a raised bed. SUBSCRIBE TO MY FREE MAGAZINE: visitor.constantcontact.com Share on my messageboard: www.gardengirltv.com This Video is now transcribed and available in any language throught the closed caption (cc) control. Share with the world. FULL TEXT: Patti Moreno: I dunno! Ale: It's a cool lookinh weed. Patti Moreno: Hi! I am Patti Moreno the Garden Girl and I am giving you a little update on my Three Sisters Garden. I planted it about two weeks ago. Did you realize that I planted a Three Sisters Garden here? Ale: No, I don't even know what Three Sisters is? Patti Moreno: Okay the Three Sisters Garden is an Iroquois practice from the Iroquois Native Americans. Ale: Oh, yeah, like me and Dad saw in the museam. Patti Moreno: Exactly, they used to grow their corn in the middle and their beans around it and the beans would grow up the corn stalk and the beans would actually help the corn stalk to be more rigid. So in the wind -- Ale: It was like, if the wind was blowing they would not fall down. Patti Moreno: Exactly and then the beans give nitrogen to the soil and corn needs nitrogen to grow. So, that helps and then the squash which I planted a bunch of different varieties of, the squash ...
Vegetable Gardening Video Rating: 4 / 5