Vegetable Garden - Take Care Of Them Like Children

Vegetable Garden - Take Care Of Them Like Children

I've been gardening vegetables for quite a while now, and I've learned some lessons the hard way. Vegetable gardening offers some great rewards - the pride and satisfaction of cultivating beautiful edible plants and the savings on the weekly grocery bill! Here are some tips that should help you plan and grow healthy fresh vegetables in your vegetable garden.

There are two basic types of beans - bush beans and pole beans. In my garden, I normally grow bush beans because they require less work. I've also used pole beans to beautify my vegetable garden. I've planted these tall bean plants at the end of each row of the vegetable garden, making arches from tree limbs bound to make arches from row to row. The pole beans grow along the branches, making an attractive frame for the vegetable garden.

Also, I've found that they grow better when I rotate them with other vegetables every other growing season.

For the best tasting beans, I wait until all danger of frost has passed and dig the vegetable garden deep. Normally, I work the garden several weeks before I plant the beans because birds will eat the insect eggs and larvae that might damage my plants later. I plant my bush beans from one to 1-1/2 inches in the surface and about eighteen inches apart. Bush limas need more space than most dwarf bean plants - as much as pole beans. Remember to plant the beans edgewise with the eye pointed down.

The scarlet runner is a wonderful decorative addition to my vegetable garden. Beets are root vegetables that grow on flowering plants. They're easy to grow, and you can eat almost all of the plant. Beets need organic soil to grow well. A particle of manure next to a beet root can doom a young plant. When planting, I space rows about one foot apart to leave enough room for cultivation of my vegetable garden. I plant the seeds about one-half inch deep in the rows. The Crucifer family - cabbages - include many vegetable plants: cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts, and kohlrabi (a combined cabbage-turnip).

The high-classed cauliflower needs rich soil and doesn't tolerate frost. I've found it best to plant and easier to grow the dwarf varieties.

Because kale matures slowly, it needs to be planted in early spring. I enjoy growing brussel sprouts in my vegetable garden because their stalk stands tall. Like most Crucifer plants, brussel sprouts need rich soil and lots of water. I plant the seeds in May and then transplant the young plants in late July. My vegetable garden rows for brussel sprouts are 1-1/2 inches apart, and I put the plants about a foot apart in the garden rows.

Sometimes called the turnip-root cabbage, its stem expands into a turnip-like vegetable. Kohlrabi is easy to grow, but I have to encourage the plants to grow fast. I like to plant the seeds inside in early spring and then transplant them to my vegetable garden as the weather and soil get warmer. I form my vegetable garden rows two feet apart, and put the young plants about a foot apart when I transplant them to the outdoors. Kohlrabi seeds go a long way - an ounce of seed will produce a hundred-foot row of plants. One of my favorite cabbage plants is the Savoy. I plant seeds early in the year (February) under cover and then transplant the young plants to my vegetable garden in the spring (March or April). The closer together I plant the young savoy, the smaller their heads. Carrot is a hardy cool-weather plant that creates a thick root in its first growing season. There are two general types of carrot plant: long roots and short roots. Like beets, carrots don't tolerate manure very well.

Cucumbers - the Fresh Pickle

I get the best plants when I use light, sandy, organic soil. I've seen some brave vegetable gardeners keep a hive of bees in their hot-houses to help with cross-fertilization of their cucumber plants.

I've found that it's best to plant the seeds indoors, covered with one inch of rich soil. When all frosts are past, I plant each set of six plants, together with the original planting soil, in the open vegetable garden. I can tuck it into spaces throughout my vegetable garden. As the lettuce plants age, they go to seed. There are many varieties of lettuce with different planting and growing requirements. I plant lettuce seeds shallow - from a quarter to half an inch deep - in rows about a foot apart. More than Veges in My Vegetable Garden - Melons

I prepare 2-3 foot mounds spaced 4-6 feet apart for my melon plants. I plant eight seeds in a mound, setting them about two inches apart, and planting them about an inch deep. Watermelon plants need more space - up to ten feet between each mound.

When the plants reach about four inches in height, I reduce the number to two per mound, always picking the sturdiest plants. I've found that drip-irrigation, a slow trickle at the base of the plant, keeps my melons growing healthy throughout the growing season.

The Joys of Vegetable Gardening

I love my vegetable garden. It gives me many hours of peace and serenity as I work with the soil and gently grow beautiful plants. My vegetable garden repays my family with many fresh, healthy meals and good nutrition.

The joy of handling soil and seed, tending to precious young plants, and harvesting beautiful mature plants is one of the most satisfying things I've ever done.

Planning a home vegetable garden can be tricky. Gardening is a science, after all! The first step is to select the vegetables you would like to grow, considering how much space you have available in your vegetable garden. Multiply the length of your garden bed by the width to calculate the available planting squares. To calculate the planting squares required by each vegetable, use the "thin to" spacing requirements on the back of the seed pack and convert as follows:

9 squares: "thin to" specification of 24 inches or greater; the plant is placed in the middle of a 9 square block

1 square: "thin to" specification less than 12 inches

When considering the total planting squares required, first calculate how many seeds of each vegetable you will need to plant, based on your harvest goals. For plants requiring more than one square, multiply the number of seeds by the squares required to calculate total planting squares. For plants requiring one square, determine how many seeds can be planted in the square based on the "thin to" requirement: 12 inches = 1 seed, 6 inches = 4 seeds, 4 inches = 9 seeds, 3 inches = 16 seeds. Then calculate the total number of planting squares required for these plants in order to reach your harvest goals. After selecting the vegetables to plant, the next step is to determine where to plant each vegetable in your garden. If a garden existed in the same location last year, remember to avoid planting a vegetable from the same family of vegetables in the same location in a three year cycle. Placement of vegetables in a vegetable garden requires balancing a number of different factors:

Plant Spacing: Plant the vegetables according to the plants per square calculations. Crowding vegetables can cause several problems, including loss of plants due to disease and lack of pollination.

Support Requirements: Some vegetables require a trellis. Height: In the northern hemisphere, place taller plants to the north and east sides of the bed to avoid casting shadows on the rest of the vegetables in the garden. In the southern hemisphere, place taller plants on the south and east sides.

The last step is to determine when to plant each seed. Plant each vegetable on the appropriate date based on expected weather patterns. Planting too late is just as bad as planting too early - since some vegetables do not tolerate hot summer weather.

Planning a vegetable garden can be time consuming, but if done incorrectly, can cause your garden to suffer. If you prefer to create your own garden plan, there are a couple of tools that can help with your vegetable garden planning process:

Graphing paper can be a valuable tool for planning the placement of plants. Each cell in the spreadsheet represents a planting square in your garden.

Planting a vegetable garden is a healthy way to relieve stress, eat healthier and safer - because you control what goes on your vegetables, provide better nutrition to your family with fresh vegetables, and get some exercise while enjoying the warm sun and environment.

You can challenge your creative side by laying out your vegetable garden so that your space looks great. There is nothing more satisfying than growing your own vegetables in your own vegetable garden without the use of pesticides or chemicals, keeping you and your family that much healthier.

Planting a vegetable garden will promote good health and give you some nice gentle exercise. By planting and tending to your garden you control what you eat as well as how it is grown plus it just doesn't getting any fresher than this.

Even apartment or flat dwellers can produce a nice size vegetable garden on their balconies. All that planting, raking, pulling weeds, and watering so that your plants grow and produce delicious vegetables from your vegetable garden, provides you with an excellent low impact workout.

You will need to prepare the soil for planting. You may need to frame your garden space so that the soil stays contained within your vegetable garden area and is easy to work on. Framing your vegetable garden beds will also increase the depth of the soil giving better growing conditions for your plants.

When the soil is ready it's time to start to plant out your vegetable garden. You will need to decide whether you want to use young vegetable plants or seeds. Young vegetable plants cost more but they give you the edge to get your plants rooted and growing. Deciding to grow your own vegetables in your own vegetable garden is one of the smartest things you will ever do for you and your family.

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