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Grown: How to Grow
Your Own Fresh
Vegetables F
or those of us who love being outdoors and eating fresh
vegetables in the spring and summer, home vegetable
gardening is the ideal pastime.

Planting a vegetable garden has many benefits. When you are out
in the garden, your stresses seem to fade away as you simply pick
weeds and enjoy the day. Vegetable gardening lessens stress by
reducing blood pressure and clearing the mind. Gardening helps
you save money on groceries as well, and home-grown vegetables
are always the best-tasting because you don’t pick the plants until
you feel they are perfectly ripe.

So why wait? Start planning your vegetable garden today! If
you have a patch of dirt in your yard, you can create an outdoor
garden. If not, you can buy some sizable pots and create a
container garden.

Gardening in Pots
Container gardening is a great way to begin. If you have poor
garden soil, limited space, not enough sunshine in your garden
area or impaired mobility, you may want to grow vegetables in
containers. Container gardening makes it feasible to position the
vegetables in areas where they can receive the quickest growing
conditions. Container gardening also affords better pest control.

The downside of container gardening is that containers demand
TEXT MARY AMOS
container culture.

Regardless of the type or size of container used, adequate drainage
is a necessity for successful yields. It is acceptable to add about
1 inch of coarse gravel in the bottom of the container to improve
drainage. For most vegetable crops, you will find 5-gallon containers
are the best size.

daily watering. The plants must be checked daily and usually
Gardening Outdoors
demand more maintenance than vegetables grown in the ground.

When you’re planning a garden, it’s important to be mindful of the
size of garden you want. Begin small and take things step by step.

Almost any produce that grows predominately in a backyard
For beginners, a garden of 25 square feet or less is a great start. As
garden will grow suitably as a container-grown plant, and
you grow more used to the tasks involved with gardening, you can
some vegetables are even especially fit for container-gardening.

slowly increase the size as you add more plants.

Vegetables that grow very well in containers are those with
a confined habit of growth, such as salad greens, spinach,
Another important thing for you to think about is the location of
eggplant, Swiss chard, beets, radish, carrots, peppers, bush beans,
your garden. Plants need about six hours of sunlight to grow in
determinate tomatoes, bush varieties of summer squash and
good physical shape, so be sure to pick a place in your yard that’s
cucumbers, green onions and any number of herbs. It isn’t that
not too shady. Another important aspect of vegetable gardening is
other vegetables can’t be grown, but they may not be as suitable for
to make sure your garden is located in a place that gives it the right
14 April 2016 washingtonFAMILY.com