Home
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
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By sowing your garden away from the bottoms of hills
large bugs like grasshoppers, you must pick them off your plants
other places where water is likely to collect, you will ensure
hand.

veggies don’t drown.

Another drawback you may have in plant gardening is staying
sure you have the proper soil is essential. Soil that’s slightly
top of all of the weeds. If you don’t go out daily to pick the weed
and easy to till is ideal, while hard-packed soil is not. If your
they will choke the plants and take over your garden. Watering
is lacking loose soil, then mulch or compost will be a big help
garden regularly helps the plants to withstand some of the bugs
your garden. In fact, composting is not only a technique to
that might be on the plants, as well as keeps the plants alive and
you have great soil, but is also a helpful way to cut down on
healthy.

trash.

tend to the size, location and soil of your garden, you will
your chances for success in vegetable gardening.

to Keep in Mind
you have a garden, you will have bugs as well. Unless you
to use chemicals, you must kill any unhealthy bugs on the
yourself. You can go to garden shops to buy the good bugs,
ladybugs and praying mantis, to kill off unwanted pests. For
Grandma’s Garden
Vegetable gardening is a rewarding experience, because you end
with a delicious harvest. If you enjoyed the ripe, fresh vegetables
like your grandmother used to have, then you should bring back
to life the memories of those delicious plants in the next growing
season. Mary Amos loves to garden and is blessed with green fingers. Visit
com to make the most of your garden, and www.homeDIYweb.com for other home
improvement ideas.