Posted by admin | Posted in Gardening | Posted on 09-03-2010
Tags: food, garden, Gardening, seeds, vegetable garden design, vegetable garden layout, vegetable garden plans, vegetable gardening, vegetable gardening for beginners, vegetables
Vegetable Gardening - A Rewarding Hobby
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.
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