Plant Gardens 101

Nurturing your own vegetable garden is the perfect way to seize control over the fresh foods you use in your home. Spring and summer are primary planting seasons, and the do-it-yourself projects can help save your household money. And obviously, you do not have to be a gourmet eater to recognize the advantages of using organic items from your own garden.

Before you setup your own vegetable garden, you should consider a few of the following questions:

What’s the best way to start your own vegetable garden? Start small, with perhaps fresh salad greens and herbs. As you learn more, expand into other vegetables. Don’t be afraid to experiment-even if it doesn’t work out; you’ll soon learn from your mistakes.

What kind of space is needed to setup a vegetable garden? You can use containers on your deck if you don’t have a backyard to dedicate to growing your own vegetable garden. There are even types of vegetables developed for growing in containers. (more…)

Vegetable gardens are unlike any other garden on your property. These gardens can be as attractive as a flower border — with many different types of plants: annuals and perennials, and warm-season and cool-season plants. Vegetable gardens located on high ground are more likely to escape light freezes, permitting an earlier start in the spring and a longer harvest in the fall. Although is it really possible to build to grow an attractive garden patch during the frozen months of the winter?

If you’ve never grown your own vegetables, give it a try! Some gardeners surround the vegetable garden with low growing annuals which can be decorative and useful at the same time, marigolds for instance are known to repel nematodes. Many vegetables have attractive leaves, and can appear quite appealing among your flower garden. Planting a vegetable garden, even a small one, gets you out in the open air and sunshine. Gardening gives you a chance to enjoy the quiet and unwind while doing something you can accomplish. (more…)

Vegetable garden containers Are a great way to grow your favorite vegies when space is limited. Alot of times you can see these containers when going to your local nursery to buy flowers or vegetable.

Have you ever wanted to know what it would be like to go outside of your door and pick a nice ripe fresh tomato? Have you ever wanted to grow your very own vegetables, but simply don’t have the space? Can container vegetable gardening be the answer? Container vegetable gardening is fast becoming more and more popular since many vegetables gardens will grow just as well in a confined area. Oversized wooden tubs and half sized barrels are the most popular because they make excellent vegetable garden containers. Planters made of clay, metal, or plastic should always be examined for proper drainage holes. (more…)

Organic systems recognize that our health is directly connected to the health of the food we eat and, ultimately, the health of the soil. Here are some of the main features of organic growing:

• Organic growing severely restricts the use of artificial chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

• Instead, organic growers rely on developing a healthy, fertile soil and growing a mixture of crops.

• Genetically modified (GM) crops and ingredients are not allowed under organic standards.

Going organic may mean that you have to make a trade-off between glossy, same same supermarket looks with better tasting crops that aren’t perfect in shape or size, but many gardeners think this is a price worth paying. You’ll be able to grow different crops that are always relatively expensive to buy in supermarkets and at farmers markets and, growing your own vegetables is both fun and rewarding. Among the many things an organic vegetable garden may offer toward a satisfying experience are fresh air, exercise, sunshine, knowledge, supplemental income, mental therapy, and fresh food, rich in vitamins and minerals, harvested at the best stage of maturity. (more…)

Growing a home vegetable garden has many benefits. For gardening enthusiasts, growing your own vegetables is a fun and rewarding hobby. For others, it’s a way to ensure you are eating safe produce because you know where it comes from. Controlling the application of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides is easy; if you don’t want these things on the food you eat, then you can simply choose not to use them. For this reason, home vegetable gardening is the organic food lover’s dream.

But in addition to these benefits, did you also know that home vegetable gardening is a good way to save money? For as little as a $40 investment at your local garden center, you can grow over $600 worth of fruits and vegetables in your own yard. During tough economic times, those numbers can really help out your pocketbook!

It is estimated that the number of U.S. families growing their own produce will increase by approximately 40% this summer. So what kinds of fruits and vegetables are these families growing? What are the best plants to put in your vegetable garden? We’ll evaluate some of the more commonly home grown produce items and review the basics of how to get started growing them yourself.    (more…)

Many of us buy our vegetables from supermarkets. With a little planning and some forethought it is possible to grow your very own vegetables. There are many vegetables that you can use, and there are some vegetable gardening tips that can help you to make the most out of your garden.

First off you need to decide where you will plant your vegetable plot. This section of the garden should receive at least 6 hours of sunlight. The more sunlight that your plants receive, they healthier and more fertile they will be.

For the best growth to be made, a good vegetable gardening tip is to see that your soil is a rich, sandy loam type of soil. If the plot requires more nutrients, then the addition of compost or manure will satisfy the problem. You will need to place the compost underneath and around your vegetables as well. (more…)

To grow your organic vegetable garden is not a difficult thing and in fact many people who enjoy gardening are now turning to organic gardening methods. This doesn’t mean that you need to grow only organic herbs and vegetables in your garden. Organic gardening can encompass all aspects of gardening, including a flower garden or an ornamental garden as well.

Just because you want to have an organic vegetable garden that doesn’t mean that you only need to stick with the organic vegetable garden. You can expand to include such things as herbs as well if you like, not mention flowering plants and others.

The one thing that you do want to look out for when you’re growing your organic vegetable garden alongside your flower garden, is that your flower garden is also grown organically. After all, it kind of defeats the purpose of growing an organic vegetable garden if right next to it you use all sorts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in your flower bed. (more…)

Vegetable gardening has recently become just as popular as going to the supermarket for your veggies. Vegetable gardening can grow a vegetable that are often less expensive than when bought in a supermarket, and veggies from a home vegetable garden are certainly better tasting by far. Vegetable gardening is equivalent to farming herbs or Roses and if the right steps are used and the young vegetables are given the right care they’ll flourish and evolve into very tasty vegetables.First you will have to think about how much room you’re willing to use for your vegetable garden and then choose a spot in your garden, in a place that has a great drainage, good air flow, and good deep soil.

Because vegetable gardens have a lot pleasing rewards, a lot of creatures, such as birds, mice, insects and a lot of others will take a opportunity to take some of your veggies. The way to prevent this is to setup a fence round your backyard, or put out a trap to catch the moles, insects and other creatures. If you start planting, “remember” the ground must be decently fixed. Good soil for vegetable gardening is achieved by cultivation and the use of organic materials. The soil must be plowed to control weeds and mix mulch into the soil. Whenever you have a little backyard, spading could be a more effective bet than plowing. (more…)

Vermicompost is the end result of organic matter being consumed by earth worms. Also commonly known as worm castings, vermicompost adds much needed nutrients to the soil that have been depleted with continuous growing seasons.

Every variety of worm creates worm castings; obviously. However the most common worm to be used in this process throughout the United States and Europe is called the red wiggler earth worm, the Eisenia foetida. It has been found that these worms produce the best vermicompost as compared to other worms and are the species of worm that should be used.

There are two great ways to create vermicompost and add it to your soil. One way takes a little more effort than another, but both can be implemented with great success. (more…)

If you love to plant a vegetable garden every year like me then you know the amount of work that can go into it. With all of that hard work there are some things you can do to lesson the “pain” of gardening and make it more enjoyable which is what it is supposed to be. Here are some tips and advice that you can start following today.

Timing is Everything If timed perfectly you can take your growing plants from the indoors to the outdoors without much worry. Timed poorly and move them too soon and all of that growth and hard work will be wiped out in a matter of minutes. So what causes this? Bugs? Your Neighbor? No! One of the worse enemies of a gardener, frost! Frost occurs when temperatures go low enough to where overnight dew freezes. This condition will kill your new plants. To avoid this look up frost maps online at the United States Department of Agriculture to find when the first and last frosts occur in your area and then calculate your timing. (more…)

Springtime is in the air and it is time to start turning thoughts to the great outdoors and gardening. Growing a home garden is both rewarding and satisfying. And, with the economy in such sorry shape, growing your own food is now becoming an economic necessity! According to a recent AP article by Gillian Flaccus entitled, Dollars From Dirt: Economy Spurs Home Gardening Boom, “The National Gardening Association estimates that a well maintained garden yields a $500 dollar average return per year. A study by Burpee Seed claims that $50 dollars spent on gardening supplies can multiply into $1,250 worth of produce annually.” It is now not a matter of whether to grow your own vegetables, but what is the best choice in seeds with which to grow your garden. Should you use hybrid or non-hybrid seeds? First, we need to have a basic working definition for hybrid and non-hybrid seeds, and second, we need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of using either seed for growing. Hybrid seeds are a result of special “breeding” techniques. In other words, these seeds have been deliberately crossed with 2 different parent varieties. (more…)

Having a vegetable garden is a great asset to your live, with the right vegetable garden design and the right soil you can grow your own healthy and delicious vegetables for your self and your family. But how do you determine what kind of soil you have and do you need to base your vegetable garden design to these findings?

A vegetable garden takes a lot of effort and you need to make sure what kind of soil you have before you start planning and creating your first vegetable garden design.

You Need The Right Soil for a Successful Vegetable Garden Design

To grow vegetables you need good soil and you can define soil in roughly three types. The first and best type of soil to grow vegetables in is loam. This type is rich of humus, dark, crumbly and soft. It holds water but it also allows for good drainage. This type is an organic matter build up from all kind of living plants, fungus and other living things that have died, decomposed and have returned to the ground. It is also very easy to dig. In this type of soil your veggies will grow like crazy. So start making that vegetable garden design, you don’t need to do anything to enhance this type of soil.  (more…)