Planning and planting a successful vegetable garden
Nothing tastes better than vegetables picked fresh from your own garden. There’s a certain satisfaction to serving and eating food that you yourself have grown and harvested.
Planning your Vegetable Garden
Advance planning is a must as there are many factors that can affect the success and anageability of your vegetable garden as well as your enjoyment of it.The traditional method of vegetable garden design was to plant long, orderly rows. Most home gardeners now opt for planting in beds rather than rows. Also, if you raise your beds about 8 to 12 inches, you will have improved drainage and the soil will stay warmer in colder weather, such as early spring.Many vegetables also thrive in containers, so you don’t even need a garden in order to get those garden-fresh veggies.
Planting your vegetable garden
Preparing the Soil Putting some extra effort into preparing your beds before planting will save you a lot of time and effort in the future.
Companion Plants in the Vegetable Garden
There are some plants that, when planted close together, will benefit each other. Potatoes – inhibit growth of tomatoes and squash Beans – inhibit growth of onions Broccoli – inhibits growth of tomatoes Carrots – inhibit growth of dill This isn’t to say that you can’t grow these plants together in the same garden, just don’t grow them right next to each other.Organic Vegetable gardening is very different from conventional gardening. Healthy soils usually produce healthy plants provided you incorporate the right Ingredients into your preparation there is no reason why you should not produce healthy abundant plants.Before doing anything else, you need to have
drawn up detailed plans about how you are going to perform your organic vegetable gardening chores; obviously the type of soil that you use will be a major consideration as far as your plans to grow vegetables organically are concerned. You will need to mix the soil well and do so at least three weeks before planting, the soil must have been well prepared to take the seeds and even maybe the ransplants.
While irrigating the soil, care should be taken to make the soil thoroughly wet at least
once in a week unless it has rained, which will ensure that the soil is moist especially around the root zone.
WHAT TO PLANT In general, vegetables that grow best in cool weather are leafy greens, root crops and various members of the cabbage family. Beets, carrots, peas, chard, endive, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, turnips, radishes, spinach, oriental vegetables like Chinese cabbage and bok choy and transplants of late cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts may be planted in early August for fall harvesting.
When choosing cultivars for harvesting in the cooler temperatures and shorter days of fall, look for characteristics Check seed catalogs for other recommended cold tolerant varieties. Shallots can be planted after the first frostyou have quite a bit of growing time left for vegetables that are planted in August.
HOW TO PLANT When planting seeds for your fall garden, keep in mind that conditions are different for summer planting. Provide constant soil moisture for good germination and to get your plants well established. Plant seeds deeper than in the spring so they will be in a moister and cooler layer of the soil. To increase seed germination, water the planting area with a fine mist 30 minutes before you plant. This lowers the soil temperature and creates the conditions that cool-season crops prefer. If the weather is unordinarily sunny and hot, a good technique to regulate soil temperature is to water the bed well and cover with several inches of straw, then water again. You can remove the straw after a few days and plant your seeds in the cool soil.
If you’re ready for still another gardening project this year, why not try planting a fall vegetable garden. If you’re lucky, and Mother Nature cooperates, you could be eating vegetables fresh from the garden along with your Thanksgiving Day.