Friday, March 4, 2011

Vegetable Gardening – Home Grown Food

Growing vegetables in your garden can save you money. During harvest time, your own produce becomes part of your meals.

Gardeners feel deep satisfaction in preparing salad or seasoning the casserole with freshly picked plants from their own vegetable gardens. Their feeling of the taste is incomparable. Fresh surplus are distributed to friends and loved ones while some are kept frozen.

It doesn’t require much space to grow vegetables. Even a container pot or a window box will do the trick. Where space is limited, you can grow a mini-garden indoor or outdoor.

If you have a good sun, access to water and enough containers, growing a garden worth of fruits and vegetables in a limited space is a no brainer. You can even harvest more than one crop if your choice of plants and planting schemes are all well planned and executed. Windowsills, balconies and doorstep areas can be used, as well as empty packs of milks, pails, plastic buckets and cans.

When planting in containers, proper spacing is very important. One sturdy plant is better than several weak ones. Crowding chokes root systems will slow growth and poor production. With container vegetable garden, you no longer need to worry about poor soil types and bad drainage, or heavy-duty tiller to break up hard clay and rocks. There is no weeding to worry about and you can change the looks of your container placements by simply moving them around anytime to a place you want to.

Vegetable gardening offers a change from the monotony of the supermarket. You can grow a variety of vegetables that you want.

Consider container worthy crops such as beans, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and eggplants when choosing plants for your vegetable container garden.

Root crops such as onions and turnips can also do well in containers, but remember to always take care of these crops by ample fertilizers and water. Also consider grapes and berries. Though some take a while to get established, they bear fruits more each year.

Planting for fall crops can be started in early summer, though summer planting can still be done in June in most regions.

One great advantage of growing vegetables and spices in containers involves the advent of the upside-down gardening. Crops with the likes of tomatoes, basil, parsley, rosemary and peppers do well with this approach. The idea is that the vines will cascade downward instead of growing up a stake. A grow box can be treated by punching perforations through the bottom of a container. The other option is to purchase a device specially designed for this purpose. Upside gardens do not require a great deal of space and is perfect for balconies and patios.

Equally important, seeds and soil must properly be taken care of in your vegetable container garden. Seeds do not always have to be bought. Reasonably fresh dill, anise, fennel, coriander and other seeds already on the spice rack should grow. If not, they are too old to add much to food anyway and should be replaced. Scoop out seeds from vegetables you’ve bought, dry them a week or so before planting.

Soil preparation on the other hand is very crucial for good results. Have the soil tested. Most of the nurseries will test soil for a small fee or you can get a tester kit to test it by yourself.

Start growing those veggies in your garden and turn your home made meals into something truly special. Take care of your plants to make them productive by keeping them watered and harvested.

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1 comment:

  1. It is amazing how well vegetables can be grown in a container. You can mix an ideal compost and as long as light is sufficient, you can have a very productive garden in a very small space.

    there is nothing like freshly harvested vegetables to make an ordinary meal an epicurean delight. Fresh vegetables and herbs, no matter how you grow them are an essential ingredient in fine cuisine.
    This is my first visit to this blog and it's wonderful to find other people who share a love of growing things. - Wil

    ReplyDelete