Guide To Gorwing Your Own Vegetable Garden
The location of a garden is not something that you should do on impulse. A lot of work will go into the creation of a vegetable garden and it is not fun to have to redo it because you created it in the wrong spot. You should keep an eye on your lot the year before you plan to plant and find out which area has the most sunlight. Almost all food plants need as much sunlight as possible in order for you to have the highest yield.
A garden needs to be close enough to the house that someone in the family will actually tend it. Someone will need to water and weed the garden on, at minimum, a weekly basis. A vegetable garden that is far away from the house often turns into a weedy mess by the end of the year. This causes frustration and leads to people deciding that growing their own food is too much work.
The garden also needs to be located close enough to a water source that it can be irrigated. The irrigation can be done by hose or sprinkler but all gardens will need water during a rain shortage. Carrying buckets of water to the garden bed is not a recommended practice.
Once you have found the perfect location, it is time to work on the soil. The best time to improve the soil is the fall prior to spring planting. Few gardeners are lucky enough to have perfect soil. Most garden soils are either heavy clay or sand. Neither is great for vegetables. The great thing is the solution to both is the same. Adding organic material, such as compost, to clay soil will lighten it and improve drainage. Sandy soil will hold more water.
Since you need compost anyway, you may as well start a compost pile. This will give you something to do with all the garden waste, and you will get great compost in return. You can use all the compost that you produce to continue to improve your soil.
Preparing the garden bed means removing the sod that is currently growing in the area. Dig out the sod, add at least a 2-inch layer of compost and start turning over the soil. You can turn by hand or use a tiller. Some people prefer a no-till method of gardening. Whatever you choose the final product should be loose, rich and amended with organic material.
Fast forward to spring. It is important to choose vegetables that you know your family will eat. If nobody in your house can stand cabbage, do not plant it. Planting and care for individual types of vegetables will vary by type.
Jim Flanders is a retired car insurance agent who writes about his interests often. When Jim isn’t in the garden, he is often writing about finance, investing, and car insurance for Kanetix.