Vegetable Gardening Advice And Tips

Vegetables are going up in price in the supermarket all the time and with the hard economic times it makes perfect sense in today's world to plant and grow a vegetable garden if at all possible. One place where I lived I grew one in 5 gallon plastic buckets and enjoyed fresh vegetables all summer and on into the fall.

You can grow vegetables in a very small area or even containers like I did and I guarantee you that you and your family will just love the fresh vegetables. You can also save some money by growing some of your own vegetables and if your like me the exercise will be good for you also. It's a good idea to choose your favorite vegetables to grow and plan beds for early, middle of the season and late varieties. or you can even use the same bed for early , middle and late season vegetables.

Most vegetables require at least 6 hours of sunlight per day, some need 8. Southern exposure is always the best and real shaded areas will not work. You can't grow a vegetable garden under the trees, Some quick growers like lettuce and radish can be grown between the rows of plants that take longer to grow, enabling you to make full use of your space. I plant radishes ,lettuce and onions between my rows of corn. Your vegetable garden will probally do best on the south side of your house.And you will need good soil. You can buy and add a few bags of potting soil or topsoil to your garden spot to improve your soil if necessary.This is also where your compost can be used.

During dry periods, vegetable gardens need plenty of  extra watering. Most vegetables benefit from an inch or more of water each week, especially when they are producing vegetables. If your plants become wilted mid day they need more water but don't water them when the full sun is on them. Be sure you have an outdoor spigot and hose pipe available for watering your garden. You will also need some type of simple sprinkler to hook your hose to. During the growing season watch for insect pests. If you discover an insect problem early it will be much easier, but be careful to not use pesticides once the vegetable are close to being picked.

You Can Easily Make You A Compost Box For Your Garden

Once you have harvested your crop, put the vegetable waste into your compost box so that it can be recycled for next spring. Click Here To Find Out How To Make One.

It is important to protect your vegetable garden from wild animals looking for a free meal. You can hang tin pie pans and strings of bells up to keep away birds. A plastic owl will also work to keep away birds but you have to move it often to keep the birds on their toes.If the owl does not move the birds will figure it out quickly that the owl is not real.

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Tomato Growing Tips And More

As you can see above you can grow tomatoes easily in containers. You want to start out with the large tomato plants which I think are the quart size and plant them one each in at least gallon size or larger containers. Buy one of the large boxes of miracle grow and give each tomato plant one teaspoon a week. Make it a level teaspoon and put it a few inches back from your tomato plant.Water your tomato plants either early in the morning before the sun comes up or either late in the evening after the sun goes down. Also be sure to buy tomato cages for your tomato plants when you transplant them into the larger containers so you don't have to disturb your plants later.

Use A Rain Barrel Or Rain Barrels For Your Garden Water Needs.

You will want to obtain a few 55 gallon plastic barrels to set around under where the water pours off your house or garden shed. You will want to cover the top of your rain barrels with wire mesh screen to keep out leafs and other things. You want the wire mesh to be fine to keep out mosquitoes. The water can get in easily but the mosquitoes can't. You can use large plastic ties to secure your wire mesh screens. Add a spigot at the bottom of your barrels to make it easy to get your water out. You may even want to set your rain barrels up on cement blocks to make it easier to let the water out of the barrel. And rainwater will work perfect to water your garden plants with. Also you don't have to pay for the water that comes out of your rain barrels.

Your Garden Won't Take As Much Space As You May Think

Keep in mind you don't need as many garden plants as you may think you will. A few squash plants (3-6) will grow all the squash one family can ever eat. Three to Four Cucumber Plants will keep your family well supplied with cucumbers. A 16ftX16ft garden can give you plenty of vegetables. And remember if you can only use containers you can have quite a nice garden on a patio with 10-12 5 gallon dirt filled buckets. I did it one time and even grew corn in two and enjoyed fresh roast corn I grew on my patio in a big city.

Well I hope I have given you some useful garden tips and that you enjoy your new garden.

Planting Your First Vegetable Garden

Click Here For My Hub Page On Planting Your First Vegetable Garden

You can build a very easy raised garden bed out of 2"X10"s. The lumber should be treated. Follow the below steps to insure your raised garden bed works out great for you.

1. Cover the ground where your raised garden bed with a sheet of black plastic.

2. Build your raised garden bed out of treated lumber.

3. In the bottom of your bed you want to put five inches of small rocks or large gravel. This will insure great drainage for your plants.

4. Now fill your bed full of the best soil available to you.

5. You can quite easily turn any raised bed like this into a simple green house by adding up right and cross pieces of lumber and cover with heavy duty builders plastic. This way you can add a lot of extended time to your growing season or start your plants in the early spring to get a jump on the growing season.

6. By using a raised bed turned into a green house you can have tomatoes ready before anyone else.

7. Almost all vegetables will do really well in raised growing beds.

Okay I hope those tips help you out. If you try a raised growing bed why not post a comment below and let us know how it works for you.