Vegetable

Vegetable Garden Tips

Planting a vegetable garden can be a very rewarding experience. Not only do you get to play in the garden for months while nursing your tender plants along, but then you get to harvest and eat what you've worked so hard to grow. And if you grew extras, you'll even be able to do a bit of freezing or canning so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor throughout the long cold winter months too.

Starting a vegetable garden is not difficult, but many inexperienced gardeners sometimes make their first vegetable garden much larger than they should have, and they become overwhelmed by it as the plants begin to grow and thrive. So it's important to plan your vegetable garden before you begin planting, to make sure it is something you're able to handle throughout the growing seasons.

Planning your vegetable garden starts with plant research and selection. You'll need to think about why you want the vegetable garden to begin with: Will you want fresh produce for your family in season, or do you want to be able to also have enough to can or freeze for the winter?

How many people will your vegetable garden need to feed? If your family is small, then of course your garden can be smaller too. If however, you have a large family and you want enough food from your harvest to can and freeze things for the winter, you will need a much larger garden.

What kinds of vegetables do you and your family like to eat? There's not much use in planting broccoli for instance, if no one will eat it. If you want to sell it to someone else of course, or you simply want it in the garden for looks, then you might decide to plant a small amount of it instead.

Another reason you might decide to plant something you don't expect anyone to eat, is to use it as a companion plant. Companion plants in vegetable gardens help to improve flavors and control pests naturally.

Once you know what you'll plant in your garden, you'll need to select the location for planting everything. The location you choose will depend in part on how large your garden will be, but it's important to be sure it gets enough sun during the day too. Vegetables need at least five hours of sun to grow healthy and strong.

Keep in mind that not everyone finds a vegetable garden attractive either. It consists of rows of mounded dirt which have bare spaces between the mounds, and plants growing on top. The plants are spaced widely, as are the rows, so it can look at bit bare or utilitarian. Because of this, you might not be happy having your vegetable garden smack dab in the middle of your front lawn.

These are just a few tips to help you get started of course, and there are many more things to consider as you plant your vegetables which you will learn over time.