Take Your Vegetable Garden Planting To The Next Step
Successful vegetable garden planting involves three Ps, namely, planning for the garden, preparing for the soil, and planting the plants.
The location for the garden takes up the majority of the planning. For the vegetables to thrive healthily, they should have sunlight exposure at least 6 hours each day. Now, in finding the best place to plow and till the soil for planting, consider the water supply, the shades from the house, trees and other structures nearby.
The area for the garden should be far from any structures that can thwart sunlight from warming the plants. However, it should not be too far from the water supply that a hose is required to water the vegetables or too far to visit. Plants need attention as they grow. Having the garden within a few steps reach is very rewarding.
Although in vegetable garden planting, air movement is essential, avoid areas that are too windy because they can easily break the plants or make them dry. Also, the soil in the area must have good drainage to prevent the formation of puddle every after the rain.
The preparation of the soil is the next step in constructing a vegetable garden. More than the soil type, the fertility, and well-drained soil are more important to look for. Also, they should be free from stones, and moisture retentive. If the ground is not productive, adding compost is an excellent solution.
To do this, dig up the ground from which the vegetable garden planting should be made, up to five feet deep. Fill up the area with compost up to four feet and cover it with top soil. Leave it for two weeks and plow the ground to prepare the beds. Compost is a good agent to amend the soil beside being an excellent fertilizer.
Finally, spacing is important in planting the seeds. It is best never to crowd too many plants into the bed soil. The vegetable garden planting may need support such as trellises and stakes for vines vegetables. Fertilizer is needed, and so is watering.
Vegetable Container Gardening
Vegetable Container gardening is perfect for indoor garden and for those who do not have ample outdoor space to grow vegetables. Many of the vegetables have varieties such as bush and dwarf which grow well and produce fruits and leafy vegetables even when contained.
Some of the vegetables that do not require large space include carrots, lettuce, radish, tomato and peppers. These crops are ideal for container gardens. Other garden enthusiasts experiment with vegetable variety and come up with summer salad vegetable container.
Planted in spring, a container of 24 to 30 inches can accommodate plants such as parsley, chives, tomato and cucumber, which all have uniform sun and water requirements. Although the salad container may not be a sight to behold by late Summer, it could produce decent crops until fall.
Selecting containers for container vegetable gardening is necessary because drainage is something that needs to be ensured. Among the containers that are available in the market include buckets, wire baskets, flower pots, wooden boxes, bushel baskets, nursery flats, washtubs, window planters, plastic bags, strawberry pots, and cans. For do it yourself pots, large food cans or milk cans are among the best choices.
For drainage, the containers should have holes at the bottom. For do it yourself cans, it is easy to make holes with a hammer and large size nail.
Many of the containers are available in different colors. However, dark-colored containers should be used with precaution because they absorb heat, which could burn the vegetables including the plant roots. To solve the dark color issue, spraying or shading it with light color will do the trick.
