tips on organic vegetable gardening

5 Tips on How to Grow Vegetables

May 11, 2009 by Vegetable7 1 Comment

Let’s face it: growing a vegetable garden rocks! So much, it could even become your hobby. Just think, every growing season you can harvest fresh vegetables. And remember, there are several growing seasons, depending on your climate. That’s almost growing your own food year round! Here are some simple tips that will help you on how to grow vegetables.

Tip #1: Rotate your crops.

Just change your plant’s growing location each year. Plants that come from same family like peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, and potatoes must be rotated in different locations in the garden. Rotating them will prevent your plants from pests and diseases.

Bugs are pretty smart. They lay their eggs at the bottom of the plant, so the hatching larvae will have food. But, the garden pest will not survive if it doesn’t have the right food source. Just rotate those crops every year. That way you don’t feed the larvae!

Tip #2: Plant your vegetables with proper spacing.

Don’t plant vegetable plants too close to each other. You don’t want their roots to compete for soil nutrients and water, and you want enough room for their hidth and width of a mature plant. It’s easier if you plant your vegetables according to their height and width.

Once you get use to growing vegetables, you can stray from the vegetable spacing recommendations just a little. Check out this page on intensive gardening, and this one on square foot gardening.

Tip #3: Water plants properly, meaning consistently.

We all know that water is very important in all growing plants, really to everything! It starts with the seeds. They must keep moist to generate properly. And make sure not to over water your plants, or else you will not achieve the desired outcome with your vegetable plants. Just water deeply and regularly. You don’t want to underwater, then overwater. Trust me, they won’t like that.

Tip #4: Stake your vegetable plants.

There are plants that cannot support themselves, like vine tomatoes, cucumbers, peas and pole beans. Provide a cage, stake, or trellis that will help keep them off the ground. Keeping vegetables off the ground, keeps them from getting dirty, rotting, or getting pests.

Tip #5: Mulching is a great tip, too.

Don’t forget to mulch. Mulch comes in many forms. It will serve as a protective covering that will also reduce evaporation, maintain the soil temperature, enrich the soil, and prevent it from weeds.

Vegetable gardening is a wonderful idea! Plus, at the end you can reward yourself for achieving the successful garden you’ve wanted. Aside from that, you’re also giving your family the best vegetables in the town! Sit back on that patio, slice that tomato, and enjoy looking over your vegetable garden!

Achieving Successful Vegetable Gardening

May 11, 2009 by Vegetable7 Leave a Comment

We all want to save even a single cent on buying foods at the market, right? Especially nowadays with the economic situation. One way to save more money, with the consideration of quality and nutrients your family must have, is to have your own vegetable garden.

Before you plant, think of the variety of vegetables your family enjoys eating. It would be a good start for choosing the right seed for the right season. Consider the following information on planning a vegetable garden.

Sun light is very important when growing plants. The usual required range per day of sunlight is about 6 hours, but there also some plants that need 8 hours. Also, maximize your vegetable garden space by planting quick growing plants, such as, radish and lettuce in between other vegetables, that take a while to mature (example: beet and corn).

During dry season, be sure to water your plants more often. Keep in mind that plants benefit from an inch of water every week, most especially during there stage of fruiting.

Watch out for pests and other insects that may destroy your vegetables. You have a better chance of saving your vegetable plants, if you found out about it earlier. Unless it is absolutely necessary, do not use pesticides or insecticides with chemicals. It will affect the quality of your vegetables. Since organic gardening uses environment friendly methods, use organic pesticides or insecticides. It’s safer for you, and your food.

Taking care of your vegetables, also, means protecting them from wandering animals. You can build a fence that will serve as protection for your garden from your pets like cats, dogs, rabbits and others. The damage done from those wandering animals could be equal to the amount it costs to build a fence. Especially, when you consider how much work you do in the garden. Plus, fences double as a great trellis or support for growing peas, beans, tomatoes and other crops.

To achieve the plentiful vegetable garden, protect your plants. After all, you want your hard work to be rewarded with a successful vegetable garden.

5 Secret Tips in Organic Vegetable Gardening

May 10, 2009 by Vegetable7 Leave a Comment

It’s very obvious that organic vegetables taste terrifically better than those grown with chemicals and other stuff.

So what do you think are the secrets behind the terrific taste of organic vegetables?

This is the biggest and most important secret….Organic vegetables are not grown from chemical fertilizers and pesticides! I know, you were expecting something more. BUT, it’s the most important. That’s why they taste so good. It’s not rocket science! It’s just how vegetables should taste naturally, without all the chemicals.

Myth: Organic Vegetable Gardening is Much Difficult than the USUAL Gardening

Some commercial companies tell you how difficult and time consuming it is to have successful organic vegetables. They are just selling their chemicals for gardening.

The very truth is, it’s not! As long as you will follow these simple steps you will have your organic garden in no time!

Here are the secrets you should know to start you organic garden the right way. Let’s get started!

Secret Tip1: Start with a good planning!

Like in everything we do, first thing first! It’s not easy to do the entire task at once. Try to imagine a construction crew starting a building without any blueprints. Just like in organic gardening, you’ll need to have a plan first to have a successful outcome.

Usual Planning Mistake: Be sure that the perfect area you choose is close to a water source. Most of the time, a beginner gardener will choose the place that looks the nicest in the yard. Often, we forget to plan how we are going to get the water to the vegetables in order for them to grow.

Secret Tip2: Facing South!

Question: Why is it necessary for your vegetable garden to face south?

Answer: Simply because, it will have plenty supply of sunlight.

Fact about sunlight: Vegetable garden would need an optimum 6-8 hours of sunlight to produce the best crop. Be sure that there is no shade blocking the sunlight needed by your plant like tall trees, or plants, or even your house.

Sunlight is one of the essential needs of a vegetable garden so don’t mess up with this one, or else say good bye to your dream vegetable garden!

Secret Tip3: Taking away weeds in an organic way!

Before you start planting, be sure that your chosen area is free from weeds. And because you don’t want any chemical weed killer to contaminate your organic vegetable garden, you would use the organic way.

Unfortunately there’s no easy way to get rid of weeds so what I suggest is to get rid of those weeds using your hand when they creep up. The sooner you discover them the better, so the best thing is to prevent them from contaminating your vegetable garden!

Secret Tip4: Prevention is better than Cure!! Weed Prevention Tips…

1. Get some free fertilizer from those left over espressos at Starbucks. It will make your vegetables healthy, and it is absolutely natural! No need to be shy for asking, because the Starbucks corporate offices actually instructs their crew to promote giving away coffee grounds to recycle them. It really is a great way to recycle coffee grounds, and plants love them.

2. You will not notice those small weeds that fell from your gloves and garden tools after de-weeding. So, the best thing to do is to clean your tools, gloves, knee pads and even your shoes to avoid re-depositing weeds in your garden. Your there to plant plants, right? Yeah, not weeds.

3. Just to make sure, why not use cornstarch? Putting cornstarch on the ground would add nitrogen to the soil, making it a natural fertilizerl. Plus, it can kill weeds, too!

4. Watch out for bird feeders. They are great around the garden, but if bird feeders get too close to your vegetable garden, the left over seeds may sprout into weeds. Keep them at a minimum distance of 20 feet from your garden. Besides, you know how some birds just knock the bird seed out of the feeder, while looking for the seeds they like!