Vegetable Gardening
Vegetable gardening is very rewarding. You can reap the rewards quickly in some cases. Growing your own food can be a healthy alternative to grocery store preservatives. Or the high cost the store is charging. It is a tough thing to beat picking your own home grown vegetables.
What to grow?
As most gardeners will say, grow what you like to eat. By starting this way, will get you more excited about gardening. Also I found myself expanding into different types of gardens and growing a larger variety of vegetables.
Most Common Vegetables to grow
Most commonly I see people start out with a couple tomato plants, cucumber, peppers, and lettuce. Starting out with a small plot, a raised bed, or containers is advisable. Going too large from the start will become over whelming.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes can be grown in containers or in the ground. I grow my tomatoes in the ground, I do not use tomato cages though. Cages are difficult to maintain the plant and prefer to Florida weave them or train them to guide wires. They need adequate sunlight. But most of all, good air flow. This is the biggest kicker with the standard round tomato cages. They do not let the plant breathe.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are fun to start from seed. Also with starting from seed you can have many plants! I have found that cucumbers do great when they are trellised up. Create a fence of cumber vines. You can grow a lot of cucumbers in a small space. These can grow in a container or in the ground. If a part of your garden is needing a wind break or some shade form the summer’s sun, this trellis method is the perfect solution. Not to mention that you can harvest the cucumbers standing up!
Peppers
Pepper plants are great to grow in the ground of in a small container. The plants do not take up much room. They are low maintenance and enjoy full sun. With peppers you can pick them as you need them for the kitchen. They are very flavorful fresh.
Lettuce
Lettuce is one of my favorite to grow in the garden. I personally prefer to grow lettuce in a raised bed. The soil is a perfect loom, its off the ground. Having the lettuce plants off the ground somewhat to keep most critters out of the patch. Also I the ease to sow the rows in a raised bed. I do succession plantings of lettuce to keep a constant supply. Not only does my wife and I eat the lettuce but some of our animals enjoys it too. The bunnies and the ducks go wild for the fresh garden lettuce. Another benefit to grow lettuce in a raised bed is typically I find raised beds to be less weedy.
Whats growing in my vegetable garden
I have succession plantings and a wide variety of veggies. I started to grow more root crops this year and testing the best carrots to grow. Not all that I grow in my garden is for the kitchen, I grow for the animals as well.
I will break up my garden by method of growth. I grow veggies by container, raised beds, and plots of ground.
Container
In my container garden I have growing carrots, radishes, and turnips. I started using containers this year. I wanted to get an early jump start to the season with carrots. Wanted to start harvesting them in June. Growing carrots in containers is an easy way to harvest the crop. Just dump the container on to a tarp or into a wheelbarrow.
Another great reason to grow in containers is that you have better succession plantings. I am able to mark the dates easier then sticks fading in the sun. I keep records of the pot number and planted date in a spreadsheet.
For the fast turn around crop like turnips and radishes containers can provide early and late season extensions. Also containers will provide an easy harvest as like the carrots.
Raised beds
In my raised beds I grow lettuce, bush beans, carrots, radishes, turnips, beets, and spinach. I use the raised beds to jump start the season as well. They warm up faster and easy to install a cold frame on.
Succession plantings in raised beds are easy. I can preform crop rotation 3 times within my growing season. Also with the high intensity planting that goes along with growing in raised beds, the task of amending the soil nutrients is easier. I can quickly change the soil’s ph or replace soil with compost.
Ground Plots
The bulk of my garden is in the ground plot. Here is where I plant my corn, main crop of beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, potatoes, collards, cabbages, pumpkins, melons, and more.
I separate the ground plot into sections. This helps me with crop rotation. Also I can plan out better what crops will be shaded out and which ones will need more compost. lastly, having sections lets me plan out which crops that go together on watering needs or creates long vines. Pumpkins, watermelons, and cantaloupes are all guilty of producing long vines for their fruit. I train these vines to grow between the rows of peppers.
Ground plots gives us the opportunity to use a rototiller. We can really work the soil to a fine tilth. Another great use with the rototiller is the ability to amend the soil thoroughly. Just broadcast your fertilizer or compost and till it in to a depth of 6-8 inches.
Lastly with the ground plots we can leave the previous years crop and let it decompose over winter. Another option is to till in the crop in the fall. I make deep furrows in the fall. By doing this the furrows collect added water but the top garden soil dries out quicker. Finally this allows me to work the soil sooner in the spring. Who doesn’t like an early harvest of greens in the spring?