How To Start A Vegetable Garden

It’s very satisfying to learn how to grow a vegetable garden. It’s good exercise and the home grown food tastes better than anything bought in a store. You are also aware of exactly what has gone into the produce. A vegetable garden requires an assortment of tasks for which you’ll require the correct tools. The basics will be enough and they’re a fork, spade, hoe, trowel and a rake. It’s best to get good brands. Others may cost less but they are less likely to last so long. A wheelbarrow is also useful and a watering can. From time to time, there are drought notices and it’s a good idea to have one or two rain butts. If you are beginning your vegetable garden from scratch and it is a sizeable area, you may want to make use of a rotary cultivator to help you do the digging. It will save you a lot of time and a sore back. They can be leased if you do not want to purchase one.

First, you need to locate and plan out your design. Planting vegetables should be moved around to keep the ground healthy. Make use of a soil tester to see what sort of soil you have. This is critical as different sorts of soil call for different methods of dealing with it. The soil might be heavy clay, light and sandy or chalk or alkaline. This also has a bearing on what sort of veggies you can grow in the veg plot, as plants respond differently to differing types of soil.

The soil will need to be broken up so the seedlings can settle in and so air and water can get through. Unless the ground is especially hard, use a spade instead of a fork. Remove the weeds and put in fertilizer or manure. It’s a good idea to begin a compost bin near the vegetable garden. This will become a cheap source of fertilizer for the soil.

As soon as you’ve set up the area and fed the soil, you are ready to start sowing and planting. Divide the vegetable garden between root crops, brassica and produce not in the first two groups. Root crops incl ude potatoes, carrots, swede, beetroot and onions. Brassicas include such veg as cauliflower, kale, cabbage, broccoli and sprouts. That leaves veggies such as beans, squash, peas, sweet corn and salad plants like lettuce and cucumbers.

You could set off some crops growing beneath a cloche or in a greenhouse, especially if you’re in an area where there can be a lot of windy or cold weather. Make sure you keep up with the irrigation and weeding. Many gardeners put up a wall chart and plan the jobs in the vegetable plot, on a monthly basis. In a short while you will have discovered how to grow a vegetable garden.