Growing your vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers can be one of the simplest and most rewarding things you can do. It takes very little space, it’s incredibly affordable and it’s a great way to get kids involved in gardening. And with today’s growing demand for local food, it’s a trend that is only going to continue growing in popularity.
But how do you get started? There are plenty of articles out there with advice on what type of soil is best, how much space you need, and the different types of plants that do well in your region.
But they don’t all cover the same topics or explain things in the same level of detail… This article will give you everything you need to know about starting a garden from finding an empty patch of land, to choosing the right plants for your location, and maintenance afterwards.
Finding A Site For Your Garden
This is the first step toward creating a sustainable future for your family. Before you even think about where you’ll put your garden, you need to figure out where the land is. While there are plenty of places you can grow vegetables in a small space, it’s best to find an area that has plenty of sunlight and room to spread out.
It’s also important to consider the climate of your region. During the summer months, vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers need a consistent heat of at least 85 degrees. In winter, they need a temperature of at least 50 degrees, which is why it’s important to choose a site that can support both the heat and cold.
Growing The Right Soil For Your Plants
Now that you have a spot picked out, the next step is to find the perfect soil. There are many factors to consider when choosing the right soil for your garden, but the most important one is the pH level. Most plants grow best in soil that has a pH of 6.0-6.5, but most gardens are watered to lower the pH to make them easier for humans to use. This is a common practice, but it can have several negative effects on plants.
For starters, it gives them less access to the minerals they need. Another issue is the damage it does to their root systems. Instead of being properly nourished, the roots are now exposed to the air, which can cause them to wither and die. There are ways to water your garden to raise the pH. The first and easiest is to apply pH-balancing water.
This can be found at most garden stores and is a simple way to ensure that your plants receive all the nutrients they need. Rather than watering your garden at a specific pH level, you should instead water it at the same level as your soil. This allows the water to soak down into the soil, where it’ll be absorbed. The only difference is that the plants are still receiving all the minerals and chemicals that the soil is naturally supposed to have.
Choosing The Right Vegetables
Now that you have the right soil and the right climate, you can start planting your vegetables. When deciding what type of vegetables you want to grow, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
First, try to choose vegetables that are easy to grow in your region. If you live in a cold climate, you’ll want to choose vegetables that can handle the cold, while if you live in the south, you’ll want to choose plants that don’t need a lot of sunshine. When choosing your vegetables, consider what you’re going to be eating.
Make sure they’re fruits, vegetables, or herbs that are in season, meaning they’re at their peak of taste and nutrition. There are also many benefits to growing your veggies, such as knowing exactly what ingredients you’re putting in your food and reducing your family’s carbon footprint.
When Should You Harvest Your Produce?
The best way to know when to harvest your vegetables is to pin them to the calendar. When you mark the days on your calendar when you’re going to harvest your vegetables, it’ll be much easier to stay on track. While you want to harvest your produce when it’s ripe and ready to eat, you don’t want to go overboard.
Ripe vegetables have already started to decompose, so they’re already receiving some of the minerals that the soil is naturally supposed to have. You don’t want to take this away from the vegetables, so you want to harvest them just enough to keep the plants healthy.
If you’re harvesting your vegetables too soon (before they’re ripe), they’ll be missing a lot of the minerals they need, while too late and they’ll be exposed to the air, which can damage their root systems.
Maintaining Your Garden After You’re Done With It
Now that your garden is up and running, you’ll want to make sure it stays that way. For starters, you want to make sure that you’re watering your garden regularly. Most plants can survive for a few days without being watered, but they’ll start to show signs of stress if they go longer without water, like yellowing leaves and wilting flowers.
While you want to make sure that you water your garden, you don’t want to water it so much that it pulls all the nutrients out of the soil. If this happens, your plants will begin to show signs of stress and they might even wither and die. You also want to make sure that you’re weeding your garden regularly.
Regular weeding keeps your garden healthy by removing any dead or dying plants while removing the weeds will expose your vegetables to the minerals in the soil and keep them from growing tall. You can also make it easier on yourself by purchasing a garden rake, hoe, or tiller. These tools make it easy to maintain your garden and can help you avoid any injuries.
Conclusion
Growing your vegetables isn’t only a great way to save money, but it’s also a great way to get your kids involved in the garden. Whether it’s helping you plant the seeds or picking the vegetables themselves, getting them involved early can be a great way to get them interested in gardening as they get older.
Growing your vegetables doesn’t take a tremendous amount of space, it’s incredibly affordable and it’s a great way to get kids involved in gardening. While there are plenty of articles out there with advice on what type of soil is best, how much space you need, and the different types of plants that do well in your region, they don’t all cover the same topics or explain things in the same level of detail.
This article will give you everything you need to know about starting a garden from finding an empty patch of land, to choosing the right plants for your location, and maintenance afterwards.
