Tips to Gardening

Vegetable Gardening: Grow Your Greens in Containers

If you long to grow your own vegetables but you’re surrounded by concrete or live on a piece of land too small for a vegetable garden, don’t give up hope. The answer for you may be container vegetable gardening. Container  gardening makes it possible to grow vegetables on patios , tiny balconies or the rooftops on high-rise buildings and with just a few exceptions, the same methods used in regular vegetable gardening also apply to container gardening.

The best containers for vegetable gardening are those that are light, portable and often free.  There’s no need to spend a lot of money on expensive containers made of wood or pottery. You can of course, if that’s what you want, but half the fun is in finding unique containers for your vegetable garden. Drainage holes can be drilled in the bottom to keep the plant roots from sitting in water and small containers can be grouped inside larger containers such as wooden crates or larger tubs to keep them from blowing over.  Containers should set on bricks or small blocks to help with drainage and prevent mold from growing under them.

Finding the Light
You can place your containers almost anywhere as long as there is plenty of light. Vegetable gardening requires a lot of sun and while plants prefer full sun all day long, you can make up for some loss of light by growing them against a light colored wall that reflects the light and heat back onto the plants. You can also place light reflective material behind your vegetables to help them take optimum advantage of the sun. Also turning containers during the day helps to expose the entire plant to the light.

One important thing you have to consider in vegetable gardening is the type of soil you will need for your containers, which should be light weight, and drain well. The best soil is actually a soil-less mix which is light weight and allows roots to grow faster, making for larger plants and more vegetables.  Most vegetables like to be grown in soil at least one or two feet  deep, and larger plants need more soil so take that into consideration when planning out your vegetable garden.
Finding the Space
To take advantage of limited space, stair step your container vegetable garden on benches, or use a step ladder or boards placed on cement blocks to create your own mini terrace. Even vegetable plants can make a beautiful garden setting if they are grouped or mixed in with a few flowers. Some vegetable plants can even be grown in hanging pots, such as lettuce, small cucumbers and tiny cherry tomatoes.

So if you’re a green thumb at heart, living a city life and wishing you could do a little vegetable gardening , you can make it a reality with container gardening. It might take some added creative and work, but what true blue gardener ever let that stop them?

The Top 7 Benefits of Composting Leaves

It’s Fall again, so it’s time to think about what we will do with our leaves.  If you are serious about your gardening, you should certainly consider composting your leaves.

Composting leaves is very valuable in managing your compost plan.  It often happens that leaves are left scattered all over a yard even while a compost pile sits nearby, sorely needing the absorption, the carbon, and other nutrients that leaves can provide. Following are some of the benefits of composting leaves.

1. Odor control
Dry leaves are a great means of suppressing the smell that may, otherwise, emanate from a compost heap. After you add fresh kitchen scraps to your pile, it would be a good idea not only to mix them into the heap, but to cover it with dry leaves as well.

2. Vermin control
Leaves, when used to cover a freshly supplemented pile of manure or food scraps, are great for preventing flies from infesting your yard. Pile on a two-inch layer of leaves to throw off the scent of the rats and vermin that may be attracted to your compost heap. Composting leaves may be what separates a neat garden from one ruined by all sorts of pests.

3. Carbon-rich source
Composting leaves can give your pile a rich source of carbon. Carbon, along with nitrogen, oxygen, and water does a lot to hasten the decomposition of a compost heap. When you need more green matter to balance you pile and serve as a much-needed catalyst, leaves provide a ready source for you.

4. Absorptive quality
On the other hand, during wet or humid weather when your compost pile tends to retain too much water, the absorptive quality of dry leaves can do a lot to remedy the situation. While water aids decomposition, too much of it will serve as a retardant as well.

5. Managing yard waste
Many yards in America produce more yard waste than they know what to do with – and most of this consists of fallen leaves. Rather than waiting for curbside pickup to take the problem off your hands, composting leaves can turn the problem into a benefit.

6. Cost-efficiency
There is really no reason to throw away something that you can use to improve the production of, say, your vegetable garden. Composting leaves can even mean substantial savings off your fertilizer budget.

7. Yard aesthetics
One of the most unattractive things about gardens is the overwhelming amount of leaves that covers it in the fall. A few leaves can be picturesque. But when it covers your entire lawn, pond or pool, plant nursery or vegetable garden, it can be a real aesthetic problem. Composting leaves is a great solution for a messy yard.

Your Children Should Learn Vegetable Gardening

If you can create a sense of nature, patience, and an appreciation of work they’ve done themselves in your children, you will have accomplished something great. This will have provided them one of the longest lasting gifts you could give them. One way to accomplish this is to encourage them to learn vegetable gardening. All that is needed is a small patch of earth, some seeds, and water. Some other things that may be added along the way will be wonder, laughter, and dirty faces. All of this will be mixed together to provide a very memorable project and experience.

Obviously, it is best to have your vegetable garden outside. That is if you have the space available. With a good shovel, you can cut an outline of the garden in the grass. Your child can then pull the sod away and set it aside it for composting. This will be another great lesson involving the cycle of nature that can be saved for another day. After you have bare earth, your child can help turn the soil with a spoon or trowel until it’s workable by hand. Have your child place the seeds on the top of the soil, cover lightly with earth, and add water. You have just taught your little one the basics of vegetable gardening!

How Can I have A Vegetable Garden In the City?

Even if you do not have a backyard, you can do vegetable gardening. A perfect place for a container garden are apartment balconies. They will get plenty of sun and they will be pretty displays until the vegetables are ripe and ready for harvest. Rather than using plot of earth, your child can fill a container with soil you have purchased from the store. To provide for drainage, you can use a recycled margarine container. Punch holes in the bottom for drainage. Your child can sprinkle on seeds, cover lightly with soil and be responsible for watering the plants every day.

Vegetable gardening can help teache children patience. This is because they have to wait for the seeds to sprout. Once the plant has broken above the soil, they can watch the daily growth of the sprouts. They can follow the growth until the plants are full sized. Because this can be a long process for little kids that may have short attention spans, you might plant something new every week. This will keep them entertained for the whole summer. After the plants have bloomed, you and your child can read about how they will soon grow food. Your kids will be excited to finally see little red tomatoes or green peppers appear on their plant.

It can be a satisfying experience for the children of today’s throwaway society. Returning to the olden days, when we raised our own fruits and vegetables. Not just for the hard work but for the feeling of accomplishment. When children know that what we buy in the store is not the only option as to how we get our food instils a sense of responsibility. They will carry this feeling and knowledge with them all their lives. As they grow older, they will think back on their vegetable gardening with fond memories. And they will probably share the experience with their own children.

Basic Gardening On A Tight Budget

If you have never gardened before you may suddenly decide it was just a fantasy when you walk into the garden shop and look at the price tags. Don’t get scared. Gardening can still be a fulfilling hobby even if you have a tight gardening budget. In fact, many gardens can be started for only about $100. You may be able to start a garden for less if you can find some of the tools second hand, but still good quality.

A spading fork is your first gardening on a budget tool. It’s a little bit like a pitchfork, but much smaller. It fits in your hand and resembles a three prong fork. This handy little gardening on a budget tool will help to improve the soil you’re working with and aerate it for better garden planting.

You’ll want a hoe for weeding and for cultivating your new garden on a budget. Add a long nozzle watering can to the cart as well as a round ended shovel for larger gardening digging projects. Last on your list of tight budget gardening tools is a pair of garden shears. Make sure the garden shears fit comfortably in your hand, especially if you’ll be wearing gardening gloves.

This pretty much completes the tight budget gardening shopping list, minus of course the plants and flowers, but we’ll get there. Naturally, you will want to pick a piece of land for your tight budget gardening to begin, and then you’ll need to turn the soil. If you’re starting with a grassy area, you will need to remove the layer of grass. The tight budgeted gardening hoe actually works fairly well for this job.

Turning the soil over and over creates a better foundation for starting your tight budget garden. This is primarily what we purchased the spading fork for. As it aerates the soil, you will bring small rocks and other debris to the surface. Because you are gardening on a tight budget, you will have to perform more of the manual labor than those who purchase machinery to get their garden started. You may wish to keep this in mind when you choose the size of your garden.

Before you go out and purchase plants, check with your local organic co-op. Often they have plants the require transplanting, whether you are creating a vegetable garden or a flower garden. People whose plants have outgrown their garden are often willing to give away parts of the plant that will continue to grow for free, as they prefer not to simply throw it away.

Vegetable Gardening Tips

With the costs of living rising all the time, it may be possible to save money and increase your family’s health at the same time by growing vegetables in your backyard.

It’s a good idea to choose your favourite vegetables to grow and plan beds for early, middle of the season and late varieties.

Most vegetables require at least 6 hours of sunlight per day, some need 8. Some quick growers like lettuce and radish can be grown between the rows of plants that take longer to mature, like beet or corn, thus making full use of the area available.

Throughout dry periods, vegetable gardens need extra watering. Most vegetables benefit from an inch or more of water each week, especially when they are fruiting.

During the growing season watch for insect pests. If you discover a bug problem early it will be much easier, but be careful to not use pesticides once the vegetable are close to being picked unless it becomes an absolute necessity. Organic gardening is one healthy and environment-friendly option. Once you have reaped your crop, put the vegetable waste into your compost pile so that it can be recycled for next spring.

It is important to protect your vegetable garden from wild animals looking for a tasty treat. Make sure your garden is surrounded by a fence that will keep out dogs, rabbits, and other animals. The harm done by wandering animals during one season can equal the cost of a fence. A fence also can serve as a frame for peas, beans, tomatoes, and other crops that need support.

Protection is needed in order for your vegetable garden to yield a bountiful harvest. Hard work will pay dividends if necessary precautions have been made.