Jane Thomas asked:


You don’t need a large area to have a vegetable garden. All you do need is good soil, plenty of sunshine, a water source and probably a fence. Limited gardening space doesn’t necessary need to be an obstacle for growing vegetables. A well-planned and organized garden can make planting go quickly and efficiently for maximum yields in minimum space. If space is limited use the land twice, or try these intensive cropping techniques.

Space Saving Techniques in Small Vegetable Gardens

Companion crops – This can be accomplished by sowing the seeds of a fast and slow growing vegetable together in the same row. For example, radishes (fast maturing) and carrots (slow maturing) can be sown together. Mix radish and carrot seeds and plant together. Radishes are a short-season crop so will be harvested before the carrots need room to grow. This is also a good method of thinning the carrots. Another method is to alternate rows of fast and slow maturing vegetables. An example would be a row of leaf lettuce between two rows of tomatoes.

Succession planting – As soon as one crop is finished, plant another. After short-season crops such as lettuce, spinach, radishes and peas have stopped bearing, they can be removed. Plant carrots, beets, Swiss chard, turnips or green beans for a later crop.

Interplanting – Grow two or more vegetables in one area by planting slow (long season) and fast maturing (short season) crops. The fast maturing vegetables will be harvested before the crops begin to crowd each other. Harvesting the short season crop also provides additional space for the later maturing vegetables. Slow starting, late-planted crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, bush squash, and cucumbers, may be transplanted between rows of peas, spinach, and other short-season crops. The short-season vegetables will stop producing when hot weather begins and can then be removed.

Bush varieties – Plant “bush” varieties of cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, peppers and squash that produce fruit on much shorter vines. “Bush” refers to growing habit. These plants take up less space in the garden than standard varieties.

Use vertical space by staking and trellising – Some crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and pole beans may be supported by stakes, poles, trellises, or fences and grown upright rather than on the ground. Use a trellis or fence to support pole beans, cucumbers, and squash; cage or stake tomatoes, they will take much less room this way.

Square foot gardening – This is a form of intensive gardening in which the garden is marked off into squares of space for crops rather than planting in straight rows. The name comes from partitioning blocks of garden space that are 1 ft. x 1 ft. A common arrangement is to mark off squares that are 4 ft. x 4 ft. (16 sq. ft.). This area is then divided into four parts that are 2 ft. x 2 ft. One tomato plant or equally spaced seeds are then planted in these square areas, depending on the space needs of the plant.

Juliet Spalding asked:


As a product, I remember many sunny summer afternoons meeting on the veranda shelling more than my descent allocate of peas and butter beans in the innate shadowy affection of the old south. There were other vegetables we grew in our summer gardens that had to be picked and stored for coldness but the peas and butter beans forever seemed to take the most time and awareness and are one of the stuff I truly forget having left my home in the south for much cooler climes. One thing while, has never gotten away from me and that is the cavernous and abiding fondness I have for the smell of newly plowed soil and the savor of vegetables light from the plot.

I advantage out the truth that my childhood desired summer plot vegetables only look to boom in the south to push home the detail that you truly will want to seek the vegetables you factory in your summer plot as they associate to the definite sphere in which you live. Not all vegetable plants are shaped total in their tolerance for temperature or rain (or lack thereof), which could awfully blow their suitability for your particular vegetable summer backyard depending of course, on where you are located.

Some great plants to involve in your summer vegetable plot should of course be dictated by those vegetables that you like intake as well as those vegetables and herbs that use a good trade when cooking. If you use peppers a lot in your cooking then peppers are probably an admirable select for your summer patch. If you don’t like peppers, then they are not expected to be a good picking, as they will probably be exhausted. My children will eat green peppers off the place so they make an admirable diversity for our backyard. Tomatoes are another currents favorite for summer gardens. Some have even gotten creative and fashioned killing tomato plants in which the tomatoes factually grow upside down. If pause is imperfect in your summer patch this may be a great way to have your tomatoes and grow them too-lacking pleasing up valuable honest estate within your vegetable plot.

For those who darling their greens summer gardens offer an admirable atmosphere for upward greens such as broccoli, lettuce, and cabbage. Collard greens, mustard greens, and turnip greens are also good summer backyard inclusions. I also have dazzling memories of boiling massive vats of greens to be frozen for frost when the detailed influence of the gather was ahead us. There was always something to be done with the vegetables as coldness approached and during those bend chill months we were so grateful for the hard work and shot we had made to insure these great vegetables would sustain us during the months they weren’t so speedily unfilled.

Having a summer garden packed with vegetables is a satisfying pursuit in many habits. First you are producing something that is expedient to you and your family. Second, you are providing a way for you and your family to have the vegetables you dear most throughout the year. Finally, you are able to make vegetables that are fit for consumption and enjoyment at a, much slash expense than you would pay for these vegetables at the limited supermarket. The helps except money for some of the more important and more entertaining stuff most of us would like to do with our families.

As with any summer garden you will hardship to design prudently the residency of your vegetables and do some research on individual watering and shade requirements. It helps to plant those that necessary partial sunlight in the shadow of those plants that will grow taller and present shade for the slighter plants. It also helps to keep the thirstier plants faster together and foster away from those plants that compel minus water to sustain them. You should also take tension to be realistic in your planting and prevent planting more than you can comfortable consume or return, as that will be shattered time and stab on your part.

Lanny Hintz asked:


Now wouldn’t it be more fulfilling to eat vegetables that come from your very own garden? It feels great knowing that your very own hands have helped grow the vegetables that are in your salad or dish. We have to bear in mind though that growing vegetables is not easy and can sometimes be downright frustrating. But with a lot of patience and hard work you’ll soon be tasting the fruits of your hard labor.

In growing vegetables it is important that the seeds have been properly planted. You have to ensure that the soil is moist and rich in nutrients to help your seeds grow. The seeds must not be planted in loosely packed soil so as to prevent having air spaces that would tend to dry or shrivel the tiny roots once it starts to grow. It is vital that the soil touches the seed to enable it to take root immediately when it starts to germinate.

It is a must for you to know the different needs of the different types and kinds of vegetable that you may be growing. Each vegetable requires different spaces for it to grow and different depths for it to be planted on. Knowing information like these is important so that your vegetables get the right amount of care and tending. Some plants would require having much more water than others so you should try to separate them. When you plant vegetables, you can’t expect all of the seeds to develop so heavy seeding is quite alright. To help your vegetables grow beautifully, fertilize the land or better yet sprinkle some food for your plants.

Now, that you have started to grow your vegetables you need to undertake measures to make sure that your vegetable garden lasts long. Water them regularly and consistently check that they are in good shape to make certain that they will continue to produce and bear fruit. If you encounter any problems, take the necessary action or preventive measures. One of the things that you should avoid doing is to leave your vegetables to over ripen. Harvest them so that your plants will continue to produce. When plants go to seed they stop producing.

If you see any signs of weeds, weed them out. Weeds are one of the pests that could choke your plants since these weeds compete with them for water and nutrients in the soil. Vegetable plants have a life span so consider planting in intervals so that you have new ones to replace the early ones that may have reached their end in producing.

Joey Simmons asked:


I can hear you thinking that you have no idea about growing vegetables. The truth is that you can easily learn enough to be growing useful crops very quickly, and each session spent in your garden teaches you even more. You will learn much that is unique to your own situation, such as local soil conditions, your particular aspect in relation to the sun, and oddities that relate to your local microclimate. You will learn most of this by getting out and giving it a go.

The taste of home grown vegetables is vastly superior to that of the commercially grown produce. Have you heard people complain that tomatoes no longer have any taste? They will have when you grow your own – you will never taste better. The lack of taste with the commercial crop is not all the fault of the growers, as they are under pressure to produce a crop, of uniform size and colour, to the schedule of the wholesale market, and ultimately the supermarket. You set your own schedule.

The freshness of your own crop is a big plus. Vegetables I have bought from the supermarket, and stored in the refrigerator, have started to become inedible after a few days. I have had home grown produce still fresh in the refrigerator after 2 weeks!

Typically, your home garden will produce a generous yield, and can readily help pay for the cost of growing them. You can effectively end up having free vegetables. Summer, especially, is usually a time of abundance, even glut, as family and friends leave your place with perhaps more produce than they had expected to see. A tip – when giving away fresh produce, try to limit your generosity – it is better to give a small amount to many rather than to give to the few more than they can actually use.

One of the turn-offs to trying something you have not done before is the intimidating flood of information (and misinformation) you will receive. If you are browsing one of the major bookstores, you may find hundreds of books on the topic – which do you buy? To begin with, look for the simple, basic information. Do not bother with those full of jargon – you will learn the technical terms as you go.

You will hear folklore from the family, such as “Uncle Henry always put … (you name it) … on his … (name it again)”. Folklore is part of our heritage, but there is no guarantee of its usefulness. You will hear from the office genius, who has done nothing, but still knows all the answers – nod wisely, and then ignore him.

Plants evolved millions of years before humans, and they actually want to grow. It has been said that in many cases plants grow despite what we do to help them. If you provide the basics, and these are reasonable nutrition and regular watering, Mother Nature does the rest – let her work for you.

Jane Thomas asked:


There are several good reasons to grow a garden.

And with today’s economy, everyone is looking for ways to cut expenses.  Lately, we can read all over the Internet and hear all the time that growing vegetables in your garden can be cheaper, more interesting, and better than buying them at supermarkets.

The biggest concern to most people is the fact that it will save so much money. Growing your own vegetables in the garden or in containers, if done properly, can reduce the amount of money you spent on groceries. But, will you succeed in doing so, depends on the costs involved in growing the crops, amounts and types of vegetables you choose to grow, vegetable yields you could expect from your garden, and many other factors. So, to answer the question from the title: “yes” – if done correctly.

It’s possible to spend a small fortune on a garden. If you go out and buy everything that you need (or you THINK you need) to start a vegetable garden, and then calculate all of the input costs (tools and equipment, fertilizers, pesticides, water, etc.) associated with gardening, you could end up with an astonishing figure. These costs can add up quickly, even for a small vegetable garden. The trick to saving money with a vegetable garden is limiting the costs, while purchasing the things you really need for your vegetable garden.

And one of the most important things that will determinate if you will save money by growing your own vegetables is choosing the types of vegetables to grow in your garden! This is done by factoring in the cost of seeds, fertilizer and water (the cost of growing vegetables) against the cost of purchasing those same vegetables in a grocery store. Some vegetables simply won’t save you much money. For example, corn; because you don’t get a high yield of corn from a small garden and because in season corn is inexpensive to buy, it doesn’t pay off to grow corn in your garden in order to save money on groceries.

So, What Vegetables Will Give You the Most Bang for the Buck?

If you want to start a vegetable garden to save money, consider growing vegetables that give a big yield and have a significant return for an investment. Good way to do this is to select vegetables that are expensive to buy in the grocery store (like tomatoes and melons) or to grow large quantities of vegetables that you purchase regularly.

If you’ve never had a vegetable garden before, take a tip from experienced gardener, and take a look at these six classic vegetables you can grow from seed and harvest throughout the summer, and save some money doing so:

* Bush Snap Beans        * Carrots

* Lettuce                        * Peas

* Bell Pepper s               * Tomatoes

These vegetable seeds are top sellers year after year, and for a good reason! Of course, the varieties change yearly, but standby vegetables like tomatoes, beans and carrots all always at the top of the lists.

Except these six vegetables already mentioned, in order to save money growing vegetables consider vegetables like broccoli, beans, beets, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, summer squash, spinach, tomatoes and Swiss chard. All these vegetables will provide the biggest returns on your investment of space and time you spend in your vegetable garden.

Even a relatively small garden, say 20′ x 20′, will give you enough room for variety, without being overwhelmed. Of course how much you save by growing your own vegetables depends on the fluctuating cost of food.

Remember, growing vegetables will save you money in the long run – the first year might actually cost more if you need to buy tools, pots and all your seeds, but the second and following years will be much cheaper!

Susan Slobac asked:


How do cherry tomatoes in the dead of winter sound to you, a gardener in a northern clime wishing for summer? Impossible, you say. Not if you garden indoors. Vegetables of all types can be grown year-round indoors, with the proper light, soil, fertilizer and temperature, as well as focusing on suitable plant varieties.

If you are going to grow indoor vegetables in winter, you will need to start by raising plants from seed in late summer or early fall. It’s best to buy your seeds in the spring if you wish to do this, because it is not always easy to find seeds for sale at local garden centers in the fall.

Use a light seedling mix for starting your seeds. Its loose consistency will make it easy for the plants new roots to start to develop. After the seedlings have two true leaves, you can begin to carefully transplant them into individual four-inch containers. You can use any good potting soil for this purpose, but do not use regular garden soil. It is usually very heavy, has poor drainage and can also harbor disease and insects that can kill your new starts.

Because you will be watering these plants every day or every other day to keep the roots properly moist, you are also washing nutrients out of the soil. So feed your plants with a complete organic fertilizer every couple of weeks to give them the food they need to grow and flourish.

You will be playing with temperatures when raising indoor vegetables to suit the particular plants you wish to grow. Some vegetables, such as lettuce, endive, and radishes like cooler indoor temperatures. Daytime temperatures in the 60s work well, while night temperatures should go no lower than the 40s. A basement situation might work well to provide these temperatures, or an unheated porch if it doesn’t get too cold.

Sun lovers like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and beans must have daytime temperatures in the upper 70s and nights can go down no lower than 60 in order for these plants to flower and produce fruit. You will likely need to provide bottom heat to your containers to make sure they are warm enough to do well indoors.

If you do not have the proper hydroponic lights, you will be doomed to failure when it comes to growing vegetables indoors. This is of utmost importance to your success. You need to keep your light two to four inches above your plants for them to thrive. HID lamps, in conjunction with digital ballasts or electronic ballasts can be purchased in as hydroponic grow light kits, work well for this purpose. These grow lights provide a complete spectrum of light for every stage of plant growth, and work well in indoor applications.

Jane Thomas asked:


Saving money is one of the biggest benefits to growing a vegetable garden in the mind of many first time gardeners. While this may be a good enough reason to start a vegetable garden, let’s not forget that there are others as well. Growing your own vegetables would increase your confidence in food safety and security. You would know where your food is coming from and all the history of plants grown in your own gardens. You would know what chemicals you used (if any), would learn what pests could impose problems and would essentially eliminate the whole resource-gobbling transportation chain to get the food to your plate. And all that gardening is good for you, because it‘s a great form of physical exercise!

For all you first time gardeners, here are several useful tips to consider when growing a vegetable garden in order to save your money:

Select vegetables that you and your family like to eat. Many fist time gardeners don’t know where to start and which vegetables to grow in their gardens. This is quite simple – you’re not likely to take care of vegetables you don’t like to eat. So don’t waste your time or money planting them in the garden, but choose the ones you like (and that grow well in your gardening zone).

Select vegetables that are expensive to buy. To save money, think of growing more expensive items, like tomatoes, or growing large quantities of vegetables that you purchase regularly. You could save money by growing herbs if you use a lot and they’re expensive to buy; mixed salad leaves are also cheaper to grow than to buy. Consider vegetables like broccoli, beans, beets, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, summer squash, spinach, tomatoes and Swiss chard. All these vegetables will provide the biggest returns on your investment of space and time you spend in your vegetable garden.

Select vegetables that can be easily stored or preserved. A lot of vegetables that you can grow in your garden you can store, freeze, or can so you are saving that money year round, not just during the growing season. Selecting vegetables that have a long storage life or that can easily be canned or frozen is a great way to save money on your grocery bills. Potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can be stored for several months if stored at the appropriate temperature. Other vegetables, like tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and beets, can be preserved by canning or freezing. Preserving vegetables is a great way to enjoy the surplus produce later in the year.

Do some research and start with a plan. Planning the garden on paper could help you decide what you want to grow and determine what will be necessary to be successful. If you need help, ask family members, neighbors, or friends that can help you.  There are many gardening forums and sites on the Internet where you can search for information that you’re looking for.

Start small. Even a relatively small garden, say 20′ x 20′, will give you enough room for variety, without being overwhelmed. Plants will require regular maintenance, watering and harvesting. Growing too many different vegetables your first year in a large garden could become overwhelming for you and can ultimately lead to failure. It’s better to limit yourself to just a few types of vegetables the first year. Later, when you become confident in your abilities, you can gradually increase the size of your vegetable garden and grow a more and more variety of crops!

Graham Williams asked:


For effective gardening of vegetables in your organic gardening, you must first think about fertilization. This is almost always attributable to mulching. But there are other things to consider as well, such as the introduction of fertilizers that are available to you both naturally or commercially. To simply define this, it means to place materials, wether they be inorganic or organic in your garden around your plants.

By doing this you will also provide fertilization, it also helps to protect your soil as well. If you garden receives a lot of heavy rain, or is susceptible to high weed growth causing it to be a weed trap, then mulches will provide some much protection from this and much needed supplementation that will aid the natural growth process of your organic garden vegetables.

Beside this, you will also find it will help to regulate the temperature of your soil. Also the added bonus of gardening this way is the aesthetic look this lends to your garden and the improved ground texture. By spreading the mulch to areas not planted will also help to keep any weeds under control.

If you do decide to establish mulches in your garden, you will find that you need to water less often. This is because it help your plants retain water. Also your plants will have far better growth levels because of this added water retention. It will also help you with your weed control, but it will never stop them completely stop them.

You should always test your soil, this way you can maximise your fertilization efforts. Never buy your fertilizer in bulk before doing a test on your soil, this way you make sure you get the correct fertilizer suited for your soil type. Just what could be a worse experience, than having not tested and then having bought in bulk to find that it is of no use to you.

When you do apply your fertilizer, it is recommended that you should maintain it. Always go for a high quality fertilizer, this in an absolute must do for any gardener, especially if you are a beginner. There are also many fertilizers available to you, that are tailored solely to the beginning of your planting experience. These will require no extra maintenance through your gardening activities. In any rate, make sure that you are getting your money’s worth and have thoroughly proven for yourself that the given fertilizer you are putting on your garden has been tried and tested on your soil type.

Organic material is always the best source of fertilization for your plants, this is because it adheres closely to natures natural growth process. Always try to avoid introducing any chemicals in to your soil, this is so that your plants will get used to growing and maximizing there potential via natural means. Going organic has many added health benefits for you and your family and by growing green you are doing your bit to help the environment. So why not go ahead now and grow organic?

Dave Truman asked:


For anyone accustomed to the notion that a vegetable garden must be a fairly large affair – its rows stretching fifteen or twenty feet at a minimum, the concept of crops pushing up from a small container or appearing to burst the bonds of a tiny patch of ground only a few feet square – it is almost unsettling. Yet growing vegetables in cramped spaces is not only possible but highly rewarding. One can grow tomatoes in tubs at the edge of a patio, strawberries in empty milk cartons on a windowsill, lettuce in a modest window box, watermelons along a strip beside a driveway or beans on a trellis on a small apartment balcony.

A year-long harvest of several kinds of vegetables can be gained from a single area no wider than a card table. To achieve this kind of bounty in lap-sized spaces it is necessary merely to provide the right growing conditions and to purchase seed varieties that are appropriate for small-scale circumstances. Luckily a number of seed companies have responded to the newly recognized demand for miniature or compact plants, and more new strains are being offered to the public every year, often grouped together under such headings as “space savers,” “space misers” or “midgets.”

Producing vegetables on a reduced scale, however, is basically a different proposition from other kinds of gardening. Small gardens devoted to woody ornamentals like dwarf conifers, rhododendrons or heathers or to miniature bulbs or alpines are arranged and managed largely for appearance: they exist to be decorative, to please the eye. Vegetables are most often grown to reward not the eye but the palate. So while corn stalks and bean bushes can make the mouth water they rarely make the eye pop, and they are not likely to be found gracing a well designed border, although creative horticulturists have combined a few of the handsomest vegetables with flowering plants to good effect.

The greatest difficulties are practical ones. Although the leafy greens, like lettuce, can do fairly well on only four hours of direct sunlight a day, any vegetable that produces a fruit (tomatoes, beans, corn and so on) must have a solid eight hours of warming sun or its yields will be disappointing or virtually nonexistent; but that bright light does not benefit dwarf azaleas. Similarly, a friable soil mix, amply fertilized, is desirable in vegetable growing but too heady for many dwarf plants that are expected to stay small. The major problem, however, is presented by the need to turn over the vegetable garden’s soil every year, in effect reconstituting it; such heavy tilling cannot be done in a bed of rock garden plants and perennials. In most cases, a vegetable patch must be sited differently and separated from the conventional small-scale garden.

This said, there is no doubting the fact that the smaller vegetables are worth trying, especially if space for the larger kind is at a premium. It is important to choose, however, the kind of smallness desired, whether it is the fruit or produce itself that will be miniature, or the plant that yields it. Miniature vegetables as such are amusing and eye-catching, a novelty that many restaurants and imaginative cooks offer with great success. Some miniatures, for example, cherry tomatoes, are accepted for their own sake, while a number of vegetables are of course just naturally small – radishes, for example.