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Your Vegetable Garden Design Depends on Elbow Grease and Soil
Hank Gordon asked:
Having a vegetable garden is a great asset to your live, with the right vegetable garden design and the right soil you can grow your own healthy and delicious vegetables for your self and your family. But how do you determine what kind of soil you have and do you need to base your vegetable garden design to these findings?
A vegetable garden takes a lot of effort and you need to make sure what kind of soil you have before you start planning and creating your first vegetable garden design.
You Need The Right Soil for a Successful Vegetable Garden Design
To grow vegetables you need good soil and you can define soil in roughly three types. The first and best type of soil to grow vegetables in is loam. This type is rich of humus, dark, crumbly and soft. It holds water but it also allows for good drainage. This type is an organic matter build up from all kind of living plants, fungus and other living things that have died, decomposed and have returned to the ground. It is also very easy to dig. In this type of soil your veggies will grow like crazy. So start making that vegetable garden design, you don’t need to do anything to enhance this type of soil.
The next type of garden dirt is clay, this is not as rich as loam and needs a bit of work. Clay consists of very tiny particles and these stick together which causes real poor drainage. You can enhance the clay by mixing it with sand, peat moss, bone meal and other soil nutrients. Mixed together makes the clay suitable for vegetable garden design.
The last soil type is sand, this is the opposite of clay because the structure is loose and much larger partials. This means the dirt is dry and poor, but with some work and adding some soil nutrients, you can make it definitely good enough to start with your vegetable garden design.
It is likely that your garden is a combination of the these three basic types. There are kits you can buy that test the dirt and it tells you what to add to enhance the soil. You can also ask a nurseryman for some exact advice before you start with your vegetable garden design.
Prepare the land for your vegetable garden design
Whatever soil you have you will only grow good vegetables and fruits if it is properly prepared. The best way to do this is in the autumn or early winter. You need to make sure that the soil is thoroughly spaded and turned to about two spades deep. You can work some (organic) fertilizer in to the ground and during winter the moisture can properly sink in. This will improve the condition of the soil tremendously.
During winter you can start drawing your vegetable garden design and add in all the vegetables and fruits you want to grow. You can dig in to books instead of the ground and get some real knowledge about the growing methods and the soil type the many different vegetables need to be very productive.
When you add this knowledge to your vegetable garden design you will have a great time when harvest time comes.
Having a vegetable garden is a great asset to your live, with the right vegetable garden design and the right soil you can grow your own healthy and delicious vegetables for your self and your family. But how do you determine what kind of soil you have and do you need to base your vegetable garden design to these findings?
A vegetable garden takes a lot of effort and you need to make sure what kind of soil you have before you start planning and creating your first vegetable garden design.
You Need The Right Soil for a Successful Vegetable Garden Design
To grow vegetables you need good soil and you can define soil in roughly three types. The first and best type of soil to grow vegetables in is loam. This type is rich of humus, dark, crumbly and soft. It holds water but it also allows for good drainage. This type is an organic matter build up from all kind of living plants, fungus and other living things that have died, decomposed and have returned to the ground. It is also very easy to dig. In this type of soil your veggies will grow like crazy. So start making that vegetable garden design, you don’t need to do anything to enhance this type of soil.
The next type of garden dirt is clay, this is not as rich as loam and needs a bit of work. Clay consists of very tiny particles and these stick together which causes real poor drainage. You can enhance the clay by mixing it with sand, peat moss, bone meal and other soil nutrients. Mixed together makes the clay suitable for vegetable garden design.
The last soil type is sand, this is the opposite of clay because the structure is loose and much larger partials. This means the dirt is dry and poor, but with some work and adding some soil nutrients, you can make it definitely good enough to start with your vegetable garden design.
It is likely that your garden is a combination of the these three basic types. There are kits you can buy that test the dirt and it tells you what to add to enhance the soil. You can also ask a nurseryman for some exact advice before you start with your vegetable garden design.
Prepare the land for your vegetable garden design
Whatever soil you have you will only grow good vegetables and fruits if it is properly prepared. The best way to do this is in the autumn or early winter. You need to make sure that the soil is thoroughly spaded and turned to about two spades deep. You can work some (organic) fertilizer in to the ground and during winter the moisture can properly sink in. This will improve the condition of the soil tremendously.
During winter you can start drawing your vegetable garden design and add in all the vegetables and fruits you want to grow. You can dig in to books instead of the ground and get some real knowledge about the growing methods and the soil type the many different vegetables need to be very productive.
When you add this knowledge to your vegetable garden design you will have a great time when harvest time comes.
Growing Vegetables Year Round
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.
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.
