In order to maximize your garden space, get the best growing potential out of your soil, as well as take advantage of the sunlight and temperatures in your area you’re going to need to plan before planting vegetable gardens.

It’s best to take a look at the location for your vegetable garden before you begin planning what type of vegetables you’d like to have. Some areas are going to have more shade than others, while others, may see sunlight all day long. Certain plants are going to do better with a little bit of shade, while others may need that full sun. Most vegetable plants need at least five hours of sunlight in order to grow well, so you need to make sure the trees, fences, and other shading sources are not going to affect the growing vegetables.

You’ll also want to take a look at where your water sources are, there’s nothing worse than having to pack buckets of water to your garden. You’ll need to be close to a hose to make watering easily. You’ll also need to make sure that you have the proper soil and drainage. And it’s always nice, if it’s not too far from your daily routes so you can check for weeds, pests, or wilting.

Read the rest of this entry

Healthy vegetable gardens do more than provide a beautiful area in your yard. They repay your labor with nutritious food and a healthy varied diet. Vegetable gardeners are in tune with the environment, giving back to the soil what they take from it. Abundant vegetable gardens start with healthy, rich soil. Compost and mulch contribute to that natural wealth.

About 11,000 years ago, the first farmers began to select and cultivate desired food plants in the southwest Asian Fertile Crescent – between the ancient Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Although we believe there was some use of wild cereals before that time, the earliest crops were barley, bitter vetch, chick peas, flax, lentils, peas, emmer, and wheat. About 9,000 years ago, Egyptians began to grow wheat and barley. About the same time, farmers in the Far East began to grow rice, soy, mung, azuki, and taro.

Then, about 7,000 years ago, ancient Sumarians established the first organized agricultural practices that made large-scale farming possible. Of particular note, they established irrigation as a way to nurture crops where none were possible before. Vegetable gardeners today use many of the same techniques established in early history. But today’s vegetable gardeners have millennia of experience behind them. Trial and error today is success or failure at the margins. Failure is not disaster.

Read the rest of this entry

If you’re like most gardeners, you probably can’t wait for the weather to warm up so you can get outside and start planting.  Particularly in the case of vegetable gardening, most plants can’t go in the ground until the weather warms up significantly and the danger of frost has passed.  But have you considered planting some cool weather vegetable crops that can be sown as early as several weeks before the last expected frost date?  Cool weather vegetables are a great way to get a head start on the season’s plantings.  Not only do cool weather veggies keep your planting areas productive for more months of the year, they also allow you to get out in the garden earlier in the spring.  In this article, we’ll explore a few varieties of cool weather vegetables that you might want to try growing in your garden this spring.

Carrots:
Anyone who says they don’t like carrots has probably never tasted fresh carrots out of a homegrown vegetable garden.  Carrots are a great crop to start early in the year because they are resistant to cold temperatures.  Sow your carrot seeds directly in the garden as early as the soil can be worked.  Good soil preparation is important if you want to have good looking carrots.  If there are any sticks or rocks in the top several inches of soil, your carrots will be misshapen because they will have to grow around these obstacles.

After your carrot seeds have germinated, be sure to thin them out early, while the plants are still small.  For the best tasting carrots, harvest the plants while they are still young.  If carrots stay in the soil too long, they will become tough and less flavorful.

Read the rest of this entry