Plan Your Vegetable Garden For a bountiful crop

 

• Here  are some tried and true methods to help you to abundantly reap what you sow.

• Determine your climate first and foremost. Select the type of vegetables you’ll want to plant  and how they will grow if you are living in a tropical, temperate or cold climate.

• You should not plant heat loving vegetables like tomatoes or peppers, corn, potatoes and eggplant when you can expect a frost after winter’s end.    (READ MORE) 
  
     

Preparation for planting

 EARTH~WIND~WATER

EARTH~WIND~WATER

When you have determined which vegetables you want to plant and have chosen where you will grow them, there are still some preparation details to complete before you plant them.

1. Determine the quality of the soil you’re starting with. The best way is to purchase an inexpensive soil testing kit. The easy-to-perform tests will provide accurate information on nutrient levels, pH and other helpful data.

2. With the help of a testing kit you can find out if your soil contains more acidity or alkalinity (pH levels). Once you determine this you can regulate the levels with the addition of small amounts of sulfur or lime. Some plants flourish in slightly alkaline earth and some thrive in slightly acidic soil. If you plant around or between trees their fall out can effect the pH of the soil beneath them. A medium pH level between 6.0-6.5 is best for most vegetables.  (READ MORE)

 

“LOVE APPLES” ~~ “GOLDEN APPLES”
 

These were the first names applied to TOMATOES as we know them today.


One of the first persons to grow tomatoes in America was, as one would expect, Thomas Jefferson, but we do not know where he got them. One report suggests that they came here from an Italian painter who is known to have attempted to popularize the tomato in Salem, Massachusetts, without success: his neighbors were afraid even to taste it in 1802. Thomas Jefferson, however, was raising tomatoes by 1781 at the latest, and he wrote in 1782 that they were common in Virginia private gardens. (READ MORE)

 

creating compost
 

an ancient tradition

 As early as Pliny the Elder (AD 23 – 79), a Roman author and naturalist, refers to composting in his writings as a traditional practice carried out by Roman farmers.

Shakespeare refers to compost in his play Hamlet: “do not spread the compost on the weeds to make them ranker” act3. Scene 4 circa~~1601  alluding to the nurturing power of compost.

Traditionally, composting was to pile organic materials and let them stand for about a year, or until the next planting season, at which time the materials would be ready for soil application. Creating your own compost is easy and provides an excellent natural fertilizer.    (READ MORE)

 

Going green

Organic gardening is said to be  a  good way to protect the environment with sustainable natural elements that would help to eliminate the need for harmful chemical pesticides and insecticides.

Certainly organic gardening methods have many advantages.  But several traditional and commercial  compounds are safe and effective when properly used. In some cases, the line between organic and inorganic compounds and methods is even a little hard to draw.   (READ MORE)
 

GROW ROBUST PUMPKINS IN  7  EASY WAYS
 

NOT ONLY FOR HALLOWEEN

Pumpkins are grown all around the world for a variety of reasons ranging from agricultural purposes, as feed for livestock, to commercial and ornamental sales.  Among the seven continents, only Antarctica, because of it’s climate,  is unable to produce pumpkins.

The United States, Mexico, India and China are the biggest international pumpkin producers. In America, the traditional pumpkin is the Connecticut field variety and remains one of the most popular crops producing 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins each year.  The top pumpkin producing states in the U. S. include Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California. With 95% of the U.S. crop grown in Illinois.   (READ MORE)

 

are your vegetable plants sick?

 

you can be the plant doctor who saves them

 It’s a jungle out there and plants need health care just like humans.  Keeping your vegetables disease free is an ongoing effort. An effort that employs multiple methods makes this chore easier. The first rule of doctoring is do no harm. Here are some disease control tips to help you heal your plants.

 

 soil preparation and seed selection

 To start with good soil preparation and proper seed selection is essential to produce healthy plants. If you plant seeds, read the back side of those envelopes for instructions on how, when and where to plant. If you transplant, picking healthy plants will keep disease from being introduced and spread. Do some triage (inspection) and remove any diseased plant before it can infect others nearby.      (READ MORE)

 

 

 outdoor   OR    INDOOR

 

Vegetable Gardening

 

Whether you prefer to grow your vegetables indoors or out, there are trade offs involved. Soil type and preparation, watering practice, light control, disease and pest control, and other tasks will differ between the two environments. Which is preferable can only be an individual choice, based on individual circumstances. If you can imagine yourself dressed in a shirt and tie and suit pants with dress shoes instead of jeans or overalls and boots then outdoor gardening may be your desire. However, if you’re going to do it indoors then it really doesn’t matter what you’re wearing.

 

Preparing and maintaining the soil for outdoor vegetable gardening can be a major chore. Nutrients can be exhausted by yearly planting of the same crop. Replenishing the soil with fresh nutrients and rotating of the crops each season is recommended. If this is not done fertilizers get leached away. Soil disease is more difficult to control. Breaking up clay or changing pH in a large area requires considerable effort. This differs from indoor planting because you do save the effort of preparing multiple containers and changing them out.

 

Indoor soil preparation requires less fertilizer, but one has to be more careful to control the amount unless you use commercially prepared potting soil. Special potting soils are being sold today which are designed to control moisture. Without these products the soil has to be prepared precisely in order to provide the right balance between drainage, moisture retention and pH control. Outdoor soil is much more self-regulating because of the changes in weather and climate.

 

More plants are killed by over watering than under watering. It is much more difficult to devise an automatic watering system for indoor gardens unless you have a greenhouse situation where you can pipe in a watering and climate control system. An automatic system such as this would be very costly and messy if it isn't done just right. But if you have only one or two containers and enjoy hand watering, it might well be a negligible effort. Outdoors, a simple and inexpensive drip irrigation system is easy to install and use.

 

In outdoor vegetable gardens there is rarely a problem with adequate sunshine, provided they're planned correctly with the directionality of the sunrise and sunset taken into consideration. In most climates during the summer it's not difficult to give plants the five or more hours they need daily. Inside a greenhouse that can be tricky unless you wish to go to the expense of installing shades which raise and lower at selected times of the day and save yourself the effort. Inside a house, you might have to move plant containers around all day, and finding a single window that receives adequate light without burning the plants can be difficult.

 

Diseases and pests can be a problem in either environment. But fighting them outdoors is decidedly harder. It requires constant vigilance and generally more chemical assistance. Fungi are more likely to grow on the leaves during the night due to accumulated moisture and insects have easier access to lay eggs that become larvae which can destroy the plants.

 

Outdoors, the smell of controls, either in the form of artificial chemicals, organic substances or trap crops can be more unpleasant than many would want indoors. Most insecticides don't have pleasant odors. Even plant-based oils can be overpowering, and they are much more expensive than other types of chemical control.

 

In the end, each grower will have to weigh the pros and cons for his or her particular situation. Either form of vegetable gardening requires effort, but both bring great rewards when done well. There's nothing quite like fresh vegetables for good taste and great health.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright©2010www.my-gardening-site.com