Beginner' s Guide to start a Home Garden (2)

As we all know, home gardening is a never ending fun. Moreover, home gardening is right on so many levels – it saves money, helps save the planet and satisfies our hunger pangs. As it was discussed in previous post that it is an opportunity to grow interesting flavours fresher than money can buy. It is the key to children being more adventurous and experimental with the food. You know if they grow it, they may it too (most probably). And that' s exciting.

In the last post, you have been updated about how to start out the home gardening – but here is what more you need to know.

How to Design Your Garden

There are usually two approaches to start your home garden:

Row Cropping

This is probably what seems to be the most suitable option when you think to plant a garden with vegetables: you place plants in rows, with a walking path between each row. Row cropping works best for large gardens – as it makes easier to use mechanical equipments. The downside of row cropping is that you cannot get as many vegetables from small space.

Intensive Cropping

This method includes cropping in wide bands, generally 1-4 feet across and as long as you like. Intensive cropping reduces the amount of area needed for paths, but the closer spacing means you have to weed by hand. Because of hand work, you must remember not to make the bands wider than you can comfortably reach. Intensive cropping also allows you to design your vegetable garden – making it a good choice, if you want to grow vegetables in front yard.

Digging the Soil Beds

Loosen the soil before you plant vegetables. Once the soil has been loosened, spread compost and mix them into the soil. Avoid stepping on freshly tilled soil for as long as possible. Otherwise, you will be compacting the soil and undoing all your hard work.

Choosing the Right Variety

Once you prepare the garden, it is high time to decide what to plant in a garden and probably, you will notice that the possibilities are endless. You may not know that there are thousands of tomato varieties alone! When selecting varieties, pay close attention to the description of vegetables. Remember, every variety will be slightly different from the other. Some produce smaller plants, while others offer disease resistance or better heat or cold tolerance.

Harvesting

This is what it was all about – so don’t be shy about picking your produce. Many vegetables can be harvested at several stages. Leaf lettuce can be picked as young as you like, cucumbers can be harvested when the fruit is a few inches long, or it can be allowed to grow to full size. General rule of home gardening is that if it looks good enough to eat, pluck it and give it a try.

This is all about home gardening – do let us know your experience through comments section.