Living in a rural community many backyards include a garden. Some are large and filled with many varieties of vegetables. Others are small, with maybe just a few tomato and pepper plants. It is an undeniable fact that fresh garden vegetables are the tastiest. Many good southern cooks rely on homegrown vegetables to deliver flavor and variety to the supper table. One cannot find that flavor from the grocery store produce aisle. Growing a vegetable garden takes some time, work, and commitment to make it flourish and produce. However, it is well worth it.
The first step to growing a vegetable garden is designing your garden and picking out the location. A simple plan makes garden veggies easier. You can sketch on a notepad or piece or piece of paper to label or put down any structures you want such as raised beds. Also, pay attention to your yard especially where you get the most amount of sunlight. Generally, most of the crops that you are going to grow are going to do well in full sun. You want to be aware of your sun and shade patterns. For instance, how much sun the plants receive in the morning as opposed to the afternoon. Another thing you should also take into consideration is seasonal changes. The sun shines differently in March than it does in August, therefore you want your veggies to be in the sunniest location. With a simple plan, it is easy to lay out your vegetable garden and know where everything is going to go and grow.
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The next step is testing your soil followed by soil preparation. A major part of organic gardening is healthy rich soil. In order to know how to build your soil, a soil test is critical. A soil test is going to tell you exactly what your garden already has and what it needs. The quality of your soil sample is going to make a huge difference in the accuracy of your soil test. Regardless of whether you are trying to grow a beautiful yard or tomatoes in the garden, taking an accurate soil sample is the only way to truly know your soil nutrient status and pH. An easy way to test your soil is by grabbing a couple of glass jars. You want to fill these jars with soil from different areas around the property. Soil nutrients can vary across the landscape, so it’s important to obtain soil cores that are representative of the entire sampling area. The ideal soil core depth will be dependent on what you are growing in the soil. Once you collect the soil samples, you should go ahead and number the jars to keep a good track of which is which. Fill the jars with water, seal them tightly, and give them a good shake. This will suspend all the material in the water. The heaviest materials will sink to the bottom followed by the lighter materials. This will provide you with a good crosscut of your soil based on the different components that make up that soil. Once your samples have completely settled (usually takes a few days) take a ruler and put it against the side of the jar to measure the depth of the soil sample. You could also use a soil testing kit. Take soil samples from different areas of your lawn and add each soil sample to its own tube filling it up to the first line. Make sure not to add any large particles to the tube. Then you want to add distilled or filtered water till the tube is almost all the way full. Tap water contains a lot of added salts which might give you a false result. Now once you shake the solution very well with the soil, you let it stand for a minute or so. Once the soil settles down you need to match the color of the solution on the top with the PH level. A good pH level is a major part of growing a healthy garden.
The pH scale reads from 0 to 14, with a pH of 7 being considered neutral. A pH value below 7 indicates that the soil is trending more acidic, whereas values above 7 indicate the soil is trending more alkaline.
You can prepare the soil by either using a tiller, a shovel, or a digging fork. If your soil is less compacted, using a shovel or a digging fork can be substituted for tilling. Before the actual preparation process, it is ideal to cover the area of your garden with a piece of plastic to solarize and warm up the soil. Warm-weather veggies love to be planted in warm soil. It can also protect your soil from getting waterlogged if it rains often. The first thing you want to do is loosen the soil. While you are loosening the soil remove any weeds or rocks. Then you want to amend and add any nutrients back into the soil. You can add compost or worm castings which contain the basic nutrients your plants need to grow you lots of veggies. It also adds organic matter back into the soil. You can make your own compost, purchase it in bulk, or buy it bagged at garden centers. Then just mix the compost and soil together. Preparing the soil will make planting easy and will increase your chances for a successful garden.
The final step is selecting and planting what crops you want to grow. Some easy vegetables to grow for beginners are cherry tomatoes, shard, and chili peppers. Cherry tomatoes are not as big as regular tomatoes, but they produce a lot more over a much longer season. Shard is a good, cold, hardy crop that can grow just about anywhere. Chili peppers are usually smaller than sweet peppers so they’re easier to contain, great in containers and small spaces. You want to select seeds for the current year. This way the seeds are as viable as possible. Make sure to keep them in a dark, dry, and cool place until you are ready to plant them. Before you are going to plant your seeds you should soak them in water for half an hour so they can swell up and get ready to germinate. Then you want to plant them in your seed tray or in the ground. It is ideal to plant seeds two times as deep as they are wide. For example, if a seed was about a quarter-inch wide, it goes down about a half-inch. Just keep planting and after a couple of weeks, you should see success.
As soon as you reap your first harvest, you will be rewarded for all your hard work, planning, and preparation. There is no replacement for the fresh taste of a ripe tomato just picked off the vine. There is satisfaction in knowing where your food came from and that it is truly organic. Garden vegetables are healthier because they have more vitamins and minerals than their supermarket counterparts. Raising a vegetable garden is a worthwhile investment of your time and energy.
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