One of the most enjoyable and cost effective hobbies for you to engage in is the raising of a vegetable garden. Not only does this provide you with a hobby and a creative outlet, but it also provides you and your family with high quality and fresh vegetables at a minimum of cost. If this hobby appeals to you, then read this article, as it attempts to provide you with seven simple tips for you to create a productive vegetable garden.
As with anything else, in gardening, you need to start at the bottom. You can not expect to just be able to plant seeds in the dirt behind your home and end up with a high quality garden. You need to amend and feed your soil to ensure that your plants will produce high quality vegetables. Start by fertilizing your soil, then you will be ready to plant.
You should locate your garden in a spot that will allow your plants ample sunlight. Different plants require different amounts of sunlight, so arrange your garden with the full sun plants in the southern edge of your garden and the partial sun plants on the northern edge.
Pay close attention to the recommended amount of water that your plants should receive. Do not under water, but certainly do not over water. Water deeply rather than frequently.
You should ensure that you soil has good drainage. Test this by watering your garden and watching to see how quickly the water drains. If it is very slow, you should dig down beneath your garden and add large rocks about the size of your fist in a four inch thick layer eighteen inches below the surface.
Once you have your garden started, you should use mulch. Mulch not only keeps moisture in the soil, but it also prevents soil erosion due to wind and rain.
Just like many other hobbies, when you start with gardening you should start small. Pick one or two plants that are easy to grow and that will provide you with a vegetable that you enjoy eating. This will keep you motivated and will prevent you from being discouraged. One or two plants is far more manageable than a garden with dozens of different vegetables growing at the same time.
A great idea is to plant garlic throughout your vegetable garden. Not only is garlic great tasting and easy to grow, it is also an insect repellent. Because it takes up such a small amount of space, you can plant it nearly everywhere in your garden.
Use a trellis to allow vertical climbing of vine vegetables. This will allow you more production from less space.
Hopefully, this article has provided you with some information that you can use to help make your garden more productive and more enjoyable. Along with the knowledge you gained from this article, you should start keeping a journal to help you keep track of your successes and failures in order to make next year more successful than this year. Pretty soon you will be an expert gardener.
