Vegetable Gardening for Beginners

Vegetable gardening is easy and simple to do. All you need is a good garden spot or even a few containers--anything that will allow you to plant a few seeds and grow vegetable plants. There is a certain satisfaction that comes with growing your own vegetables, having nurtured them from seed and sampled the end result. As you grow more confident at growing simple-to-grow vegetables, you may want to expand the size of your garden spot and raise other fruits and vegetables such as melons, okra, green beans and pumpkins, birdhouse gourds and peanuts. Garden space and water availability play a major part in determining what and how you grow your garden. Remember that your garden loves water and will require at least 1 inch of water per week. After a significant amount of rainfall, your plants will seem to get a growth spurt. This is due to nitrogen in the rainwater.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Vegetable seeds

1. Have loose, loamy soil with plenty of depth to allow roots to penetrate deeply to take up enough nutrients to allow the plant to reach its maximum potential. The more compost and other organic material you add to your soil, the better nutrition your plants will grow.

2. Dig a 10-by-10 foot garden, enough room to plant a few rows of easy-to-grow vegetables, or prepare several large container pots with a mixture of loamy soil enriched with compost. Make certain the soil is deep enough for good root penetration. Keep your garden spot away from trees since they have a vast root system that extends their entire width. Tree roots suck up copious amounts of water, and your vegetable garden will suffer.

3. Plant marigold flowers around the perimeter of your garden spot to deter rabbits from dining on your vegetables. Mixing horse manure into your garden soil is said to deter deer from browsing on your succulent new shoots.

4. Tie garden twine to sticks and use that as a guide to keep straight rows while you are sowing your garden seeds. Radishes should be planted 4 inches apart in one row. Zucchini seeds should be planted sparingly in a small garden, since they spread easily and will take over; they need a space of at least 2 square feet each.

5. Plant kale seeds in one row about 1 foot apart. Kale grows tall, and as long as it gets enough water, it doesn't require any special attention. Lettuce may be sown in a row; any variety grows well, especially Simpson's Elite, which is a lovely bright green color and seems to have no enemies.

6. Sow tomato seeds. Cherry tomatoes work well in containers or in a small garden. Larger varieties, such as Big Boy, require much more space to spread out, and they need staking. Your cherry tomato plants may need staking or cages to climb up and around, depending on their variety.

Tips & Warnings

• Hand-pick hornworms on tomato plants if you discover them--they are easy to miss since they are bright green and blend in with green tomatoes and their foliage.
• Use a weak solution of dish soap diluted with water to spot-spray any pests you discover on your vegetable plants.

Resources

• Bountiful Gardens: Buy untreated heirloom seeds
• Organic Seed website
• Green People: Directory of green seed companies
• Organic everything from Dirtworks

[angma]

on 6/9/2009 Cherry tomatoes can get up to 14 feet tall... an EXTREMELY mistaken assumption is that they can be grown in containers. They are generally very large plants. That little speck of misinformation makes me want to disregard this entire article. Do some research next time, please. My black cherry toms and yellow pear toms are already 4 ft. tall and continue to grow. Their root systems are already huge. Other than "dwarf" or "patio" varieties (in general) putting tomatoes--especially indeterminate varieties--will lead to a very sad and root bound plant.