Vegetable gardening offers a variety of benefits that will enrich your life in so many ways! In addition to enhancing mealtime with fresh homegrown vegetables that you grew yourself, tending the garden is great for the body. It gets you outside in the fresh air and sunshine where you can get a little closer to nature while enjoying the simple things in life.
It’s important to grow food, not lawns!
The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible
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Growing a vegetable garden is also great exercise. Tending to and harvesting the plants require a considerable amount of bending and stooping that can help you stay in shape. It’s a great way to clear your head, which enhances mental clarity while improving your self-esteem. After all, sitting down and enjoying delicious foods you grew yourself is very rewarding.
However, growing a vegetable garden is a lot of work. It takes planning and preparation to ensure your garden thrives but don’t let that deter you from getting started.
All you need is a little guidance and a few great ideas to help you get started and that is exactly what we have to offer.
The first step in growing a garden involves choosing a location for your plants. Your garden should be close to a water source and have good drainage to prevent standing water from rotting your plants. The location should also allow your plants to receive several hours of direct sunlight to help keep them healthy.
Here, you’ll find some great garden layout ideas and raised gardening plans to help you choose the perfect spot and options for your garden.
You’ll also discover some great tips on which vegetables grow best in the spring, along with tips on how to grow vegetables such as cucumbers, beets, basil, broccoli, and spinach. You can even find information on what to do if you end up with too many tomatoes to eat, so nothing goes to waste.
This is an excellent place to learn about composting and how it benefits your garden. Discover how trench composting works or learn how to compost with worms to help your vegetables grow healthy and thrive.
Pests are a common problem that all gardeners small and large dread. They can do a lot of damage to the vegetables you worked so hard to grow but don’t worry. Here, you can get some great tips on how to get pests such as slugs, snails, caterpillars and hornworms out of your garden without using harsh chemicals.
You can also learn how to protect your garden from animals such as deer, cats, dogs, moles, squirrels and birds that can destroy it in a few short days.
Not having enough space is another problem that keeps many people from enjoying the benefits of vegetable gardening. If you’re dealing with limited space, this is a great place to gather tips and ideas for small space gardening. Learn how vertical gardening works or how to grow a living wall. You can also discover which vegetables grow best in small gardens or learn how and where to grow vegetables indoors for the best results.
The legume family is a large and diverse group of plants that includes beans, peas, lentils, soybeans, and peanuts. Legumes are unique because they have the unusual ability to add nutrients to the soil, and as such, they are often referred to as green manure. So, it’s important to learn how to grow legumes, both …
There are several health benefits of asparagus and why you should try to add this spear-like plant food to your dinner plate whenever you can. This tasty vegetable will: help keep your immune system healthy. lower your cholesterol help prevent diabetes, cancer, heart disease and then some Okay, so maybe you don’t care much for …
Ever heard of stinging nettles? They are not only delicious but also good for you! We pick ours from the riverbank in town, but if you have the right conditions, learn how to grow stinging nettle: you’ll love it for teas, green smoothies, casseroles, and soups. How To Grow Stinging Nettle Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) …
Orach (Atriplex hortensis) is a cool-weather green from the amaranth family. Sometimes known as saltbush, orach has a mild yet tangy flavor that is often compared to spinach. Orach produces arrow-shaped leaves that can vary in color from green to deep red. The plants grow upright and can reach six feet in height. If you …
The conversations around pruning tomato plants can be dizzying! Some gardeners say definitely do, while others say don’t bother. And the methods vary as well: remove entire branches, cut just the tips of branches, prune at certain times, prune throughout the season, and so on. This can all leave you wondering not only how to …
Discover new methods for growing your own vegetables with these backyard vegetable garden ideas and tips. Few things are more satisfying than walking through the garden on a summer day and plucking a sun-ripened tomato from the vine to enjoy the warm, juicy burst of flavor on your tongue or harvesting fresh ingredients for a …
Although not common among household vegetable gardens, sweet potatoes are relatively easy to grow, with drought tolerance and few problems. These native American vegetables also last for months when properly stored and provide high amounts of vitamin A, C, and E, as well as calcium, potassium, and antioxidants. Plus, the entire plant is edible: the …
As the short, cold days of winter drag on, slowly lengthening, our fingers itch to dig in warm, crumbly soil again. We flip eagerly through seed catalogs and longingly inventory the packets left over from last year, tucked into plastic tubs or shoeboxes or old biscuit tins. But we don’t have to stop there; many …
Beans are among the easiest vegetables to grow, and they’re one of my favorite garden standbys. But did you know that they also make great container plants? No matter which variety you like best, you can grow it even with limited space once you learn a few tips on how to grow beans in containers. …
Potatoes are a surprisingly easy and nutrient-rich addition to container gardens. Here’s how to grow potatoes in containers, so you can enjoy them even when you don’t have a lot of garden space. These Peruvian vegetables provide healthy amounts of iron, potassium, vitamin B6, and vitamin C, according to the United States Potato Board, and …
