Do you have an unused space in your backyard that hasn’t been used for some time? If you do, then it’s probably time to make something enjoyable and beneficial out of it.
My best tip would be to start a vegetable garden as it’s a great way to use that space and to help with today’s ever increasing food prices.
Not only does it help you save a considerable amount of money during grocery shopping, it also helps your family savor the fun of picking fresh, delicious, flavorful, and nutritious vegetables right in your own garden.
Planting a vegetable garden might sound like a very easy task but the truth is it takes work and step by step planning to get the most from the work you put into getting positive results.
I’ve found there is no better way to introduce our family to healthy eating than engaging them in planting a vegetable garden of our very own.
Three Things Required For Vegetable Gardening
In general, you’ll only require three main things for growing vegetables.
- Healthy soil for strong roots
- 6 hours or more of direct sunshine
- Plenty of water
If you plan your vegetable gardening correctly, your entire family can enjoy the positive experience. I was even able to get our 25 year old son interested in helping us grow vegetables.
Generally, step by step vegetable gardening involves a few things that need planning:
- Deciding what you want to grow
- Determining the amount of garden space you need
- Choosing the best location for getting sun
- Testing your soil
- Breaking ground for your vegetable garden
- Planting your vegetables
- Proper plant care
- Controlling garden pests
- Enjoying the harvest
Yes, there are lots of things to learn but with step by step planning you can avoid the pitfalls of vegetable gardening and is so worth investing your time learning.
What Are You Going To Plant?
For us the choice was easy because we just wanted to plant our favorite vegetables, although each year we like to grow something we haven’t tried growing before. For us it was mostly tomatoes, potatoes and peppers. We also grew peas and beans.
Next year we are growing some hardier vegetables that don’t mind being planted earlier and can handle some of those colder nights early spring. A few examples are:
- Asparagus
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Kale
- Leeks
- Onions
- Peas
- Radish
- Rhubarb
- Spinach
- Turnip
A bit later as the nights aren’t quick so chilly some semi-hardy veggies can be planted, such as:
- Beets
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Lettuce
- Parsley
- Parsnip
- Potato
- Swiss chard
Usually these are good to plant about two weeks after you’ve planted the hardier veggies.
Then you have the more tender vegetables that won’t take any frost so the threat should be gone before you plant those veggies in your garden. So for us this means after June 10th, usually.
Examples of these vegetable include:
- Celery
- Cucumber
- Snap beans
- Summer squash
- Sweet corn
Your Vegetable Garden Needs Lots of Sunlight
Part of your vegetable garden planning should include knowing the path the sun takes over your backyard garden so it’s planted where it can benefit from as much direct sunlight as it can get.
The fact you have planned the location of your vegetable garden to take advantage of sunlight, it’s likely you will need to help with watering your vegetables. This is because it’s not likely you will get rain every day or even weekly and your veggies will certainly suffer if you don’t help Mother Nature get the job done.
We didn’t take into account that the trees along our east property fence would grow so tall so fast and now they block our vegetable garden from getting sunlight before 10 in the morning and the trees on the west side of our property blocks the sun any time after 4 in the afternoon. We’re not sure yet but we may take out a few trees that do block our veggie garden.
I’m James J. Decker, a hobbyist and DIYs and also a big of home improvement and gardening tools. I immensely enjoy how these amazing products improve productivity and efficiency, and allow me to do jobs for which I would’ve otherwise needed professional help.
Loading...