First Things First!
-The Reasoning And Inspiration Behind Gardening And ----Cultivating Your Own Home-Grown Vegetable Patch -What You Will Need For Your Home Garden Some see gardening as a hobby, relaxation, a way to get close(r) or back to nature, slow down, keep busy, spend time outdoors, lead a balanced life and just enjoy something active, associating with growth and life, even therapy or shared family moments! Regardless of what brings you to this wonderful age-old tradition and activity, gardening offers something for everyone. For others, it is a means of making the family budget work, with some additional fresh produce to bring the bounty of nature to the tables and plates of a needy family wanting to live healthier lives. If you do have some space in your backyard to dedicate to small vegetable gardening patch, make the most of it this season and recapture some of the lost traditions and proud home-making crafts and hobbies of times and eras past and long gone, when people lived simpler, less hectic lives. Experience creating something unique with the help of mother nature that you can eat, relish and enjoy! Back to simpler times and simple methods. Some gardening tools might have changed throughout the ages, but certainly the tilling and toiling, digging, preparing, seeding, watering, weeding, trimming and gardening per se have not! For the most part, we seed, plant, water, weed and pick in the same fashion as we have always done. For many it still makes sense to save money by planting, growing, cultivating, caring for, sharing and enjoying the fruits (and vegetables!) of their hands and labor. A task and labor of love require patience and persistence. Not only are you saving money when planting and harvesting your veggies and fruits at home, you know that they are organic for the most part. When ripe and picked, they are at the peak of their freshness and perfection and not stuck being imported, transported, chilled and somewhat wilted, stuck on a shelf for a day or two, by the time you get to bring them home from the grocer or big-box store! Fresh is hard to beat. When it comes to off the vines, from the ground, trees , washed, trimmed, eaten raw, steamed or lightly cooked to preserve all the nutrients, they are so much better than store-bought! So cheaper and better? Cannot go wrong here! Home gardening and backyard vegetable patches provide you with a sense of satisfaction and reward beyond saving money! You make in investment in yourself, your nutrition and your health. You also contribute to ensuring your family gets the freshest, juiciest veggies picked at their prime and served with immediacy to get the most nutritional value and taste from them you possibly can. Enjoying nature’s gifts in this fashion is a great way to cultivate a love of life and good food too. You will not be sacrificing quality, value and worth one bit! It will be worth every penny spent in time, labor and effort! Some of the offerings from seeds are also not available in the grocery or vegetable sections of most modern stores. Some varieties are unique and organic, offering you healthy alternatives that are pesticide free and not genetically altered in any way. Typically, some of these are not viable for commercial growers, so we do not see them as often. You have the wonderful opportunity of donning your veggie-rows at home, customized and personalized to your preference and choice! These days, most of us do not have full time, dedicated gardeners, so we do the next best thing. WE BECOME BACKYARD VEGETABLE GROWERS OF EXCELLENCE! An added bonus is the lifestyle change it brings with it. The bonus of fresh air, sunlight, being outdoors, doing something physical (which our bodies are designed to do best!), moving around and spending quiet time, busying ourselves with something else than work, family and hectic living, is good for a balanced, all-round healthier life. Spending time tilling and toiling in the sand, amidst the trees, sun and shade, clear blue sky and gentle breeze. Watching for rain, caring for seeds, weeding and watering, all relaxes and feeds the soul! Later, as summer rolls round, you will be greatly rewarded again with the fruits/veggies of your hand and labor. From garden to table! Home vegetable gardening is not only about saving money, getting the freshest veggies possible, but also about good, happy and healthy living all-round! It is the ‘cheapest’ therapy around! It just asks for will, commitment and care, some hard hand-in old-style labor and honest day’s work. Far gone are the days that this is how breadwinners provided for their family’s needs, but you can recapture some of the wonderful benefits of this age-old tradition here and now today, in your own backyard. Start a new family tradition of your very own! You can teach your children about the wonder of life, growth and nature. Rekindle your relationship with the world and life around you and re-energize your spirit, to be in touch and one with nature and creation, of which we are such a great part. We all know the best way to get to know or master something is to get to it! So, without delay, we invite you outside…let us go vegetable gardening! Grab your hat, gloves and gardening shoes, put on the sun block, sunglasses and step outside…Look around you. Where would be a good, sunny, partially shady spot ideal for a vegetable patch? Found your corner? Let us get started then. There are many opinions as to where the best or ‘perfect’ spot for a garden should be. It does not have to be ‘hidden’ away or the most unsightly spot on your property. If it is well planned, laid out, positioned and cared for, it can add quite some ambience to your dwellings. There is nothing more homely than a homegrown garden, showing off your green thumb and outdoor prowess! For most of our urban-style properties, we will be lucky to find some space and sometimes we cannot be too meticulous and have to make the most of what we have at our disposal in the end. For larger properties, sometimes picking a spot behind the garage, next to a boundary-fence, at the far-end of the property or close to outbuildings will make the most sense. For city-type properties, some even resort to ‘container’ style or conservatory-type gardens to optimize their homegrown vegetables. The choice of location is really up to you. Pick what you will be comfortable with, as it will form part of the landscape and surroundings you spend time in and look at every day. Pick a spot that is easy to get to and that gets some sunlight throughout the day. Plants need sun and water, as well as good soil to grow and thrive. Try to create an environment most conducive to these requirements. Stack all odds in favor of the plant growth and you are all set for success. Also, make it easy for you to get to. If you are going to spend a lot of time working, watering, weeding and caring for your vegetable patch and backyard garden, good accessibility and the shortest route possible to get to /in your garden is essential. Exposure to sun, shade, wind, the elements and all weather nature can throw at you and your vegetable garden, is a crucial success factor and one of the first major criteria for any location you might realistically have in mind. Making the most of sunlight throughout the day as well as providing shelter against cold winds and frost can all contribute to having your vegetable garden more than merely survive, bear fruit and reward your efforts and troubles. Slight slopes, facing east or south are considered best for backyard vegetable gardens. If you do choose to give it some shelter, using a back-building wall of fence to shelter, it from the elements will go a long way to protect your young plants and garden-in-the-making. To get it off to an early good start consider protecting it from invasion or too much exposure either way by light coverings or fencing. You can even invest in a living fence or hedging to protect and beautify it even further. As a newcomer to home-gardening and growing vegetables in your backyard, we oftentimes overlook these simple fundamentals and basics and then do not understand why our veggies are not ‘growing’ as well. All these factors interplay and feed off one another to create the best and most welcoming environment for your plants to grow and thrive in. Whether you are an amateur or seasoned outdoor gardening enthusiast, paying a little more attention to the small details will go a long way in guaranteeing your successful backyard gardening and fresh vegetables all season long. It takes both planning and execution to make this one work well! Other considerations include the ground or soil that the plants are expected to root and grow in and from. It almost goes without saying that in most urban areas, you will have to pay some close attention to the soil as they will not be ‘user’ or plant ready off the bat, or naturally fertile ground for plant-life. With all the products available these days from home gardening center, farm-cooperatives and even local farmers (like manure etc.), it will not take much to create the perfect environment for your vegetable patch and/or backyard produce garden. These ‘gardens’ or patches are typically smaller in size and scope and does not require that much square footage of feed, soil or products, so it is still cost-effective and worthwhile to do and consider. Pure, uncultivated, even building sand or fillers (after residential development) are quite common on our modern properties. They will require some detailed preparation and upgrade PRIOR to starting any planting of any kind. This will be your first taste of what it takes to be a backyard vegetable gardener. This is where the real work starts. Healthy or fertile soil (or more specifically the lack thereof) does not have to be a deterrent or leave you discouraged. There are many options for feeding and upgrading the soil to be very fertile and welcoming to plant-life of all shapes, sizes and challenges. YOU CAN RISE TO THE CHALLENGE! Throw your energy and early dedication into this aspect of your veggie patch and you will be pleasantly surprised by your results down the line. Cultivation and feeding, and all other related forms of soil preparation, should also not be underestimated. It can make or break the success of your garden! Some avid gardeners have described the perfect growing environments and mixtures of soil as a “rich-looking, textured, sandy loam.” Typically, you will not be merely finding these fertile breeding grounds, you will have to build it from the ground up so to speak. bit, by bit. You are working on creating the perfect environment for plants to sprout, root, grow and thrive. Plants need nutrition, feeding, care and cultivation, as well as watering and sunshine. Accessible nutrients in the soil are a key ingredient for your growth recipe for success for any and all backyard vegetable gardening. Availability of these plant-foods and nutrients are part of your set-up and preparation steps that cannot be overlooked or underestimated. It is the one thing you need to absolutely pay attention to for your garden to thrive, bear your lots of produce, and reward later down the line. What you put in, you will get out! You are preparing a feast and food-store for your plants. You are placing within their sprouting and rooting tips all the sustenance they require. term, in one word, “available” plant food. You are adding and feeding the soil with what the plants will need through out their life cycle to give you the best harvest possible. Cultivation and care is essential, making these foods available airing and digging, ensuring optimal absorption, drainage and more and continued feeding or addition of foods from the outside to ensure optimal growth. A “sandy” , grain-like texture is essential for good absorption of water, drainage and providing the optimal fertile ‘ground’ for your plants to survive, thrive and bear produce in and over time. Not too dry, not too wet is a good rule of thumb. Not too much clay, not too much dry dust. Just enough sandy particles to provide a good growing environment. Darker rich soil is typically deemed more fertile and enriched. Take a very close and detailed look at the soil in the location you had selected. Does it look like somewhere where plants will thrive? Ensure that there is a good clay/dust relationship in your soil and that it is well fed and cultivated, creating the perfect environment for your plants. Watering and effective drainage, absorption rates are other factors that are often underestimated by the beginner gardener. Some of this can be effectively addressed already by/with the choice of location itself. Digging around in the soil in your perfect or selected spot for your vegetable garden will hold some valuable clues as to what lies beneath the surface and some of the challenges you might already have regarding these aspects. Plants need water to grow as well. Try to find a sub-surface that is a little ‘harder’ typically, different from the darker, cultivated upper layers or surface soil/ Avoid too much clay-like soils beneath where roots might rot and absorption will be poor. Again, a sloped garden seems to be the best solution. Shape and size of your garden, with easy access to it from at least two sides can be extremely helpful to you. Another consideration is how close and reachable watering sources are. For the more adventurous amongst us and space no trouble, consider two garden patches, enabling rotation and a wide variety throughout the season. Taking care of these consideration beforehand and prior to staring any serious planting will save you lots of agony down the line. Paying close attention to the little details will serve you well in the long run. The more you plan and prepare well, the better off you will be down the line. |
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