Archive for February, 2009

How to Start a Fruit and Vegetable Garden

Friday, February 27th, 2009

“How to Start a Fruit and Vegetable Garden”

Vegetable gardening can be a very rewarding experience. But if you’ve never had a vegetable garden before, the task can seem overwhelming. Here are several easy ways to start your first fruit or vegetable garden.

First, some vegetable gardening basics. Most vegetables need full sun, well-tilled soil, and the right fertilizers to bear fruit (or vegetables). Using the wrong soil enhancements will cause your plants to produce leaves and flowers, but little fruit. Most vegetables need long and deep water – water the roots, not the leaves. Pick your harvest regularly to encourage more fruit or vegetables. Finally, know when to plant, and when to harvest. This information will be found on the seed packet or the plant container. As you gain more experience, you will be able to rotate crops based on how early they mature.

One of the easiest ways to begin to grow vegetables is in a container. Buy your plant from a good nursery – don’t try and start with seeds. Select a planter large enough to hold the full grown plant, and fill with potting soil made for vegetables. Follow the directions on the plant container for watering and sunlight needs. Plants that do well in containers include tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, and peppers.

Seeds are usually more difficult to start a vegetable garden with than plants. But, there are some seeds that are easier to germinate than others. Carrots, lettuce, and peas, beans are all easy seeds to plant and harvest in your vegetable garden. You can plant the seeds directly in the ground, and keep them well-watered until they sprout. Thin according to the package directions, and harvest at the proper time.

Another easy way to start a vegetable garden is to pick a few easy vegetables to grow, and start with plants, not seeds. You will need to choose an area of your yard that receives at least six to eight hours of sun light.

Prepare your vegetable garden by breaking up the soil with a rototiller or a cultivator hand tool depending on the size of your garden. Add organic material such as compost if your soil has a lot of clay, mix in some sand and peatmoss.

Now, decide which plants you will start your vegetable garden with. Once you know how big the mature plants will be, then you can figure out how many vegetable plants you can grow in your vegetable garden according to the space you have prepared. Vegetable and fruit plants that are easy to grow include tomatoes, squash, peppers, herbs, cucumbers, and strawberries.

So you are interested in growing a fruit garden. Start by choosing the type of fruit you know you will enjoy for years to come, read up on these variety of fruit and make sure they will grow in your environment were you live. For instance: Apple trees, Peach trees, blueberry bushes, black raspberry bushes, raspberry bushes and strawberries grow well in the North East. Trees and shrubs can also be an easy way to start fruit gardening. Keep in mind these varieties require different soil conditions and proper spacing to allow for proper air flow and healthy growth.

Blueberries require a very acid soil for healthy growth, especially high bush blueberries. Raspberries require large amount of space and once established will spread very quickly.

Start with one fruit tree or if you prefer, start with a couple of raspberry bushes or blueberry bushes, help them get established then see how these plants produce for you. If your fruit trees or fruit shrubs do well then move on to another variety. Plan ahead of time knowing that in the long run you plan on adding more fruit trees and fruit shrubs to your fruit garden leaving ample space for future fruit plants.

The benefits of growing your own fruit plants, once they have become established, is you won’t have to worry about planting new ones every year. Your plants will continue to produce fruit for you time after time provided you maintain your fruit garden on a regular basis. Be sure to prune, water and fertilize when necessary.

The time you spend correctly planting these plants in your fruit garden and maintaining them will more then pay off for you in the years to come.

There’s nothing better than fresh from the garden produce, and hopefully these ideas will help you start an easy vegetable (and fruit!) garden.

This article on How to Start a Fruit and Vegetable Garden is brought to you by www.backyard-gardening.com


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Creating a Hot Bed

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

“Creating a Hot Bed”

A well-constructed hot-bed, well cared for, will enable the gardener to have vegetables of certain kinds nearly a month earlier than he can hope to have if he depends on the garden for them.

The location of the hot-bed is a matter of considerable importance. It should be on a soil that has good drainage, in a place well sheltered from wind, and fully exposed to the sun. It should also be near the house, for convenience in giving it frequent attention.

Let me say, right here, that the idea that almost anything in the shape of a pile of manure with a few boards about it and a covering of sash will answer all the purposes of a hotbed, as well as a more carefully constructed arrangement would be considered wrong.

To accomplish successful work you want to avoid cutting corners. Otherwise you will be creating a recipe for failure before you even get started.

A make-shift hotbed or cold frame is not one in which you will be likely to grow good plants,but will be a constant source of annoyance to you, and will very likely be the cause of entire failure in the growing of seedlings for early planting out. Therefore build with a view to successful results.

Fresh horse manure or cow manure, mixed with litter from bedding, is the material most generally made use of to furnish the heat required in the hot-bed. A quantity of this material is spread on the site selected for the hot-bed, covering a space somewhat larger than the bed itself is expected to be. Spread it in layers a few inches in depth, and tramp down each layer before another is added.

When the pile is eighteen inches or two feet in depth, finish off by rounding it over in such a manner that it will shed rain, or cover it with a waterproof cloth. Leave it in this condition for a few days till fermentation sets in. This can be told by a warm moisture which will be seen rising from it. The mass should then be well forked over,
shaking out the long straw, as this is done, and made into another compact heap, as at first. In two or three days it will give evidence of further heating.

After this it is likely to be in a condition for final disposition in the bed. As the manure is now thrown into shape, pack it down well, making it as uniformly compact as possible. It is quite important that the foundation should have considerable solidity, as you will soon discover that a heap of loose litter amounts to next to nothing for hot-bed purposes.

There should be not less than two feet of this material. The frame, which the wise gardener will have constructed in advance of the season, should now be put in place, and fitted with sash. Bank up well outside the frame with coarse manure, firmly packed down. Allow the sash to remain in place until strong heat is generated.

When this begins to decrease and the thermometer does not register more than 85 or 90, cover the manure inside the frame with about six inches of the finest soil you can obtain. When this is done, the bed is ready for use.

This article on Creating a Hot Bed is brought to you by www.backyard-gardening.com

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Starting Vegetable Seeds in Your House

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

“Starting Vegetable Seeds in Your House”

The only way to have very early vegetables is to take time with both
hands by the reins and start seeds indoors while the ground is still
cold.

In the Northern States it is especially important to make an early
start, when starting seeds in your house, if vegetables like tomatoes,
eggplants, cauliflower, early cabbages, celery and peppers are desired.

Of course there is some advantage in having a hotbed, but its operation
involves too much skill and requires too much attention to make it
suitable for use in the backyard garden.

Starting seeds in your house using your kitchen space is a much simpler
matter, and the results are likely to be satisfactory if the started plants
can be set in a cold frame later.

Garden shops use what they call flats, which are merely shallow
boxes the right size to be handled easily, and about two inches
high. Anyone can make good substitutes for flats by obtaining a
few old boxes at the grocery store and cutting them down to the
right size.

The boxes should be filled with good garden loam, with which a
very little sand has been mixed. Or sterile planting media such
as vermiculite.

If soil is available, then it is advisable for you to put the boxes
of soil into the oven of the kitchen stove until it has become
thoroughly heated. This will kill the weed seeds and save you so much
trouble later on. However It is not recommended that you bake the soil
too long.

When starting vegetable seeds in your house, you will find some seeds are
very fine and only need to be pressed into the soil, and a little sand then,
can be sprinkled over the seeds. Furrows for the larger seeds can be made
with the point of a pencil, and should be about an inch and a half apart.

Many beginners have difficulty in watering their seed boxes after
the seed has been planted. One plan is to set the box in a pan of water
and let the water soak through from the bottom.

A much better plan, when starting seeds in your house, is to get a piece of
tissue paper, just the size of the box, and lay it on the soil. If water is then
applied lightly to the paper, it will gradually soak through and the seeds will
not be washed away.

There will be no need to remove the paper, from youe seeds that have been
started in your house. The paper will have become so thoroughly water
soaked by the time the little plants appear, that they will easily push their
way through.

It is best to keep a clear cover over the box so light can shine through
until the seedlings started in your house, emerge from the soil, the box
can then be set in a warm place like the back of your stove.

The clear cover may be removed once the seedlings have burst through the
soil and the box can then, be placed in a sunny window.

As soon as possible the little plants should be thinned out so that they
will not touch. Once your plants have made their first true leaves, or in
some cases even earlier, they should be transplanted to other flats, or
better still, to paper pots which can be set close together in any box.

The principal advantage of using paper pots for your vegetable seeds in
your house is so the plants can be set into the ground, when large enough,
without disturbing the roots. The paper pots do not need to be removed, for
they will eventually rot away, and while they remain in the soil, the sides will
also form a barrier to keep away any cutworms that could endanger any
started plants.

If you have a cold frame which can be used through April,then tomato plants
and pepper plants may be started as early as the first of March indoors.
All the other seedlings can be started after the fifteenth of March.

If you keep your started vegetable seedlings in the house too long,
the plants are apt to become spindly. They will make better growth in a
cold frame which can be opened on warm days.

For the beginning backyard gardener who has only a very small garden, will
probably buy started plants, and perhaps this is the best plan for the
beginning backyard gardener.

This article on How to Start Vegetable Seeds in Your House is brought to you by www.backyard-gardening.com

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