Vegetable Garden Tips

Today I attended an awesome class on vegetable gardening, hosted by Farmington Gardens. It was really fantastic and I learnt quite a bit. Some tips I’d like to pass on

1. If your entire vegetable bed doesn’t have full sun, chose some shade tolerant vegetables. These are dark greens like Spinach, Swiss Chard and other ones like Peas, Lettuce and Onions. Guess what I’m planting this year :)
2. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers are full sun lovers, they will not do well if planted under a tree’s shadow.
3. Do not only use potting soil meant for container gardening, vegetables are heavy feeders. They love their food, so use compost and a good planting soil.
4. Water infrequently but deep. If you water shallow like 1-2 inches of the bed every day, you will only increase your workload as the roots will continue to remain in the first two inches, if you water deep, the roots will go down and retain their water better.
5. Water in the morning, try not to water on the leaves. This burns off some leaves. Watering at night allows an awesome feeding frenzy for fungus and other yucky stuff.
6. Do not be over enthusiastic and plant everything at once. Plant only when the soil is warm enough for the particular plant. The back of the plant seeds packet OR the information tag on the plant should let you know.
7. Note when the vegetable is supposed to harvest, and plan accordingly. But Determinate varieties of tomatoes if you intend to have a container vegetable, OR if you like to preserve or freeze the tomatoes. If you want tomatoes through the season, and not in a whole batch then choose the indeterminate variety.
   

Have fun Gardening!