Vegetable gardening is great for children and adults alike. It's something the couch potato wouldn't be interested in because it takes a bit of effort to start and maintain a productive garden. Also it's no different than growing herbs or flowers and if you take proper steps along with the proper care your plants will produce very tasty vegetables. It is quite possibly one of the worlds most wholesome pastimes. Vegetable gardening is not that expensive to start and the taste of home grown veggies definitely are better vegetables than store bought!
Planting a vegetable garden is not difficult either, but there are a few steps involved. Growing organically things that naturally grow together will ensure prevention of root choking, disease, and other problems. Plants need certain nutrients to grow and many times we think fertilizer is the only solution. But using organic gardening compost the soil doesn't contain man-made chemicals. Artificial fertilizers can be significantly reduced by 30% to 40% or more.
The ideal garden soil is a "rich, sandy loam." And the fact cannot be overemphasized that such soils usually are made, not found. Let's look at that description a bit, for right here we come to the first of the four all-important factors of gardening food. The others are cultivation, moisture and temperature. "Rich" in the gardener's vocabulary means full of plant food; more than that and this is a point of vital importance it means full of rich nutrients ready to be used. Practically no soils in long- inhabited communities remain naturally rich enough to produce good crops. They are made rich, or kept rich, in two ways; first, by cultivation, which helps to change the raw plant food stored in the soil into available forms; and second, by manuring or adding compost to the soil from outside sources.
"Sandy" in the sense here used, means a soil containing enough particles of sand so that water will pass through it without leaving it pasty and sticky a few days after a rain; "light" enough, as it is called, so that a handful, under ordinary conditions, will crumble and fall apart readily after being pressed in the hand. It is not necessary that the soil be sandy in appearance, but it should be friable.
"Loam: a rich, friable soil," says Webster. That hardly covers it, but it does describe it. It is soil in which the sand and clay are in proper proportions, so that neither greatly predominate, and usually dark in color, from cultivation and enrichment. Such a soil, even to the untrained eye, just naturally looks as if it would grow things. It is remarkable how quickly the whole physical appearance of a piece of well cultivated ground will change.I notice last fall in a field, where a strip containing a fence row had been, and a little piece just off from the middle of this had been croped just one season. The rest had not been manured or cultivated. When the field was plowed up in the fall, it was distinctly noticeable that the untouched was full of black rich nutrients.
So do not be discouraged about your soil. Proper treatment of it is much more important, and a garden- patch of average run-down, or "never-brought-up" soil will produce much more for the energetic and careful gardener than the richest spot will grow under average methods of cultivation. Remember any organic matter can be composted, and there are many ways it can be done while turning waste into a nutrient rich soil supplement for your garden. So proper treatment is to have a little TLC for your plants and in turn, you'll reap the benefits.
I hope you have been able to gain something from this article, thanks for reading. Good luck using this information and please enjoy your garden.
Gardeningtlc.com, founded by C. Thomas Wetherald, He is dedicated tooffering as much quality information at no cost, so everyone can utilize these simple tips, and solutions.
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