Planting Vegetables

Grow Your Own Vegetables

There is a lot to consider when deciding to grow your own vegetables or greenhouse plants. How big of a garden do you want to have? How much time are you willing to dedicate to your new hobby? What type of vegetables are you most interested in growing? You are going to want to choose a spot that is close to your house and has fertile soil. You also want a location that has a lot of sunlight, preferably away from trees and shrubs. Vegetables that really flourish with sunlight include peppers, corn, tomatoes, squash or any vegetables that bear “fruit”. Root and leaf vegetables, like turnips or cabbage, can flourish in partial shade. You may need to relocate your garden once every few years so, to keep diseases under control and to keep the garden soil healthy.

Once you decide on the location where you will be planting vegetables, you will then need to figure out just how much room these veggies will take up. A good rule of thumb is to grow what your family eats most often. You may also want to steer clear of exotic veggies until you are more seasoned. Consider hybrid vegetables, which are strong and healthy versions of vegetables. Hybrid vegetables are better at warding off disease and surviving harsh weather conditions.

Make a diagram of your vegetable garden design. Graph paper makes this very easy to sketch. Make a note of the dates you need to begin planting vegetables of each variety. The University of Illinois recommends planning  to put the tall plants (i.e. corn stalks) at the north end of the garden and the permanent vegetables at the side. Some people choose to grow their vegetables in containers, for preference or space reasons. I will cover growing vegetables in containers–or container gardening–in another post.

Don’t forget to allot for spacing between the rows. This is important for maneuvering, growth and cultivating the home vegetable garden. This would be a good time to go out and get your seeds and any other tools you may require to get started.

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