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Posts Tagged ‘vegetable’

Nearly Work-Free Vegetable Gardening
By Ian Pennington

Growing vegetables from your own garden is one of the best ways to provide your family with healthy and fresh produce. But starting a garden can be a time consuming and intimidating process, particularly for beginners. Fear of the amount of labor and time involved in planting and maintaining a garden keeps many would-be gardeners out of the garden and in the supermarket instead.

Much of this fear may be misplaced, however. There has been much experimentation in the gardening community in recent years aimed at developing innovative ways to reduce the amount of time and labor spent gardening, often with sensational results. Although there may be no such thing as completely work free vegetable gardening, there are definitely ways in which you are able to dramatically reduce the amount of labor and time you need to spend in your garden.

One of the best ways to lessen the work spent preparing and weeding your garden is through a gardening method known as “Lasagna Gardening” or “Sheet Mulching.” Lasagna gardening is a non-traditional, no-till method of gardening that relies on blanketing a garden plot with multiple layers of mulch obtained from locally available, and preferably organic, sources (such as weed clippings, chopped leaves, animal manure, compost, sawdust or seaweed). The lasagna gardening method greatly reduces the time and labor needed to prepare a new garden plot, and some gardeners report that they spend almost no time at all weeding a well-mulched lasagna garden. This may be as close to work free vegetable gardening as one can get.

Here are some additional suggestions to greatly reduce the amount of time and labor spent in your vegetable garden:

- Grow prolific vegetables. Vegetables like summer squash, pole green beans and indeterminate tomatoes produce large quantities of produce for extended periods during the summer. The amount of labor they require is very small in comparison to the harvest you will reap.
- Keep your garden small. It is easy to be overwhelmed by your garden, and many gardeners end up either producing much more than they can consume or giving up entirely. You will only need one or two zucchini or tomato plants to feed most families.
- Choose vegetables well suited for your climate. Although growing a long-season winter squash in Maine or keeping a heat-sensitive lettuce variety from bolting in Florida may be noteworthy accomplishments, they are also time-consuming projects. Stick to growing vegetables that are best suited to your region.
- Choose vegetable varieties that have a reputation of being easy to grow. Many seed catalogs will mark certain vegetable varieties as being especially easy to grow. Select these varieties if they are available.

By using gardening methods such as lasagna gardening and focusing on growing the most prolific, easy to grow vegetables for your region, you are on your way to nearly work free vegetable gardening.

Ian Pennington is an accomplished niche website developer and author.
To learn more about
Work Free Vegetable Gardening, please visit
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How to Grow Your Own Organic Vegetables
By Naomi West

If you are trying to change your lifestyle and trying to eat vegetables that are healthy for your family then why not grow your own garden full of organic vegetables? You can do this right in your own backyard and believe it or not many people are doing just this. All you need are the right tools and the patience to learn how to do it properly.

To begin you will need to make a large space on your property in order to have a good sized garden. Most gardens leave a space of 10 feet by 10 feet to give their vegetables plenty of growing space. This will also help you to plant several different kinds of veggies without them getting in each others way. If you don’t think you have the much space then you can always ask your local nursery what they would recommend. You may have to have two different small gardens to grow the things you want.

Strip the top layer of sod of where your garden will be. During this process you will need to remove three to four inches of the ground surface to help remove the grass and the rots of weeds. Weeds can destroy your garden and the things growing in it so you want to make sure that you remove them all before you plant the seeds.

Near your garden you are going to start your very own compost heap. The compost is one of the best ingredients to helping your vegetables to grow. The compost heap can be made up of grass clippings, fruit rinds, and natural waste from your home. Making your own compost heap is messy – but it will save you money and will be a natural fertilizer for your plants.

Before you plant your desired vegetables you will need to soak the top layer of your garden’s soil. The surface needs to be completely flattened with a shovel in order to avoid puddles. When the ground is not even the water will not be able to distribute evenly to all the plants.

Now divide your garden into a minimum of four sections. This will help you to manage what is growing. Place wooden stakes between each section and label what is growing where. Each vegetable is different and requires different care. Having labels will help you to remember where the veggies are.

When it comes to what you are growing it is all up to you and your environment. You want to grow organic vegetables that both you and your family will eat and love. Visit your local nursery and tell them what you would like to plant. They will let you know in what season you should grow them and whether or not they will grow ok in the soil that you have.

While your organic vegetables are growing keep a close eye on them and make sure that they are growing properly. Remove any weeds or plants that should not be growing. If you notice that one or two of your veggies are beyond repair then you would be wise to remove them completely from the garden. This will help them to spread the damage to the other plants.

When you grow your own Organic Vegetables you know that there are no harmful pesticides or chemicals that will hurt you or your family. Instead you are eating vegetables that are good for you and taste great. My Organic Gardening Tips can help you to find more Organic Garden Tips.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Naomi_West
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Organic-Vegetables&id=1751248

Heirloom Gardening
By John Yazo

Heirloom gardening is a type of gardening that is in a class of it’s own. There are many unique features in the heirloom varieties of bot vegetables and flowers. This method of gardening is one that has usually been past down from generation to generation along with the seeds.

Once you start heirloom gardening and discover all the unique features that heirloom varieties have over hybrid varieties you will most likely be hooked and never change back. The flavor, juiciness and sweetness of heirloom vegetables have no comparison to hybrid varieties.

The seeds used for this method of gardening are open pollinated. This means that the plant will produce seed naturally. When replanted the seed will reproduce the same plant as it’s parent plant for generation to generation to come. Hybrid seed will not reproduce the same plant when there seeds are saved and replanted. This means the gardener is dependent on the seed companies every year.

All heirloom gardeners have one thing in common. They choose this type of gardening to keep these types of crops and flowers fro going extinct. Every year more and more varieties of heirloom flowers, fruits and vegetables are lost. There are plant seeds that were brought to our country by our ancestors from all parts of the world.

When we save heirloom seeds we are saving apart of history and culture. When choosing seeds that you want to plant you can trace back your family tree and choose varieties that were the ones that your ancestors would of planted.

Choosing to grow heirloom vegetables in your garden will give you the assurance that your crop is pure and natural. There are not produced by genetic changed hybrid seed.

There is a growing interest in heirloom gardening. There are seed companies that are devoted in just heirloom seeds along with many seed exchange groups. These groups are where you can share your seeds with others along with your experience.

A environment friendly and healthy way of gardening. Organic Gardening is away of gardening in harmony with nature. Growing a healthy and productive crop in a way that is healthier for both you and the environment.

John Yazo

http://www.organicheirloomgardening.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Yazo
http://EzineArticles.com/?Heirloom-Gardening&id=1773145