TIPS TO STARTING A SUCCESSFUL VEGETABLE GARDEN

More often than not, the vegetable in your garden die because of your lack of knowledge. Vegetable gardening can be a fruitful and rewarding venture but only if do things right.

Most vegetables are usually vulnerable to weather conditions, pests and diseases and getting a step wrong in your vegetable gardening will leave you with wilting crops that cannot be salvaged. Dead harvests can discourage even the most enthusiastic of gardeners.

It is therefore important to learn some Vegetable Gardening Tips if you want to get the best yields and have a successful gardening experience.

Choose a suitable site for your garden

Like any other garden plants, you vegetables will flourish in fertile well-drained soils.

Keep this in mind when choosing a site to start your garden since waterlogged soils block the circulation of oxygen and nitrogen which are important in the growth of your vegetables. It can also lead to overwatering of your crops which is just as bad as water deprivation.

Your garden should be close to a reliable water supply point since you will need to water them during the dry months – that is if you want yields throughout the year.

Equally important, is the site’s exposure to direct sunlight.  Most leafy vegetables need at least six hours of exposure to direct sunlight to boost their immunity against pests and diseases and to keep them healthy.

Choosing your crops

There are innumerable vegetable varieties to choose from but it’s advisable to start with the one commonly grown in your area as you start out then venture into others with time.

This is because you can readily get advice and help on how to better take care of the crop.

That said, select at least one or two other crops to test the waters and to also act as insurance should the others fail. The crops you choose should however be complimentary of the other; they should have similar requirements so you can tend to them simultaneously.

You can rotate your crops every few months to maintain a high-yield garden and replenish your soil nutrients.

Tending to your vegetable garden

You should pay attention to spacing recommendations when planting your vegetables. Squeezing in several plants in a small space because you want higher yields is counterproductive since your vegetables will be competing for nutrients in addition to being more susceptible to pests and diseases.

Keeping sufficient space between your plants and tending to them well will lead to a bumper harvest.

Also, mulch to keep the keep the soil temperatures warm in the cold seasons and cool in the hot seasons. Mulching helps in control weeds which make choke your vegetables and reduce your yields.

Harvesting

Most vegetables like spinach and lettuce can be harvested as soon as you wish and will keep on producing for several seasons before the need to uproot and replant.

The advantage of most vegetables is that the more you harvest, the more they produce. This doesn’t however apply to tomatoes which must be allowed to grow to maturity before making a first harvest.

*This is a collaboration post