Growing Vegetables. How To Grow Your Own Delicious Vegetables.

Its really quite easy to grow your own vegetables and they really do taste so much better than those from your local supermarket. Once you grow your own vegetables you'll suddenly realize why farmers markets are so popular. You can never buy vegetables at a supermarket that will be as good as those that you grow in your back yard. If you don't have a lot of room try growing a few veggies in containers.

You can grow a lot of vegetables in only a very small amount of space or in a few containers. Some things to keep in mind that white or wooden containers will work best for growing vegetables. If your containers you are going to plant vegetables in are a different color you can easily spray paint them white. If your containers are a dark color they will tend to hold heat in your container and the heat could even kill your vegetables. And any containers you plant vegetables in will need plenty of drainage holes and each container will need several inches of gravel in the bottom of the container to help with drainage.

One very important thing is that your vegetable plants are going to need 6-8 hours of full sun a day. No you can not plant a vegetable garden in partial shade. If you do your going to get a lot of plant growth and very few vegetables. Your vegetable garden really needs to be on the south side of your house so it will get the most sun.

I made the mistake of planting a tomato bed in partial shade at one time and it was a disaster. Always plant things like tomatoes in full sun. Never try to plant in the shade or you'll be disappointed. Tomatoes need 6 - 8 hours a day of full sun.

If you don't get enough rain your going to have to water your vegetable garden. One really easy way is to stick your finger in the ground around your vegetables. If it feels moist you don't water that day. If it feels dry you water that day. A good garden sprinkler will work the best to water your garden. A sprinkler will do a much better job than you can with a garden hose.

Every garden should really have a rain gauge so you can keep track of how much rain is falling in your garden. Your garden needs at least one inch of water a week. If its really hot you may need more water. In your garden where vegetables are growing you need to dig down four inches several different places in your garden. You want the soil to feel moist. If it doesn't you need to water your garden with a sprinkler either before sunrise or after sunset. Never water your garden plants when the sun is on them or you can damage or kill them.

Some Of The More Popular Vegetables To Grow.

1. Radishes are one of the easiest vegetables you can grow. If your trying to get children interested in gardening start with some radishes in a container. If you grow radishes in a container of rich top soil your kids can be pulling ripe radishes in about a month. Just be sure to keep the soil moist not wet and water only before sun rise or after sun set.

2. Tomatoes are grown by everyone and there's a good reason. They are oh so delicious. Especially the heirloom tomatoes. You can find all kinds of heirloom tomatoes including lots of delicious heirloom cherry tomatoes. Plant your tomatoes where they will get full sun and you'll also need to provide support for your tomatoes so they won't fall over.

3. Cucumbers are one of my favorites. I like to grow them vertical by putting up a length of hog wire on sturdy poles like a wall. Plant your cucumber plants about a foot apart and train them up onto the wall of wire as they grow. Weave the plants runners into the holes in the hog wire and the cucumber plants will grow up and over the wire wall and provide you with lots of wonderful tasty cucumbers. I eat a lot of the cucumbers I grow raw and I make delicious homemade pickles out of others. I like to pick my cucumbers for pickles really small and then I make them into dill pickles.

4. Pole beans are another favorite of mine that are easy to grow and delicious. You need to provide your pole beans with something to grow up on and what I do is provide my pole beans with bamboo pole teepees to grow on. I use 12 foot long bamboo poles and I leave a opening to get inside the pole bean teepee so I can easily pick the pole beans that grow inside the teepee. I just love to grow them this way. Right now I have some heirloom yard long beans growing like this. I can't wait to pick and cook them. But I have enjoyed watching them growing this summer.

5. If you have room for it you'll definitely want to plant corn. You'll find that nothing matches the taste of freshly grown sweet corn. I grow a few rows of sweet corn every year and enjoy some of it as fried cream corn and some of it as grilled roasted corn. Silver Queen is one of my favorite varieties of corn to grow.

6. If you like a bit of fire in your life like I do you'll want to be sure to include room for 4-6 cayenne pepper plants in your garden. If you grow them in rich soil they will bush out and grow rather large. Once the plants are about three foot tall drive a plant stake close to each plant and tie each cayenne pepper plant loosely to the stake to provide the plant some support during high winds or thunderstorms. As your peppers grow and mature pick them when they are about as long as a man's finger. You can freeze them whole in a zip lock bag or add them chopped or diced up in salsa's, soup's, and even jellies. In the late fall you can start letting the cayenne peppers turn red and as they turn red use a large needle and thread to string them on a thread and hang them up to dry. You can keep adding more red cayenne peppers to the string as you pick new ones.

7. I always grow a row or two of cantaloupes because there is nothing like the flavor of a freshly grown cantaloupe and cantaloupes are really good for you. Be sure that the soil where you plant your cantaloupes has been well prepared with well rotted manure or compost and a pound of 5-10-5 fertilizer for each twenty foot of row. If you plant your cantaloupes as seeds thin your plants to two foot apart so they will have plenty of room to grow. I mulch heavily under my cantaloup plants and their runners with straw mulch to keep the weeds down.

Depending on how much space you have for your garden their are many more types of vegetables you can grow and if your limited by space you can always do vertical gardening. If you click that link you'll find a great web page I did on vertical gardening basics.

I find planting and growing my own vegetables to be a rewarding experience and you'll never find the wonderful flavors of homegrown vegetables in store bought vegetables.

Click Here For A Delicious Recipe For Homemade Salsa

Here's a few things to keep in mind when your growing tomatoes.

1. Tomatoes must have water in order to grow. You must water your tomatoes either before sunrise or after sunset. Never water your tomatoes when the sun is shining on them.

2. Your tomatoes need a tomato cage or tomato stakes for support while they grow. Tomato cages are the best support for your tomatoes.

3. Tomatoes must be planted where they will have 6-8 hours of full sun a day for best growth and to produce a great crop of tomatoes. You can't grow tomatoes in partial shade or you won't get any tomatoes.

4. Be sure to check out the heirloom varieties of tomatoes for some of the best flavored tomatoes you'll ever eat. Don't forget that there are also heirloom cherry tomatoes.

If you can supply those three things you should grow plenty of tomatoes. If you have any questions about tomatoes please post them below now.

When you lay out your garden allow room for a row or two of marigolds and you will find that your garden will have fewer pests. Most garden pests can't stand marigolds and you will find that your garden has few if any garden pests.

I always plant marigolds in my tomato garden and I'm never bothered by garden pests.

If your really serious about growing your own vegetable garden then you need a simple compost bin in your back yard. CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPOST BIN HUB PAGE.

Gardening Tips For Everyone.

1. You really need to water your garden only after the sun has gone down. This way the water won't get dried up quickly by the sun and it will have time to soak down into the ground. You can also damage your plants if you water when they are in full sun.

2. Use a sprinkler to water your garden with. You can't do nearly as efficient job with a garden hose as you can with a sprinkler. Let the sprinkler run for about thirty minutes twice a week if you don't have natural rainfall. You'll find that your garden will need about one inch of water a week to grow and produce it's best. If you don't have one purchase a rain gauge for your garden so you'll know exactly how much rain has fallen.

3. Mulch your plants to keep the moisture in. Two really great things to use to mulch your tomatoes with are your left over coffee grounds and your left over egg shells. You can mulch your other vegetable plants with about four inches thick of straw mulch and it will keep grass and weeds from growing and it will hold moisture which will help your plants to grow.

4. Collect rainwater by using rain barrels and use the rain water to water your garden when ever you can. Buy rainwater barrels and fix them up with spigots you can hook hoses up to at the bottom and you'll want to have screen wire covering the tops of your rain barrels to keep out mosquitoes. If you find mosquito larva in your rain barrel water add a quart of bleach to each rain barrel to get rid of the mosquitoes.

5. Place bird feeders and bird houses in your garden to encourage birds to live and nest in your garden. Birds will eat a lot of garden pests.Be sure to install a bird bath for your birds and change the water about every three days to prevent mosquitoes from using the water to lay their eggs in.I like to plant a couple of rows of sunflowers in my garden for the birds. It's really fun to watch a bird hanging upside down eating sunflower seeds.

6. You can use black plastic to mulch your tomatoes as tomatoes love heat and the black plastic will keep weeds out of your garden. Put the black plastic right up to the base of the tomato stalk to keep weeds and grass out and moisture in.

7. Read the back of your seed packs to see if the seeds are right for your area. Ask at your local garden supply store what varieties of say tomatoes grows best in your area. Always ask them what varieties of heirloom vegetable seeds they have.

8. Always plant marigolds, garlic, and basil in the edges of your garden and you'll find that you'll have far fewer garden pests than anyone else. I often plant six tomato plants and then a marigold plant. And repeat this all through out my tomato garden and I never have garden pest problems.

9. In time you'll need a few gardening tools like a garden spade, a shovel, a hoe, and a garden rake. You'll probably also want a couple of good pair of garden scissors. Be sure to fix a place in a shed or in your garage to keep your gardening tools. In time you'll also find that a wheel barrow or gardening kart will be really helpful. I use a set of post hole diggers to dig the holes for my tomato plants every year. This way I can add well rotted compost or manure in the bottom of the hole and give my tomato plants a jump start.

10. I find it helps me to keep a garden journal so I can keep notes about my gardening activities and have it to refer back to in the years to come. I recently purchased a good quality digital camera and I'm going to start taking regular photos of my garden as it grows.

I hope those garden tips will help you and if you have garden tips you would like to share please post them below in the comment section now. Also please post your questions , suggestions , comments and etc.