Your First Vegetable Garden

Setting up your first vegetable garden can be a very challenging but rewarding activity, and you might need some help in getting yourself started.

Whilst an interesting and demanding hobby, having your vegetable garden can save you money and provide plenty of fun. This can also be an educational activity for young children, teaching them the value and importance of protecting and respecting nature.

Planting your vegetables can be very cheap or even free, however, the yields can be significant enough to cook yourself a few nice meals. Not to mention, that the pride and joy you will feel when consuming the food you have grown is incredible.

One of the most important steps is to start small, or at least at a scale that is more easily manageable for someone with less knowledge or experience. A garden that is, for example, 3 metres by 3 metres with around 5 or 6 vegetable plants can be a practical starting size. In this way, you increase your chances of success. It also allows you to assess whether you truly enjoy such a hobby, without having spent too many resources in terms of time and money.

If you think that the above is still too challenging, you might even decide to go smaller in scale, or else grow lighter vegetables in containers, for example on your home balcony, or fresh herbs in your windowsill.

If you have the flexibility of choosing your spot for gardening, there are a few things that you need to consider:

1. Convenience
2. Sun movement
3. Soil quality
4. Water availability

A fence might be required to protect your vegetable from slightly large animals, such as rabbits. You might also need some sort of pesticide which respects animals and nature, to protect against smaller pests. Even better, you might opt for organic gardening.

Before selecting which vegetable to grow, try and go for something which you and your family enjoy eating, making gardening a practical hobby too. Certain Vegetables, such as tomatoes, coloured peppers and squash can produce over several weeks. Other vegetables, such as carrots, radishes and corn are normally harvested once. These will need to be re-planted to produce once again.

Before planting any vegetables, be careful to consider the climate in your location, and make sure that you plant the right vegetables at the right time. This normally varies greatly, depending on where you are based. Cold weather plants can be planted in fall, for example, potatoes and broccoli, and warm weather plants in the spring, such as cucumber and eggplant. Furthermore, adding compost to fertilise your soil can greatly help your garden’s overall health and provide better results.

Achieving a healthy vegetable garden is doable, and it will provide you with fresh produce and cost savings, something that both you and your families will be grateful for.

If you found this post interesting, you might also like the following:

• Vertical Gardening
• What Is Hydroponic Gardening?
• Gardening in Malta

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