How to Grow a Healthy Vegetable Garden by Tim Graham

Many people consider starting their vegetable garden. This is great on a couple of different levels. First, it can save a heap load of money, and second, grow your veggies can help you to eat healthier, and you will also have a lot more exercise by doing it.

New Beginnings

Small veg gardens are the best way to start if you are new to the whole outdoor gardening thing. What seems daunting to begin with, can be easy if you follow a few steps. These will have you growing some bountiful crops, no matter how large your garden space.

The Key To A Successful Garden

You can plan everything down to the last inch, or the last second. The instructions on the packs of seeds are followed, yet your veggies will not grow. There is one reason for this, and it is the main reason.

Your soil has such a dramatic impact on if and how your beginner vegetable garden will grow. It is the same for humans, have a healthy body, and you will develop big and robust. Vegetables are precisely the same. The soil has to have all the right elements for your veggies to grow big and high, and the main one being organic matter, or as we know it, the fertilizer or compost.

Healthy Soil Care Tips:

Making your compost – grass cuttings, vegetable peels or anything that breaks down over time can create your compost. No longer throw those skins away, make your compost now.

Digging your garden – this has to be done before your planting. The surface can become hard if it has not been used, so it needs to get air back into the surface and make it soft enough for the roots to grow. Once you have dug, this is where you add plenty of your compost and churn it together with the soil. Once mixed and levelled, water and let it stand for two days to drain a little. It is advisable to only step on your pathways to avoid flattening the soil again.

Make your beds 3-4 feet wide, so they are accessible from your path on both sides.

Watering Your Vegetables

This is affected by the weather and by the time of the growing season, earlier, and your vegetables will require less. When the weather is hot, and the top inch of the soil is dry. That is a sign they need watering, and the best time to do this is on an evening once the sun has set.

Planting Your Seeds

You have three options when it comes to planting, you can plant seedlings, or you can plant directly into the soil following the instructions on your packets. You also have an option of planting some of the old vegetables you have that have started sprouting. Examples of these are onions and potatoes that you commonly see. It is also possible to grow tomatoes from slicing one into slices and growing from that; we will save that for another time.

Whatever way you plant, you have to make sure your seeds or seedlings are protected. Birds and rabbits can ruin what could have been a good harvest in a matter of days.

Caring For Your Vegetables

Once you are on your way, you will soon find you have an inundation of insects, some of these are good, yet some are harmful. One good tip is to have a birdbath and something to attract birds, once they see they have healthy meals of insects, they will help you to keep these at bay.

Benefits To You

There is much more information around of how to plan and build your veggie garden. These were just a few tips on how to keep it healthy, now here are some of the benefits to you.

Many of these are why you decided to do it all in the first place.

• Your food tastes better while more nutritious to you – no chemicals are used like mass-produced veggies.
• You and your family’s health will improve – you have the opportunity to eat more fresh food.
• It can save you much money – a family of four can have enough vegetables over the summer.
• It tastes better than supermarket food – supermarket food is treated to make it last longer.
• You have more fun in your garden – vegetable gardening for beginners can include your children.
• Healthier outdoor activities for the family – you will get plenty of fresh air.
• Stress relief – gardening is proven to help relieve stress.
• More food safety – you know what has gone into your food.
• Your garden now looks nice – gone are the flat lawns, now you have colourful flowers in the summer.
• You will feel more grateful – a job is well done, for all of the above, you will be happy.

BIO: Tim Graham is the head writer at YardandGardenGuru.com where he writes about his passions in life gardening and yard care. Outside of writing Tim usually finds himself knee-deep in lawn clippings, weeds, and grandkids.

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