Gardening Vegetables

Gardening vegetables is one of the many past time activities that people indulge in. Apart from being entertaining, these are profitable, as the garden later provides you with some excellent home grown vegetables. However, before plunging into the activity of gardening vegetables, you need to make sure of certain factors. The place or site you choose should receive 6-8 hours of sunlight a day and also it should be near to a water supply.

In case, you have pets such as dogs, rabbits and other animals, which can damage your crops, the best bet would be to fence the area. Remember, if you grow the same variety of crop year after year, chances are that the crops will be at an increased risk of being infected with a disease. In order to avoid the risk, plant crops of different families. To know more about the basic steps for growing vegetables, read through the following lines.

Steps For Growing Vegetables

Dig and Fertilize Your Soil
The first step would be to dig the garden area to a depth of about 8-10 inches. However, make sure that you do not start the digging process, when the soil is too wet. To check whether the soil is too wet or not, you need to squeeze together a handful of it. If it sticks together in a ball and does not crumble under slight pressure by the thumb and finger, it is too wet.

To improve the quality of the soil, add some organic matter to it. This would help release nitrogen, minerals, and other nutrients for plant use. Thereafter, add some well-rotted compost or manure into the soil. You can even go for mulch of partly rotted straw, compost or crop residue on the soil. This would help to keep the soil surface in good condition and also slows down the process of water evaporation from the soil.

Layout of Vegetables
Once the soil has been prepared, it is time to consider the layout of the vegetable bed. Normally, the crops are planted in a row of eighteen inches apart or just wide enough, allowing you room to move about. An alternative to this would be to create a raised or wide bed. In such a situation, the site is divided into a number of beds of about four feet wide, with a narrow path in between. This way you can reach the middle of the bed without treading on the soil.

Choosing Seeds
Next in line comes choosing the seeds. The best option would be to choose disease resistant varieties. While in warmer climatic areas, you need to cultivate the soil to a fine tilth and then sow the seeds at the depth, in cooler zones, seeds need to be sown in trays or flats indoors. In case of the latter option, make sure you provide the seeds sufficient overhead light, ensuring satisfactory germination and growth. Before planting the seeds out in the beds, the seedlings need to be hardened off. For this, place them outside for longer periods each day, so that they adapt themselves to the outside temperature.

Watering
Once you have completed with the initial process of planting vegetables, all you need to do is water them regularly. Generally, vegetables require at least one inch of water per week. In case, you live in an area that does not receive much rainfall, you need to water the plants yourself. Early mornings serve as the best time to water the vegetable plants. To control the weeds, tidy your bed regularly and make sure to leave the soil in a loose, friable condition to absorb rainfall.