5 Simple Tips to Start a Simple Vegetable Garden
Are you looking to start a simple garden in your home? At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, people were confined at home due to restrictions and quarantine. Sitting at home idle can be very daunting and would make someone very lazy.
It is advisable to pick up some new hobbies when indoor such as doing an unusual gardening activity. Furthermore, gardening helps you to plant your vegetables for domestic use for food security. As food continue to become scarce and the supermarket’s shelves are emptying, increase your domestic food production by starting a simple garden.
Food from your garden is also very fresh. It is much better than vegetables you get from the shopping centers that have to travel for several kilometers to reach your region for you to purchase and use them. Therefore, a garden is eco-friendly and doesn’t rely on chemicals such as pesticides and synthetic chemicals dangerous to the environment.
A garden with fruits is invaluable because of health-related benefits. Health doctors recommend that a person should eat fresh fruits daily. Having fresh fruits next to your house will allow you to get them more often and use them for your meals and general eating.
As you work on your garden, you are also exercising. Taking 2 to 3 hours a day to work on your garden is enough to burn many calories you may have gained over this long period of staying at home. You don’t have to join other people in the park to become fit and shape your muscles when you have a garden in your home.
Gardening is also therapeutic to children and any other person who will feel the sweet fragrance of the fruits and the flowers that will grow in them. There are many more reasons you should start a simple garden today. Here, find out the five simple tips to help you begin gardening immediately and relish all these benefits.
1. Remove Grass on Your Garden
To establish a new garden, you first have to let go of some portion of your lawn. You will use this part as your garden and beginners to make it small since you will be increasing the size soon as you succeed in establishing the garden. Also, a small garden is easy to till.
After getting the parcel you want, mark it for grass removal. Some people use chemicals to kill grass on the ground, but this is not the better option since they are harmful. Here are some of the organic methods you can use to remove grass effectively.
• Sheet mulching
Laying down material such as a newspaper or unwaxed cardboard on top of the grass smothers the grass. The process is prolonged but instrumental.
• Solarization
Real on heat from the sun to bake the grass. Cover the grass with plastic after dampening with water. The process takes about four weeks.
• Manual removal
It is tedious, but it is a beneficial exercise. You may only need a day or two to finish the grass you want to remove using a sharp spade.
2. Check Your Garden Soil
The soil solely dictates the success of your garden. Equally important, plants have an optimal type of soil where they can thrive. Your garden soil should be sufficient ground for growing vegetables.
To check if your soil is healthy and effective for growing vegetables, you can look for:
• The soil pH
They mostly range from acidic to alkaline. Good soil should be neutral.
• Soil type
Soils differ from clay to loam, to sandy, and their mixtures. The ideal soil for planting is loam. It shouldn’t have too much clay or sand.
• Check for soil deficiency.
The soil should have enough nutrients to grow your plants. You can get a remedy to soil deficiency if it lacks the nutrients you need.
3. Choose Your Plants Wisely
Research before you settle on the plant you want to grow in your garden. Different regions have different weather types, which allows different types of plants to thrive in these areas.
Once you know the types of plants that grow well in your area, you can then take the idea and see if you need the plant for your family. It could be a flower or a fruit plant. Use this guide to choose your garden plants.
The plants that are mostly used in gardens are under the following classes of plants:
• Herbaceous annuals
They are mostly grown over the year since they have to be replanted again after some time.
• Herbaceous perennials
They regrow from their roots and can live for a very prolonged time.
• Woody trees and shrubs
They also tend to regrow and will stay for the longest time.
• Vegetables, fruits, and herbs
These are edible plants. They are mostly annual plants, and you may have to replant after some time. Some are woody and can stay for long in your garden.
Consequently, select the right plants that will grow with the weather of your location. Most plants require sunlight and moisture for perfect growth, so it is important to group them differently from plants that don’t love the sun.
To know the types of plants in your garden, label them with name tags. It will also come in handy when your kids are doing plant projects since they can refer from their home garden.
4. Planting and Transplanting Tips
To get good results with your garden, you must practice proper gardening. You can purchase seeds for planting and check for the details of how they are supposed to be planted. Manufacturers always label information such as the labels, the depth of planting, days to germination, the spacing of seeds, and days to maturity.
Plant when it is the ideal time for planting. It helps to ensure you are planting under the right conditions, such as temperature and rainfall.
If you feel the plants are not thriving after planting, you can move them to another location. The moving of plants is known as transplanting. After transplanting, give your plants enough time to adjust to the new soil type and surroundings.
5. Removing Weeds
Weeds are a gardener’s nightmare and enemy. It would be best to understand the type of weed you are dealing with to take the proper measures to remove them. You can get this information from gardening books and agricultural extension websites.
As you learn, you may find out some plants seem to be a weed but are beneficial to your garden plants. It would be messing up your soil nutrients to remove them. Therefore, beware of what you remove or retain in your garden.
Conclusion
Ready to start a new productive hobby? Gardening is fun ad fulfilling. You will have many activities with your family members as you weed and water your plants as you catch up after a long day at work or in the mornings before setting out to go for work.
Enjoy the freshness of a garden by using these tips to start a simple garden today. Also, ensure you have enough flowers in your garden for perfect fragrance and self-therapy. It would help if the flowers had beautiful colors for the children to pluck and have fun.