Archive for the ‘Home Tips’ Category

by Iza del Carmen, MomAuthority.com

Living a healthy life doesn’t always mean buying vegetables from the store. This is because you can make this happen in your own backyard. In order for this to happen, you have to know the three important things for vegetable gardening.

First, is the planning stage. You have to find the right location. You have to check which part in your garden gets at least 6 hours of sunlight because this is needed in order for your crops to grow.

Once you find it, you have to plot the area properly. Many homeowners plot an area that is good for 4 types of vegetables. These should be evenly spaced so each plant has sufficient breathing room otherwise, one will die in order for the other to survive.

Lets say you don’t have enough room to plant vegetables. Does that mean you should just give up? The answer is no because you can use containers instead. It will just take a little more work.

The second most important thing in vegetable gardening is the preparation of the soil. You might think that the ground in your backyard is already ready but you are mistaken. There are rocks that have to be removed first and the land has to be cultivated using some gardening equipment.

You will also need to compost the soil with fertilizer. It can easily be purchased at the gardening store or by using some garbage like shredded paper or manure.

The third most important thing about vegetable gardening is planting the crops. This is considered to be fun part because you will be putting in the seeds, covering them up and then watering them so the seedlings will sprout out from the ground.

Not all the seeds that you plant will grow because nature after all is still the survival of the fittest. So aside from watching out for weeds or pests, you will also have to get rid of the weak plants so the stronger ones will be able to grow.

Planning, preparation and planting are the three important things that make the difference between successful or unsuccessful vegetable gardening. You should do some research by reading books or going online, start small and then eventually build up. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because there is always a lesson to be learned making you a better gardener.

by Iza del Carmen, MomAuthority.com

Having limited space in your backyard shouldn’t stop you from getting into organic vegetable gardening. This is because you can work around it by putting them into containers. Here are some of the advantages.

First, they can be brought either indoors or outdoors depending on the temperature outside.

It also serves as great decor that can be displayed in the balcony, the patio or on the kitchen table or by the windowsill.

You don’t have to buy a container to hold your vegetables because you can recycle an ice cream container or anything else in the house that you may have as long as it can hold soil and provide sufficient drainage.

These are less likely to be attacks by weeds, snails, slugs or soil borne diseases and are very easy to work with as long as you maintain the right pH levels.

You might think that cleaning the container and putting in soil from the backyard is the way to go but you are mistaken. It is better to buy premium potting mix because it is much lighter than soil and offers excellent drainage.

Given that the vegetables aren’t grown in the garden, you have to make sure that they receive the right number of nutrients. You can do this by buying organic fertilizer from the store and then following the instructions on the packaging.

Take note that putting on too much can kill what you are planting and you wouldn’t want that to happen. Also, given that there are many brands, you have to make sure that this is ideal for what you are planting.

Vegetable gardening using containers requires watering them more frequently. This is because the soil dries much quicker compared to when it is planted on the earth. Aside from water, you can also buy organic liquid fertilizers that can also be used for foliar feeding and drenching the soil.

To help you get started, here are some vegetables you can start planting in containers. These include bush beans, carrots, capsicum, eggplant, lettuce, and onions.

Just like regular vegetable gardening, these have to exposed to the sun at least 6 hours everyday. If you live where it is windy, make sure there is protection so it won’t fall off and hit the ground. You have to start somewhere so try two or three pots then add more later on.
recommended to use non-chemical and organic means of controlling pests.