Plant a Vegetable Garden

To successfully grow vegetables, you need to pay close attention to your soil. If you get your soil condition correct, then the earth itself will vitalize your vegetables into growth. In other words, get your soil right and your vegetables grow naturally.

Here are the four components of good vegetable-growing soil:

1. Right soil composition
2. Right soil pH
3. Right soil chemistry
4. Rishg soil water content
   

Let's consider them each in turn. Firstly, what is right soil composition? The correct soil composition is 20% clay, 40% silt and 40% sand. There's a simple way to determine the proportion of clay, silt and sand in any soil sample.

Take a sample of soil and put it into a clear cylindrical container like a beaker or a jar. Pour some water in with the soil, shake it a little and then allow the soil to settle. Once it has fully settled, you will be able to see clearly that there are 3 divisions - the top layer is clay, the middle layer is silt and the bottom layer is sand. This way you can see approximately how much of each component the soil contains. Thus if there is too little of either of the components, you need to add more to increase it, and vice versa.

Secondly, you need to maintain the correct pH for your soil. Measure the pH using a soil test kit. The optimum pH for vegetables is between 6.5 and 7.0. If your soil is too acidic, add some lime and if it is too alkaline, add some manure to balance the pH.

Thirdly, vegetable-friendly soil contains the right soil chemistry, i.e. the right balance of essential elements that vegetables need to grow. The three main elements needed by all vegetables are nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Besides these they also need other trace elements like copper, boron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, iron, zinc etc. The best way to ensure your soil is rich in these nutrients is to put in fertilizer. But avoid artificial fertilizer as they make vegetables become more disease-prone and draws attacks from insect pests in the long run. Use organic manure that comprises of compost and green manure instead.

Lastly, vegetable-friendly soil has the right amount of water. Vegetables need at least one inch of water per week. The best way to ensure consistent water supply for your vegetables is to use a drip water system. Alternatively, you can use a watering can. But you do not have to water every day if the soil is still moist. A good rule of thumb is whether the soil is still damp about two inches below the surface. If so, there is no need to water just yet.

Maintain these 4 essential element in your soil at all times and your vegetables will grow to their maxiumum potential.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. That is a true saying in almost every area of life and vegetable gardening is no exception. In planning your vegetable garden, you need to consider a few things:

Firstly, your vegetable garden should be as close as possible to your house. This makes it convenient to go out and work on your garden regularly. In some cases, you may need to water the plants more frequently than usual so having your garden near the house means being close to a water source which makes watering easier.

Secondly, your garden needs to be in a place that receives adequate sunlight. No matter what vegetables you plant (unless they are mushrooms or something of that sort), you will need at least 5 hours of direct sunlight a day.

The third consideration is how to plant the vegetables in your garden. I highly recommend planting them in raised beds. A raised bed is an elevated part of your garden that is made up of certain elements like pieces of gardening waste, straw, compost, topsoil etc. It should be around 4 feet wide and between 6 to 18 inches high. You can make it as long as you want it to be. Raised beds offer many advantages, namely good drainage, better soil composition, better heating and heat retention of the soil. Find out how to make a raised bed here.

And fourthly, prepare your soil well by getting rid of weeds, tilling it and adding some natural fertilizer in the form of organic humus. Compost, peat moss and well-rotted manure are all different forms of organic humus. All you need to do is mix the humus into your topsoil and you will be ready to start planting your vegetables.

Planting your vegetables outdoors can be done in several ways.  The way I recommend is planting them in raised beds.  After you have constructed your raised bed, you can plant your vegetable seeds into the soil.  There is a method of planting your seeds called the wide row method.  In this method, you designate a band of about 12 to 30 inches wide on your raised bed and within this space, you broadcast your vegetable seeds (in no particular order). 

Besides the wide row method, there are two other methods of planting vegetables seeds, and these are hilling and drilling.  Hilling is where you gather some soil into a mound about 3 to 4 inches high and between 12 to 18 inches across.  There you plant your seeds.  Drilling is where you dig a furrow and plant your seeds at regular intervals along the furrow.  Here is how to do both:

1.  To plant in hills:

Once you have formed your mound of soil, use a stick or your finger to make a hole in the center of the mound to the appropriate depth (generally not more than 1 1/2 times the diameter of the seed).  Drop two or three seeds into the hole, cover them with soil and press it with your hand or the back of a hoe just enough to ensure good contact with the seeds.

Water thoroughly but gently, using the fine-spray setting on a hose nozzle or a watering can with a fine spray.  Keep the soil moist at all times while the seeds are germinating.

2.  To plant in rows:

Read the information on the seed packet. It will tell you when to plant your seeds in your part of the country, which method to use, and how deep and how far apart to plant them.

Make a series of furrows using a garden hoe.  Each one should be the depth recommended on the seed packet for the variety you intend to plant.  In general, the larger the seed, the deeper it goes into the soil (about 1 1/2 times the diameter of the seed as stated above).  For instance, beans should be planted about two inches deep; tiny carrot seeds, only 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.

Place the seeds in the furrow at the spacing recommended on the seed packet and use the back of a rake to cover the seeds with loose soil.  Then tap the row very lightly with the back of the rake (you want the soil to be just firm enough that it won't blow or get washed away).

Water thoroughly but gently, using the fine-spray setting on a hose nozzle or a watering can with a fine spray.  Now all that's left is to wait for the seeds to germinate.