How do you start a vegetable garden?
Image by Northern Ireland Executive
Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland has officially opened the Drumarg Community Vegetable Garden in Armagh.
The Drumarg Community Vegetable Garden is an allotments project funded by the Department for Social Development.
Photographed with the Minister is Stephen McCleary, Chairperson of Drumarg Community Association.
Question by Rob F: How do you start a vegetable garden?
I’d like to start a small, backyard vegetable garden. What’s the best way to get started?
Give your answer to this question below!
7 Responses to How do you start a vegetable garden?
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pick a spot, till it up; plant……weed water and fertilize …and watch them grow….then enjoy!
abc
December 1, 2011 at 1:15 am
I always found square foot gardening the best. It prevents mole and gopher problems and the plants always seem to grow better. Build some 4′ square boxes and attach chicken wire to the bottom. Cover the inside bottom with landscaping cloth and fill the boxes with good composted soil. Divide the boxes into 12″ squares using wire strung across the top and plant different seeds in each square. Good luck!
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
Shana
December 1, 2011 at 1:30 am
It’s quite simple. Ideally, you need a space that gets full sun and is close to a tap for water. If the space you’re looking at is filled with lawn, dig up part of the lawn and surround the perimeter with bricks or timber to make a border to keep the grass from invading. You may need to spray this perimeter with weedicide occasionally to keep the grass at bay.
Once you’ve cleared a space for your patch, you need to improve the soil. Adding compost is a good way to do this, but if you don’t have any on hand, adding a few bought elements can help condition the soil. ‘Blood and bone’ or ground bonemeal is a fantastic soil improver. A bag or two of sheep manure dug in well will also do wonders.
When you’ve dug everything in a bit, rake over the soil to flatten it in preparation for planting.
There are two ways to plant vegetables – by seed, or by seedlings. Pretty much everything can be grown from seed, and although you will have to wait marginally longer to see veges in your garden while they germinate, this is the cheapest and most cost-effective way to grow vegetables. You get lots of plants, and they often grow more strongly than seedlings. A pack of seeds usually costs a few dollars, but you usually don’t use them all in one hit, and you can get many many plants from one packet of seed.
Seedlings can, however, be purchased from nursuries, as well as most supermarkets, department stores and hardware/garden stores. They cost a few dollars for a punnet of 6, 8 or 10 plants.
Follow the planting instructions on the seed packet or on the back of the carboard label stuck in the seedling punnet.
Water them in well. For seeds, it’s a good idea to hold of fertilizing until after they’ve germinated. For seedlings, it’s wise to give them a weak solution of liquid fertilizer to get them on their way. Seasol or Seaweed concentrate is perfect for this. A weak tea of Powerfeed, Fish emulsion, Maxicrop, or liquid aged poultry manure is also ideal.
During the growing period, I recommend fertilizing every week with a weak tea of Seasol, and every 2 weeks with some liquid aged poultry manure. The Seasol will provide all the trace elements your plants need, while the poultry manure will make your plants go “BOOM” and flourish with life.
Every month or so it’s a good idea to sprinkle some blood & bone around and water in well. This will also have a “BOOM” factor.
Once your seeds have germinated and the seedlings are well on their way, I recommend mulching with some lucerne hay. This can be bought, baled, and for much cheaper if it is spoiled – i.e. not suitable for livestock feed as it has gone mouldy or slightly rotten. Once spread it won’t look as rotten. And at any rate, rotting is better – it will eventually break down in to your soil and improve it for your future crops.
I garden in this way and I have very few pests and diseases on my plants. It is completely organic, and very inexpensive.
If you have problems with snails and slugs (like most of us!), beer baits can be made. More effective are organic pet-safe snail pellets that are on the market nowadays, which I’ve found to be quite effective.
A great book to invest in if you’re interested in vegetable gardening is “Organic Gardening” by Peter Bennet. Although it deals in most part with gardening in Australia and New Zealand, the general methods can be adapted to anywhere in the world, and it does a fantastic job in explaining the general concepts of gardening in a way that is safe, easy, affordable, responsible, and – most importantly – fun and rewarding!!
Good luck! Rest assured – once you start, the gardening bug will get you and you won’t be able to stop! 😀
sleepy_cat
December 1, 2011 at 2:21 am
Start with having animal remains or manure, dig the fallow ground and mix the soil with the manure.
Keep the ground wet and too wet.
This is the time to get your seedlings depending on the plant.
By this time your soil is made fertile by the application of manure.
pjadamz
December 1, 2011 at 3:12 am
1. Make standing appointments with a really good chiropractor
Tashi D
December 1, 2011 at 3:54 am
First pick a nice sunny location in your yard. Then go buy some grass and weed killer and spray the location. It works in like 2 to 3 days. You want that grass dead or you are going to have nothing but problems !! Till up the ground and through in some cow manure from the store and bone meal too if you can find it. Plant and enjoy!!
my1967_327chevelle
December 1, 2011 at 4:13 am
All the ideas are good but you should learn a little and think about what you really want to grow first.
jt c
December 1, 2011 at 4:54 am