Vegetable Gardening

Growing zucchini is gratifying because the large plant matures quickly and is simple to keep healthy. here's a reason zucchini, a summer squash, is such a popular crop in the home garden: It's easy to start, can be grown in containers, and once zucchini plants start producing, they can be amazingly prolific. Since zucchini seeds will come to maturity quickly — about 45 to 55 days — you can even wait until August to plant for an early fall harvest. In fact, many experts recommend waiting until mid-July to plant so you can avoid infestation of a specific type of squash bug. Feeling inspired? Here's everything you need to know about planting, growing, harvesting and using zucchini.

Do you have a feast or famine relationship with lettuce? Does your garden have more lettuce than you can eat in the spring, and then nothing for the rest of the year?
Lettuce is regarded as a cool-season vegetable, and in most home gardens, it is planted in the early spring, harvested in late spring to early summer, and then discarded in favor of other vegetables for the middle of the summer. Some gardeners may replant a second crop of lettuce as the days grow cooler in fall, but most do not grow lettuce at all in the midsummer period, focusing instead on warm-season vegetables. Although lettuce loves to grow in cool weather, you can often continue to enjoy fresh tender lettuce throughout the summer, if you follow these seven simple tips.

As with all gardening, growing vegetables takes experience. It's not particularly difficult, but plants can be unpredictable and uncooperative. Growing your own vegetables and herbs is a fun and rewarding way to feed your family. But unfortunately, sometimes things go wrong. Here's a list of common mistakes to avoid to keep your vegetable garden in tip-top shape. Take a moment to find out what mistakes you may not know you're making; if you avoid these mistakes, this year's harvest could be your best yet.

Yellow squash, named for their slightly curved necks, are easy to cultivate in the vegetable garden. The warm-growing plants grow quickly and have large leaves with small, sticky spines and a bushy habit. Their yellow fruits, which form under the leaves, can have a smooth or bumpy skin. For best flavor, pick them when they are small and tender. The plants are so prolific that one or two are usually enough to feed a family. Today I’d like to share with you the comprehensive guide of how to grow and maintain the Yellow Squash in your garden.

Gardening is an ongoing process, and while timing is important, don't be overwhelmed by a sense of being too late to plant. In truth, every season is different, and garden planting dates are even harder to peg down than traditional wisdom would lead one to believe! I want to emphasise that it is not too late to plant a great garden, even in June. While it's true that fruit-bearing plants like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant need to be sown now, many if not most summer crops will grow even faster from seeds planted in early summer when the soil is well warmed and teeming with life. You'll be surprised how quickly the seeds will come up and explode with growth. Discover some of the vegetables you can sow in June.

This gourmet crop takes time to grow, but the results are well worth it. Asparagus is one of the first vegetables that is ready to harvest in the spring and also one of the few perennial vegetables grown in the garden. Asparagus, viewed as the height of indulgence, can be grown in any garden with the correct care. If you love asparagus and want to grow some yourself, discover how to cultivate your own tasty, tender spears.

As you know, planting different types of vegetables close to each other can boost growth, repel pests, and even improve the flavor of your harvest. In addition to the benefits to your plants, companion planting uses your garden space more efficiently, allowing you to harvest more varieties in a given space. Today we’ll focus on squash, pepper, leek, kale, sweet potato, spinach, lettuce, parsley, watermelon, and pea. Discover the third part of the basic rules of creating a companion vegetable garden, that allows you to take advantage of these useful and beneficial relationships.

Discover the second part of the basic rules of creating a companion vegetable garden, that would allow you to take advantage of these useful and beneficial relationships. Companion planting vegetables can provide huge benefits to both plants when planted together. Here are just some of the benefits this type of gardening can provide! Today we’ll talk about cauliflower, tomatoes, celery, eggplant, chayote, cucumber, horseradish, and onion.

Once reserved for ethnic dishes and hot sauce, chili peppers have become an extremely popular crop among many home gardeners. Their spicy, yet slightly sweet taste is undeniably delicious and they can be used in an assortment of dishes.
Growing chili peppers isn’t really hard; even novice gardeners can successfully grow these chilies. This guide will show you how to grow chili peppers of all types in your own home garden and includes answers to many of your growing questions, such as pepper plant spacing, sun needs, length of growing season, chili pepper growing tips and more. You will also find a Chili Lineup to learn the full range of chili tastes and heat scale.

Plants that assist each other to grow well, plants that repel insects, even plants that repel other plants — all are of great practical use. companion planting, it’s a very practical way to increase your gardening efficiency. For almost everything you grow, there are vegetables (and other plants) that you can put alongside it to provide benefits and encourage healthier plants. By growing certain vegetables together (and avoiding planting other “unfriendly” vegetables nearby), you can utilize the properties of companion plants to have healthier vegetation and receive higher yields. Discover the basic rules of creating a companion vegetable garden, that will allow you to take advantage of these useful and beneficial relationships.

One of the most important things you must understand when planting a garden is that different vegetables require different amounts of room to grow. The possibilities are virtually endless as are the spacing calculations. Every variety you choose should not only be chosen for the end product (the veggies and fruits your family will eat and any flowers you have in mind), but also for their ability to fit into the space you have to work with. The space at which you plant out your crops has a direct effect on their size and quality. Space crops too closely, and yield is poor. If you set them too far apart, you’re wasting valuable plot space. But there’s more to it than that: light soils can’t support spacing as close as heavier ones due to their free drainage.
Root and bulb crops are very sensitive to spacing: for baby carrots thin to 1⁄2in apart, but for big main crop roots leave 3in between plants. If you fancy huge slicing onions, place sets 10in apart each way. Massive cauliflowers can be achieved at 3ft spacing, but mini-heads can be grown with 12in distances. So many kinds of vegetables need different spacing, and it can be difficult to remember how much space goes between each plant. Here is what I have learned about plant spacing, including a couple of plant spacing calculators which help do some work for you. In order to make growing a garden easier, I have put together a plant spacing chart to help you.

April is a busy time in the veg garden, as lots of seeds can be sown this month. Now that the days are longer and warmer, you can start sowing some crops, such as carrots or peas, outside. Discover which container crops you can sow in April. More tender crops like aubergines and courgettes, still need to be sown under glass, either in a greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill. You can also plant out potatoes, as well as onions sets, shallots and garlic and Jerusalem artichokes. Find out which crops you can sow in April and get fresh pickings all year from even the tiniest space.