Learning to Garden – Growing Vegetables

Have you ever tasted a tomato just picked from the vine? Or eaten corn on the cob minutes after it was harvested? If so, you know there’s nothing like the flavor and texture of fresh, fresh veggies.

A sizeable vegetable garden requires a lot more work than an herb garden. In fact, vegetable gardening can be one of the most time-consuming types of gardening. Many vegetables require watering and fertilizing at regular intervals, and various plants may need different types of maintenance. You may have to pinch off suckers, prune plants, or even manually fertilize flowers with a paint brush.

On the other hand, some vegetables are hardier and less demanding than others, requiring very little work. It’s also possible to grow just a few veggies in containers or small beds. Some plants like corn and squash require elbow room, but a single cherry tomato plant can be grown in one large pot.

Vegetable gardening can be fun and relaxing if you’re careful to choose varieties that don’t require constant attention. Many of us get great satisfaction from growing some of our own food and knowing exactly how it was raised. It can be very rewarding to have a hand in raising something you eat, especially if you can feed your entire family with it.

Some conventional methods of vegetable gardening involve the use of chemical products that may be damaging to the environment or leave harmful residue in the plants and their fruit. Organic or natural gardening techniques avoid the use of detrimental chemicals. It’s a personal choice and one to consider carefully.

Many people choose to garden organically because they like knowing that the food they’re growing is safer for their family than commercially grown produce. They may also value caring for the environment by not using harmful chemicals.

In any case, vegetable gardening is great for people who have a reasonable amount of time to care for a garden and are physically able to do so. It can be strenuous, so it’s important to be sure you can handle this type of work. Learning to garden with vegetables can be made quite a bit simpler with the use of raised beds, special tools, and human and animal helpers.

Previous in the series: Learning to Garden – Growing Herbs.
Next in the series: Learning to Garden – Growing Fruit.

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