How to Garden And Care for Small Vegetable Gardens
Learning how to garden and caring for any garden is a lot of work. Small vegetable gardens are a great way to get results without having a significant workload. Learning how to care for small vegetable gardens is as simple as following these tips.
How to garden in a small vegetable garden
Mark off the Garden
Unless you have a fenced in spot in your backyard, you will want to make sure you mark off your small veggies garden. There are many different options you have including having a small garden in the ground all the way to having a verticle garden on your wall.
When creating a garden area in your yard, you can take out the lawn and have a dirt spot for your garden, or you can use flower beds or other already grassless areas to create your garden. If you do take out your grass, you will want to use a rototiller to ensure you get all the grass roots out and break up the soil enough to let the plant roots breath.
You can also use a box or container such as a raised garden box or container gardening pots. These are real options for those who do not have a space of land to use as a garden. Raised bed gardens are easy to use as square foot gardens or mound gardens, and you can feed a lot of people with the right set up of small vegetable gardens.
How to care for small vegetable gardens
Don’t Forget to Water
Without water, your vegetables will not be able to grow and help feed you. It can be easy to forget to water the garden, but it’s super important with small vegetable gardens. I often forget to water my plants as they are in a spot we don’t regularly hang out. I had to come up with ideas of ways to remember so here are some of the tips I used.
I often have set a timer each day on my phone (thank you siri!) to help me remember to water the vegetables in the garden. This gave me the reminder at a time of day when I was able to water them always. I set it for after the kids were in bed so I was always home and always available.
Another option is to get an automatic drip system for your garden. These can be found many places and work very well to always get the small vegetable garden watered. Most work on a timer or you can hook them up to your sprinkler system that waters your lawn.
Dealing with Pests
You can block off your vegetable garden from larger animals, but keeping your garden free from smaller pests is a little more difficult. There are lots of options for preventing them from getting into your garden. You could use anything from chemicals to natural plants as deterrents. There are many bug killers you can buy to put on the plants to keep them from eating your plants. There are also fences you can put up for the smaller animals that are not insects.
You may be growing your vegetables to help avoid eating vegetables with pesticides on them. To keep pests out of your garden without using chemicals, consider using plants or home remedies like essential oils or even vinegar. These treatments may take longer to work, so be patient while you try them and know that they do work.
Getting Rid of the Weeds
One thing that is unfortunate when dealing with a small vegetable garden is the weeds you have to deal with. You will not want to wait too long to address the weeds in your garden because they can get out of hand quickly. You can also use natural ingredients to help you get rid of the weeds in your garden; you just need to find a mixture that works best for you.
Taking care of small vegetable gardens isn’t very complicated, it’s just a bunch of little “chores” that add up. However, the end result is very yummy and nutritious.
Thank you for the great ideas!