Spring
Your spring vegetable garden has an array of possibilities that you can plant and keep busy at within your garden during these early sometimes wet months of the year. The weather is cooler than that of the summer months but is considerably warmer than the winter you have just emerged from. Peas are a perfect vegetable to start planting and getting ready, as well as leafy vegetables like lettuce, perennial vegetables such as rhubarb and asparagus and beets, mustard, onions, radishes and spinach. Asparagus for example is one of a few vegetables that you can plant once and then see return year after year without the need for you to plant over and over again. Most people when they think of spring they think of lambs, snowdrops and of course these delicious vegetables which taste completely different when hand picked from your garden rather than bought from the store.

Summer
The summer vegetable garden is where the fun really starts! This is when the possibilities are really opened up for you. Now if you live somewhere where the heat really turns up during the summer months then there is no need to despair as there are still vegetables that you can grow that can withstand the hottest weather and grow in abundance; Okra for example as well as black eyed, purple hull peas and butter beans! You may find that during the summer months you may have problems with various insects that attack your garden so make sure you take precautions to combat these pests before you end up with a mass infestation that can devastate your vegetables making them a failed crop. Try not to use pesticides as this will taint the taste, try keeping things organic for the fullest flavors. Other summer vegetables that can be grown in more reasonable summer climates include; Tomatoes, peppers, beans and courgettes as well as cucumbers. Always remember to water your plants regularly as well as weed them. The summer vegetable garden should always be harvested every two to three days to make sure you get all of the ripe fruits of your labor as they become mature enough to eat!
 

How to start indoor vegetable gardening could never be so easy with the supplies that are available on today’s markets! So let’s have a look at what you will need and the things that you need to consider. The main things you need to think about is the temperature, light and how pollination is going to occur. Now one of the main things people forget is that vegetable seeds seem to be in short supply in your local stores during the colder months of the year so make sure you stock up early in the warmer months those vegetables you want to grow indoors during the winter. It is also best to start your indoor vegetable garden around the fall time as the heat is not too much and the cold not too cold – perfect! Now depending on what vegetables you want to grow will depend on where indoors you can grow them. Certain vegetables can withstand cooler indoor temperatures where as others need more warmth. Leaf and root vegetable crops are often the ones that can take a more wide range of heats where as tomatoes, peppers and beans need warmer places to grow.

When it comes to light you need to make sure that your indoor garden has plenty of sunlight, six to eight hours is best to ensure the plants survival. If you find that by being near the window means that the plants are getting too cold then you may need to buy lights to help compensate whilst keeping them away from the cold. The best tubes to use for this are a combination of white cool and warm tubes to replicate the suns rays.
 

I am often asked which guide is the best for teaching on planting a vegetable garden for beginners and I have to say that there are several on the market that certainly warrant attention for all budding gardening beginners. Recently a friend of mine showed me a copy of a new guide that had caught her attention and only after reading a few pages I was hooked.

Vegetable Gardening 101 – Save money growing your own vegetables, is an amazing, precise, straight to the point read that tell you in terms that you can understand (not like the jargon some guides use). The writer begins by telling you about how she started off a corporate working girl with a determination to find ways of saving money due to the recession. We are all in this recession and her words of encouragement and advice really do fit into your life with ease regardless of weather you have acres of garden space or a patio in which to create your vegetable garden; anything is possible. Most people find that it is when they get to the actual planting they panic and find it hard to know just what vegetables are the right one for them to plant. Vegetable Gardening 101 teaches you weather you are a beginner or weather you’re more advanced just how to cultivate any size space into a wonderful, functioning vegetable garden that will save you money on your grocery bills each month. Depending on the season you can plant just about anything regardless of the amount of space that you have.

Finding the right book to guide you can be hard to find, especially one that is so down to earth and after reading Vegetable Gardening 101 I can recommend that this guide is the right one for those of you that want to save money, help the environment, want tips and even advice on where to begin when it comes to creating the right vegetable garden for you!!! Planting doesn’t have to be hard as some people make it out to be (you know who you are!!), so make your life easy and even if you are a beginner you can eat fresh delicious produce right from your own garden.

You can find this guide here.

There is not as much to do as you think when you starting vegetable gardens; turning up the soil and making compost, planting the seeds, watering and then just sit back and watch your work grow!!!!

Making your own compost is so easy even your children can do it alone. All you have to do is dig a shallow hole, place all of your kitchen scraps, newspapers and garden debris into it and then place the soil back over again. Leave for about a week and you will find that you will have perfect compost! Use this compost to really give your soil a good boost of vitamins and conditioning before you plant. There is a golden rule that states you should do this and then leave the soil alone for a week or two before you plant your seeds as it does take time for everything to really get into the soil.

After planting make sure that you keep your vegetable garden weeded and watered. Let Mother Nature do the rest. Some people say that starting vegetable gardens are hard and complicated but why make it harder than it is? It’s easy peasy really!!
 

The raised bed vegetable garden is the garden that saves your back when it comes to caring for your vegetable, herbs and flowers. They can come in many shapes and sizes all depending on the amount of prime space you have available at your disposal. There are many different ways of using raised bed gardening that actually work! There are many different ways that people argue over that are supposed to be better than the other:
One of the most favored methods that people agree upon as being the best way to give your raised bed gardening, a boost is the organic way. By using all of your old kitchen leftovers that are biodegradable, old newspapers that have been watered and mashed up, your newly cut grass ends and raked up leaves from the garden you can create compost that is amazing for your raised beds. Some people argue that adding the juice and zest of a lemon is also important where as others think it is not. It’s totally up to you that one! Place these things together between lavish amounts of store bought compose and your seedling to create the ideal environment for growing.
Another way that is constantly spoken about is the ideal way to grow vegetables within the family of pumpkins. If you have a corner that is spare then brush all of your leaves into that corner, your degradable rubbish, weeds, and other back yard unwanted mess. Add a few hand full’s of store bought or your own mix compost and plant your seeds. The effect is amazing! You will see in no time that your vegetables will really take off and even better you will see the pile disappear before your eyes!! So make sure that you keep feeding the pile.
The other way to make sure that your raised bed vegetable garden gets a real kick start is to get hold of some scraps of old unused natural carpet. Then use this in place of the newspaper or cardboard that you would normally use. The roots of the vegetables, herbs or flowers that you are growing find the weaving easier to adhere to and are successfully kept moist and watered by the carpet fibers that retain the moisture each time you water better than newspaper or cardboard ever would.

First you have to start right at the beginning to ensure that your vegetables will be top notch, so before you plant make sure you ready your soil by fertilizing it with some good compost. Home made compost is the easiest, cheapest and economical way to provide your soils with the right kind of compost it deserves. Now what not many people know and is a beginners mistake is that it takes a few weeks for the soil to integrate properly with the fertilizer so make sure you do this up to a month before you plant to truly ensure that your soil is ready and rich with nutrients for your vegetable seeds.

Insects are always the bane of a gardener’s life, along with cats and other nocturnal creatures. They can ruin a good crop and desecrate others, so to ensure that your plot is left alone there are a few tricks that will keep them away. Plant a boarder around your beds and occasionally spread about randomly plants like garlic, herbs like chives and flowers like chrysanthemums to deter them away as they hate the smell of them. Other people visit their local zoo or lion park and get lion poo as cats will not defecate in your garden if you use it as fertilizer; it scares the life out of them!
 
Another good tip is to use up your old newspapers combined with straw to create the best weed eliminator between your rows of beds. This combination will help the soil to retain water but will not allow the sun to penetrate beneath the newspaper to allow the weeds to grow. It really helps and if covered with enough straw provides an alternative look to your pathways. At the end of your season use the newspapers and straw and add it to your compost it will decay well and is eco friendly. Replace at the beginning of each new season to ensure the weeds don’t return.

Use these vegetable gardening tips to ensure that your garden blooms and grows to its fullest capacity and beauty.
 

Having a potted vegetable garden for some is the most perfect and convenient way of having a vegetable garden but without all of the hassle of having a regular vegetable garden. The potted vegetable garden is handy in the respect it can be moved anywhere without any fuss or problems and can be grown almost anywhere regardless of weather or if you have a back garden at all i.e. if you live in a flat.

Potted vegetable gardens are often used to cultivate herbs and are also often the main staple of a traditional kitchen garden. Potted gardens are also perfect for those of us that still want a vegetable garden but find that their lives are very demanding which leaves them limited time to fully commit themselves to growing a full scale vegetable garden. A potted vegetable garden can be placed almost anywhere that there is sunlight and as long as you have enough time to rotate the pots once a day you can grow almost anything!

Most people start with several medium planting bowls that have a single drainage hole at the bottom. This hole needs to be covered, some people find that using broken ceramics are the best and it is also another way to recycle your broken plates and cups! Over the top of this a loose layer of gravel should be placed no higher than half an inch. Fill it with some good quality compost or compost you have managed to create yourself. Now that you have made sure that you have the right place for them to be situated with the correct amount of sunlight and have prepared the pots for planting, we need to begin with placing the seeds inside the pots.

With your finger push a little hole into the center of each pot and wiggle about so that a good depth is reached. Take your finger out and gently water the hole before putting in the seeds. Open up the packet and sprinkle the seeds into the hole. Collapse the hole, and gentle pat the soil over the seeds, not to tightly I must add, but gently. Again water the seeds with a small sprinkle of water. It is best to mark the pots in someway so that you know which one is growing which herb or vegetable. Place out into the sun where you choose for them to be and once a week turn the pots slightly and water them. Some people add growing intensifiers but that is a personal choice and up to you.