How To Maintain a Simple Vegetable Garden?

Gardening is a hobby pursued by many people worldwide. According to the National Gardening Association, 35% of US households grow vegetables, plants, herbs, and fruits. Many people grow organic vegetables without pesticides to ensure their food is healthy and free of harmful chemicals. At the same time, other people grow their vegetables to save money on groceries.

Whatever the case, there are many reasons to grow your vegetables, including health benefits, better flavor, and environmental protection. The health benefits are a combination of nutrients and sunshine from gardening. Try these tips to maintain a simple vegetable garden that meets all your needs.

Common Vegetable Garden Plants

You can grow a variety of vegetables and herbs in your kitchen garden. Most people prefer to grow the food they eat daily. Last year's statistics showed that 86% of gardeners liked to grow tomatoes in their vegetable gardens.

The most grown vegetables are:

• Lettuce
• Sweet potato
• Cucumbers
• Onions
• Carrots
• Beans
• Sweet peppers
• Peas
• Hot peppers
• Radishes
• Zucchini
• Spinach

Tips to Maintain a Simple Vegetable Garden

Although growing your garden is relatively easy, some basic requirements, like soil, temperature, water needs, and nutrients, are needed for your vegetables to grow.

Here's what you need to do to maintain your home vegetable garden!

1. Choose Seasonal Vegetables

When planting vegetables for a home garden, try to grow only what you want or can take care of. If you have limited space, choose plants you can harvest over a long period of time, such as tomatoes, beans, and summer squash in the summer or lettuce, chard, and peas in the winter.

For example, broccoli, spinach, and cauliflower prefer cooler temperatures, so they are best grown in early spring. On the other hand, vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, and okra generally grow best in summer.

2. Companion Planting

It is common knowledge that some plants grow best in the company of other plants. This practice is known as companion planting. It provides a comprehensive approach to vegetable gardening, allowing you to grow multiple plants under the same conditions. It means little work but greater benefits, which include.

• Weed suppression
• Attracting beneficial pollinators for each other
• Keep pests away
• Improve soil fertility

For example, tomatoes grow best with basil. Basil repels insects that rot tomatoes. In return, tomato plants provide proper shade and temperature for basil to thrive.

Likewise, garlic is a strong aphid repellent. So, plant garlic alongside potatoes, cabbages, and lettuce in the growing season. It will prevent the aphids from attacking these vegetables, keeping them safe and healthy in the long run.

3. Use Raised Beds

Raised Garden beds are an excellent option for people with limited growing space. With raised beds, the soil is new and nutrient-rich, less compacted, has better drainage, and makes gardening available for everyone. It allows you to have separate garden beds for vegetables and plants with different needs. It also prevents the roots of the plants from growing openly without harming each other.

DripWorks offers raised bed varieties in sizes such as 78" x 24" and 96" x 24". They are also available in all sizes and shapes, including oval, round, and rectangle. However, you can also DIY them according to your liking!

4. Keep Weeds Out

Weeds are the number one destroyer of vegetables and plants. They spread into the soil, sucking up nutrients and eventually destroying your plants.

Our advice is to try to dig out weeds every week! Use a weed remover tool such as a rake to remove unwanted weeds from your garden safely.

Prevent weeds from growing in your garden by using a weed barrier fabric. The fabric will allow water and air to pass while blocking weeds, so they don't overrun your garden. Since weeds often take up plant space, they might hinder the growth of your vegetables. So, protect your plants by properly allowing them room to grow.

5. Mulch It Up

If you want your garden to be healthy and maintained, add mulch! You may ask, what is mulch? Well, it is any natural or synthetic material used to layer the top surface of the soil.

It helps hold the soil's moisture and keep weeds out. It also prevents pests and diseases from attacking plants and vegetables. With time, this mulch decomposes and breaks down into smaller organic matter. It adds to the soil's nutrients, enriching it for the next gardening season.

You can use any natural materials, such as chopped-up leaves, grass, straws, compost, shredded bark, or even paper, as a layer of mulch. Synthetic mulches, such as geotextiles or black plastic, can also be used. However, organic mulches are preferred for healthy vegetable growth.

6. Watering Properly

A healthy vegetable garden needs proper irrigation to grow plants. Different plants have different water requirements. Vegetables like spinach, lettuce, and broccoli are draught-sensitive, so they need daily water to grow. Also, inground plants such as potatoes, onions, cucumbers, and eggplants need more water (approximately 1-2 inches) per week.

Irrigation methods such as micro-sprinklers or drip irrigation are used to meet these watering requirements. The best method is drip irrigation, as it delivers an adequate amount of water and nutrients directly to the roots. You can get drip irrigation products at DripWorks with complete kits and installation.

7. Keep the Soil in Check

Your vegetable garden depends upon the nutrient-richness of your soil. Only if your soil has essential nutrients in it can vegetables thrive. Also, different plants have different growth requirements. Therefore, compost your soil well.

Growers use crop rotation to avoid over-depleting soil nutrients. Crop rotation has numerous ecological and economic benefits. It helps compensate for nutrient deficiencies, making the soil balanced and rich for the next cycle.

The basic plant nutrients for vegetable gardens are potassium, nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, phosphorus, and carbon. Using natural compost and organic fertilizers occasionally can help meet these deficiencies.

8. Upgrade Your Toolkit

Lastly, keep your gardening tools clean and ready for planting, seeding, and harvesting. The right tools can help you maintain your vegetable garden and make jobs easier. You can use it to weed out, cut, prune, and do other gardening jobs.

Important gardening tools needed for vegetable gardening include:

• Rake
• Dibbler
• Soil Scoop
• Weeder hand trowel
• Transplanter

So, keep your tool kit upgraded. Use good-quality garden tools, as they can last long without breaking. DripWorks offers high-quality gardening tools that meet all your needs. With these tools, you can quickly make your vegetable garden a premium kitchen nursery!

The Bottom Line

Gardening is not just a hobby. It's a way to connect with nature and embrace a healthy lifestyle.

If you are looking for reliable gardening equipment, look no further than DripWorks. Visit our website today to learn how to improve your gardening care.