Vegetable gardening is nutritious in both body and mind. It’s exciting to watch a little seed turn into a sprout, then into a small plant, and eventually, into a big ole squash plant that’s bursting with bright yellow gourds and giant green leaves. Digging your hands into cool soil is meditative. Smelling the basil and dill is heavenly. And you don’t have to live on a country estate to grow your own food at home, either.
City dwellers can plant vegetables in patio container gardens. In cold climates, you can start a small garden indoors or even grow vegetables outdoors most of the year if you have a greenhouse.
When it comes to planning a backyard vegetable garden, ideas are easy to come by. There are plenty of pictures of elaborate gardens with rows of sun-ripened tomatoes, entire sections devoted solely to peas, raised beds for root vegetables, and, of course, a fountain and seating area. We don’t all have gigantic yards, though. As nice as it would be to have row after row of heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers, it’s just not realistic when your backyard garden is a two-foot by four-foot rectangle between your driveway and the foundation of your house.
The thing is, you can create a really nice garden in that small rectangle of space. It’s a simple matter of timing, design, and plant selection. But if you have a large backyard, even better!
In the articles below, we dive into everything you need to know about vegetable gardening. You can learn even more in our How to Grow a Vegetable Garden: 10 Things Every Gardener Needs to Know Before Starting a Food Garden freebie. Enjoy!
When Emily Dickinson wrote this poem in the mid-1800s, she may or may not have been thinking about flowers for a vegetable garden. There’s really no way to say. She is, however, absolutely correct in that without bees and other pollinators, we would have a lot fewer fruits and vegetables in this world. Melons, squash, cucumbers, blueberries, cranberries, and cherries would all be lost without pollinators. I’ve seen tomato plants grow sky high without growing a single tomato.
While I love many tomatoes – I’ve grown over 100 varieties on my Seattle city lot in a season – heart-shaped tomatoes hold a special spot in my affections. They were a mindblower for me when I discovered them about eight years ago, and when I am looking for a larger tomato, they remain my […]
When it comes to a backyard vegetable garden, ideas are easy to come by. There are plenty of pictures of elaborate gardens with rows of sun-ripened tomatoes, entire sections devoted solely to peas, raised beds for root vegetables, and, of course, a fountain and seating area. We don’t all have gigantic yards, though. As nice as it would be to have row after row of heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers, it’s just not realistic when your backyard garden is a two-foot by four-foot rectangle between your driveway and the foundation of your house.
I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite Saturday morning activities is to sit down with a cup of tea and one of my favorite vegetable gardening magazines and dream about all the exciting veggies I could grow. Of course, that doesn’t happen every Saturday, but that’s okay. And did you know how […]
It’s understandable that most people don’t think about how to cover a garden in the winter. After all, by that time of the year, it’s usually just dirt, and what’s the point of covering that? Of course, it’s not quite that simple. There are several reasons to cover your garden over the winter, especially if […]
There are two ways to think about unique vegetable garden ideas: one is design and layout, and the other is what vegetables you grow. But why not combine them? There’s no rule that says you have to choose between interesting vegetables and fun garden design. At least, I don’t think there is.
Let’s just get this out of the way, produce is expensive at the grocery store. Last time I went through the checkout, I thought I must have paid for someone else’s stuff. I walked out of the store with two bags of food, but it sure felt like I paid for a week’s worth of snacks for a high-school soccer team. That’s one reason I love having a garden – it helps me cut down on my grocery bill. But let’s be real, saving money isn’t the only reason to grow your own food at home.
If you’ve ever bought produce at the grocery store, it’s probably a guarantee that you went home with hybrid vegetables. If you frequent your farmers’ market, you may very well walk away with heirloom vegetables. And if you’ve eaten anything that came from a box or a can or you’ve enjoyed a carbonated cold drink, you’ve almost definitely had GMO vegetables.
Can you eat green tomatoes? Raw? Cooked? Diced into a salsa? Oh, this question is as old as time. What else would we bicker about at our gardening clubs, if not green tomatoes? I don’t know if you’ve ever been a part of a social media group for gardening where a thread turns into something […]
When I think of deer-resistant vegetables, it’s usually a cartoon that comes to mind. I can picture little veggies with shields and swords trying to ward off a herd of hungry deer, mouths drooling, hooves stamping, and a little fire in their eyes. The vegetables are tenacious and scrappy, maybe leeks, banding together behind Sgt. Garlic and Captain Onion.
