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!
Once upon a time, when I was just a sprightly seven-year-old, I embarked on an adventure in our family garden that would forever be etched in my memory. Our backyard was a small piece of suburban paradise, enclosed by a six-foot fence adorned with grapevines on one side and delicate lattice on the other. Most […]
I grew up on the North side of Sacramento, which, to the best of my knowledge, was then, and still is the tomato capital of the United States. Back then, my suburban neighborhood was still surrounded by family farms ranging from 10 to 50 acres, and it was in this close-knit community that I had […]
Fellow food gardeners, gather ’round, for I have embarked on a culinary journey that has left my taste buds dancing the salsa, waltzing the foxtrot, and even attempting the moonwalk. Allow me to introduce you to my latest obsession, the tomato that has won my heart, stomach, and possibly even my soul – the Sunchocola […]
It is officially fall! Oh, how I love this time of year. I love the crisp air, brisk mornings, and crunch of frost beneath my feet. The afternoons bring sunshine, a hint of warmth in the air, and the sounds of kids coming home from school. There is so much color everywhere! We still see […]
When the summer starts to wind down, and the early frost warnings start to kick in before you settle in for a long winter’s nap, you probably have a few fledgling tomato plants left. If they’re like mine, they’re probably not pretty; a bit of disease starts to crop up, leaves are beginning to change with the season, but yet…the tomatoes live on. Once it’s colder, though, they’re just not changing color anymore (or at least not quickly), and you’ll want to know how to ripen tomatoes quickly so you can get your lunch on.
Hey there, fellow food garden enthusiasts! If you’re reading this, you probably share our love for gardening and the satisfaction of growing your own delicious, homegrown produce. Well, let me tell you about the adventure my wife and I embarked on this summer – dealing with the biggest, most bodacious tomato harvest we’ve ever had! […]
Some things are meant to be together: wine and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, Simon and Garfunkel, and the three sisters. The three sisters, otherwise known as corn, beans, and squash, are three of the best vegetables to plant together. There is evidence that indigenous people of what is now Mexico and the southwestern United States were planting these three crops together thousands of years ago.
Let me tell you about the first time I grew broccoli. I planted three in a row. They were one of the first to grow in my garden that year, and I was proud. As they started to go from small heads to the kind you see in the grocery store, I realized I didn’t know how to cut broccoli off the plant. And honestly, I was confused why anyone would grow such a big plant for one head of broccoli.
As much as I love the idea of microbiomes and letting nature do its thing, when it comes to finding aphids on tomato plants in my garden, I tend to take things into my own hands. If you haven’t come across them, you probably will at some point in your gardening experience. Aphids are tiny […]
Almost any gardener can tell you that the beauty and joy of a garden are proportional to the amount of work that goes into it. That gorgeous garden with deep purple eggplants, bright yellow squash blossoms, lush greenery, and tall tomato vines results from a fair amount of vegetable garden maintenance. That’s not a complaint. […]
