Vegetable Gardening (4 page)

How This Book Is Organized

Like all
For Dummies
books, this book is broken into parts. Each part has a number of chapters related to a theme. Here's an overview to get you oriented with the organization.

Part I: Digging Into the Basics of Vegetable Gardening

Vegetable gardening is about more than just growing tasty food. You can find many other reasons and benefits of vegetable gardening, and I explain them in this part. I also cover information you need to know to plan your garden, such as determining the importance of sun and soil, deciding what to grow, and exploring some sample garden designs.

Part II: Vegging Out

Each chapter in this part explores vegetables grouped by botanical family (such as the squash family) or commonality (such as root crops). Each chapter is loaded with the best varieties to grow and specifics on how to grow them. I also provide information to help combat specific pests that may attack each crop. Chapter 12 is all about other edibles, such as berries and herbs. Food comes in many forms, and berries and herbs are some of the easiest and most reliable producers in your yard.

Part III: Getting Down and Dirty in Your Vegetable Garden

Now for the good stuff: building your garden and getting it growing. In this part, I talk about starting seeds; improving your soil; maintaining your garden with proper watering, fertilizing, and mulching; using some extra-cool gardening techniques, such as succession planting; applying pest and disease controls; growing in containers; and harvesting and storage. Whew, that's a lot of great information!

Part IV: The Part of Tens

This book wouldn't be a
For Dummies
book without the always-popular Part of Tens. The final chapters in this book look at the ten best tools to get the job done and nearly ten great season-extending techniques that enable you to garden earlier in spring and later into fall.

Icons Used in This Book

Like all
For Dummies
books, this book has icons that highlight great tips, warnings, and other specific topics. Here are the ones in this book:

Are you interested in growing plants in containers? If so, look for these icons throughout the book.

One of the best parts of vegetable gardening is involving kids. This icon marks plants that kids love or special gardening tips you can try with your little ones.

This icon highlights important information that helps you garden better. Don't forget this stuff!

If you want to go a little deeper in your knowledge of a plant or technique, read information marked with this icon.

This icon highlights information that saves time and money. Even experienced gardeners can learn something from these tidbits!

Sometimes you can make mistakes in the garden, and that's okay. To help minimize your mistakes, this icon alerts you to potential pitfalls.

Where to Go from Here

Start with the basics by taking in the information in Part I about seeds, plants, soil, your site, and garden planning. Then dive into your list of dream vegetables that you want to grow in your garden. Come back to the book periodically throughout the growing season to find out more about pest solutions in Chapter 17 and season extending in Chapter 21. And don't forget to keep harvesting the fruits of all your fine work.

This is just the beginning of your vegetable garden experience. Many resources are available for vegetable gardeners (the appendix can get you started). The key is to get started and keep learning. After tasting one of your first homegrown peas, you'll be hooked for life.

Part I

In this part . . .

In this part, I get your vegetable gardening juices flowing. You first find out the environmental, social, and health reasons for growing some of your own food. Then you delve into planning your plot; I talk about the right sun, soil, and growing conditions for your vegetable garden and provide ideas for garden designs along with some samples.

Chapter 1: Vegetable Gardening 101

In This Chapter

Understanding why people grow veggies

Beginning with the basics of planning

Surveying some great vegetables to grow

Keeping your garden growing well

I've been vegetable gardening my whole life. I've followed my grandfather picking stones out of the potato patch, weeded my mother's garden, taught my daughter to plant her first seeds, and built cold frames to maximize the amount of food my wife and I can grow in our yard with edible landscaping. I can attest that once you start, vegetable gardening becomes part of your life. It's not surprising that it grows on you.

In this chapter, I start you off with basics on site preparation, and I tell you what to grow and how to grow it. All the details that follow in subsequent chapters build on the information you need to know to be a successful vege-table gardener. Along the way I hope you are inspired to get some dirt under your fingernails and start your own garden. Dig in!

Why Have Your Own Vegetable Garden?

Over the years people had drifted away from vegetable gardening in the spirit of progress and affluence. However, more recently people are once again realizing that growing their own food, although not as critical to survival as it once was, is an important part of a healthy body, mind, spirit, lifestyle, and community. More people are again turning to vegetable gardening as a means of food and as a hobby. Even the president and first lady have installed a vege-table garden at the White House. Vegetable gardening is officially back!

Who can resist the flavor, smell, and texture of food literally picked minutes before you eat it? It you've ever sunk your teeth into a sun-warmed, ripe tomato and felt the juices and flavors explode in your mouth, you'll know what I mean.

But vegetable gardening isn't just about taste. It's about safe food that's produced close to home. It's about knowing what has been sprayed on that food. It's about feeding your friends and family nutritious food that's high in vitamins and
antioxidants
(cancer-fighting compounds). It's about connecting with your neighbors and community as you experiment with ethnic dishes using exotic ingredients grown in your not-so-exotic backyard. It's about reducing pollution and global warming by not buying produce that's shipped hundreds of miles to your local grocery store. Finally it's about reclaiming your ability to grow some of your own food, even if it's a container of basil, to have a little more control in your life.

If you're interested in finding out more about the popularity and benefits of vegetable gardening, be sure to check out Chapter 2.

The Basics of Planning a Veggie Garden

When's the best time to start vegetable gardening? Right now! Here are the basics on how to decide where to grow yours:

Find a spot close to the house that you walk by daily so you don't forget about your project.

Find a spot that gets at least 6 hours of direct sun a day.

Find a spot that has great soil.

Keep your new garden small. You can be just as productive in a small raised bed garden, container, or small kitchen garden as you would be if you tilled your whole backyard. Start small, be successful, and then get bigger (if you want).

What should you put in your new garden? Well, you have many vegetable options when it comes to deciding what you can grow, so it's going to be tough deciding which ones to plant. The most important rule I can tell you is to grow what you like to eat. Yes, folks, this is all about taste. So no matter what people say about how easy beans are to grow, don't grow them if you hate to eat them. (Of course, after tasting fresh green beans from the garden, you may change your tune.) Grow a mix of varieties of favorite vegetables that you and your family will love. Also, try a few different ones to stretch your imagination.

Chapter 3 has plenty of pointers to help you plan your garden wisely.

A Cornucopia of Vegetables to Grow

You can grow many different types of vegetables in your yard — and not just in the backyard. These days veggies are pretty enough to be front and center. The following sections describe some of the most popular to get you started. Hopefully you have plenty of room!

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are the most popular vegetable grown — and for good reason. The difference between a vine-ripened fruit and one picked green, gassed, and shipped hundreds of miles to your grocery store is incomparable. You can choose from container varieties that produce fruit the size of a pea and giant plants that grow to the height of a garage and produce fruits the size of a softball! You can even grow varieties of tomatoes with fruits every color of the rainbow except blue (however, I wouldn't be surprised to see that color someday either).

Tomatoes love the heat and sun and require fertile soil and support. Unless you're growing the dwarf varieties, stakes, cages, trellises, teepees, and arbors are essential for keeping plants growing upright and strong. You only need a few plants to keep your family in tomatoes most of the summer. Chapter 4 has the full scoop on growing tomatoes.