Vegetable Gardening 101

I caught the gardening bug when I helped tend the family vegetable garden during my early teenage years. The bug never left me; for the past 20 years, I have enjoyed cultivating a 350-square-foot vegetable patch.

Vegetable gardening has for long had an uncool image. However, topical issues such as sustainability, climate change, and organic farming have made vegetable gardening trendy. Also, the pandemic nudged many people, including millennials, into gardening.

Gardening is among the few activities wherein you reap much more than you sow. Do consider vegetable gardening if you are not already into it.

I will share my gardening notes in a two-part post. In this first part, I will focus on the planting season, and later, I will write about the post-planting season.

Benefits of gardening

Gardening nourishes the soul! It really does.

The mix of physical exercise and nature connection makes gardening therapeutic.

Homegrown veggies are tastier than the commercially stored and distributed ones.

Desirable qualities of a gardener

Because gardening does not provide instant gratification, you must be patient, disciplined, and have a nurturing instinct. 

Garden types and location

The garden should be near a water source and get direct sunlight for six to eight hours  daily.

I have an in-ground garden. I replenish the soil biennially and amend it at the planting holes.

I should upgrade to a raised bed garden, which is ergonomic, has lesser weed/pest infestation, better water drainage, and enables soil control.

I use five/seven-gallon containers to grow climber vegetables. I locate the containers near my house to use the house walls for trellising.

Containers should be of appropriate size and have drainage holes. Use potting mix and not garden soil in containers. Potting mix is a soilless mix of compost for plant feed and vermiculite/perlite for facilitating water drainage.

Garden aesthetics

I mostly ignore aesthetics. I can because I have a backyard garden.

For aesthetics, opt for a raised bed garden and grow companion flowers, such as marigolds, for beautification and more. Companion flowers are pest repellents and pollinator attractors.

Does vegetable gardening save money?

A budget-conscious gardener can use home supplies to reduce materials costs. There is an upfront cost, which is modest when spread across several years.

Because gardening is time-intensive, labor is the main cost. If the opportunity cost of the time spent on gardening is low, gardening can be money-saving. Note that the market prices of veggies are rock-bottom during the harvest season.

I have a somewhat high opportunity cost. For me, gardening is a labor of love. However, I do not go overboard; I have to strike the right balance with my other activities.

Vegetable mix

I shun single-yield vegetables such as cabbage and cauliflower. I prefer high-yielding veggies that bear fruit over weeks—tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans, zucchini, eggplant, bitter melons, and bottle gourds.

Growing bitter melons and bottle gourds is cumbersome because these vines grow haphazardly and need elaborate vertical support. I grow them because they are unavailable at local supermarkets. If possible, I avoid climber plants, though. Vertical gardening comes in handy when the garden area is small.

To smoothen vegetable supply, I plant tomato varieties of different maturities, grow an assortment of vegetables with a wide range of maturity periods, and stagger the transplanting of starter plants over multiple weeks.

Gardening inputs

The critical planting inputs are soil and seeds/starter plants. Plants love soft, spongy, rich in organic material, and slightly acidic to neutral soil. Soil with a pH between 6 and 7 is desirable.

Check your soil pH with a home test kit or at the local agricultural extension center. If the pH is off, raise it by adding limestone and lower it by adding sulfur.

I procure starter plants when they first become available and raise them indoors to have decent-sized plants to transplant eventually.

Garden layout

Crop rotation helps reduce plant disease; avoid growing the same vegetable at one location for consecutive years.

Locate the tallest plants on the north end, where they will not shade other plants.

Avoid growing incompatible vegetables alongside. 

Resist the temptation to cheat on recommended plant spacing. If you have to, cheat no more than 20 percent. 

Run veggie rows from north to south to maximize sun exposure.

Consider planting creeper veggies near the garden border so that the plants can spread outside the garden bed. I grow zucchini at the border.

Additionally, I plant garlic, chilies, and eggplant at the border to keep deer at bay.

Planting

I prepare the garden by working the soil with an electric tiller.

For two weeks before planting, I keep my starter plants outside for several hours daily to harden them for the real world.

Transplant when balmy weather is in the forecast for consecutive days.

Transplant early in the morning or evening to minimize direct sun exposure. An overcast day with a slight drizzle is perfect.

I water my starter plants a few hours before transplantation and add some liquid fertilizer to ease their transition to a new habitat.

I dig a one-gallon hole, fill it with garden soil and compost, and transplant the starter plant. I compact the base of the plant to ensure that the plant is upright.

Next, I spread wood mulch around the plant. Mulch inhibits weed growth and helps retain moisture. Finally, I water the plant. And I am good to go.

Sometime this October, I will write about how my garden fared from planting to the harvesting season.