Vegetable Gardening: The Basics

     Several elements come into play when planning a garden.  Like all living things, food and water is needed to survive.  First, we will start with a proper foundation for our garden.  Having fertile soil is very important in achieving a successful garden.  Here in Austin, Tx, the soil is riddled with limestone.  It is next to impossible to dig down more than a couple of inches before hitting rocks.  We have tried many times to plant directly in the soil with very little if any success.  For this very reason, it is why we chose to set up raised beds.  Starting with the right soil will take a lot less work and the results will be rewarding.  We chose to have good organic soil delivered to fill our beds.  This was an expense well worth it's price in gold!  The veggies we planted last spring hardly needed any help whatsover.  Our soil is a mixture of compost, aged manure, rice hulls, and some decomposed granite for help in drainage.  There is a ton of organic material throughout.  Within weeks, our beds were the newest attraction for the worms.  They were everywhere!  They will tunnel through providing aeration to the soil and leave behind little worm "poo" to help feed the plants.  Our soil has become very "fluffy" and doesn't dry out very quickly.  So start them off right with the best foundation possible.

      If your soil is tired out and void of all nutrients, try mixing in compost that is rich in organic material.  I can't stress enough how much composting has improved our garden.  We have a pile in the back corner of the garden that we throw leaves, grass clippings, veggie peels, coffee grounds, and much more.  It seems to pretty much take care of itself from there.  All we have to do is keep it moist and turn it once in a while.  And the best part about it is it's FREE!  Your garden soil will love it year after year and so will your veggies.  Try not to make it too complicated.  If your compost doesn't heat up that's ok.  Our pile has never heated up and we still get good results.  We just pile it on and let nature take care of the rest.  When we want to side dress our veggies or use it as mulch, we just screen it and apply.  Also, we will take a couple of handfuls of our compost and brew some compost tea in a 5 gallon container.  Throw in some air stones to provide oxygen and some food for the beneficial bacteria.  We use about 1oz. of molasses mixed in.  We let this go for a couple of days then strain out the liquid.  Make sure your tea has an earthy smell with a hint of yeast.  Do not use a brewed tea that has an unpleasant smell!!!  We then dilute it at a 4:1 mix with water. This is either sprayed on the foliage or drenched  in the soil for the plants roots to take up.  Every couple of weeks will suffice and provide beneficial nutrients to your crops.

     The other important element is water!  This will make or break your garden.  Here in Texas, the summers are brutal.  Sometimes 30+ straight days of above 100 degrees.  The spring garden here is a race against time, so getting an early start is very important for your tomato and pepper transplants.  Also, your leafy green veggies will not hesitate to bolt. The summer heat will eat them alive if your timing isn't right.  We found that a minimum of 6 hours of direct sunlight was plenty for the garden. More would be better possibly but this is what we have available and everything seems to grow well.  Our new side yard addition will get a bit more sunlight which will help in our tomato, pepper, and melon yields.  As long as water is available, they should do well.  It is extremely important to keep the garden well mulched.  MULCH, MULCH, MULCH!!!  Use whatever you have available.  Compost, dried leaves, dried grass clipping, wheat straw, pine mulch, you get the idea. This will help retain the moisture in your beds and also keep your plants root from drying out.  Whether you water by hand or use a drip or soaker method, make sure your babies don't get too thirsty.  On the other hand, make sure you don't drown them either.  We water deeply at fewer intervals.  One thing we are planning to do is harvesting rainwater.  Once I can find some proper containers and install gutters and downspouts, we should be able to reduce our water bill.  But, that is a project we will put on the list. (Baby steps, remember) We plan to give you a step by step of the project.  So keep watching soon!

      When July arrives, we try to have most everything ready to harvest.  Some things we'll let bolt to collect seeds for future plantings. We will give the garden a "rest" and make preparations for round 2.  Yes! That's right!  Our fall garden, or as sometimes Marin and I call the "second chance garden".  This past fall we seeded the beans and peas too late and they were destroyed by the freeze.  We let the peppers continue where they are.  Once the temps drop they will start producing again until a freeze.  We try to get a second crop of everything but replacing some crops for others.  For example, we will replace the watermelons grown in spring for pumpkins in the fall.  Spinach and Escarole will replace a majority of the summer salad mix.  Spinach and escarole freezes well.  Broccoli is seeded and overwinters well here.  Cabbage very much the same, however, seems to be very slow growing where we planted it in the garden.  Garlic is planted  for harvest the following spring.  As you can see, we try to make use out of any space or time available.  Our goal is to be able to eat fresh produce when it's available and to freeze, dry, can, store, and preserve what we can. 


     Well, that's it in a nutshell.  As long as you give your garden a proper start and plan ahead accordingly, there should be no reason you can't grow healthy food for yourself and your family.  Give your veggies a happy life and they will do the same for you.