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Do you want to try your hand at creating a vegetable garden? So arm yourself with work gloves, a spade and a rake because the work to be done is long: from preparing the soil to fertilizing, from sowing to the final harvest, your efforts will be rewarded by the vegetables you bring to your home. Table !
You too have been won over by the food products at km 0. You have therefore decided to take over a small piece of land and carve out a vegetable garden so that you can see your vegetables grow, be able to pick them up and bring your products to the table. . Where to start? The first step is dedicated to preparing the soil (and it is perhaps the most tiring!). You need work gloves to prevent blisters on your hands, a spade, rake, pickaxe, shovel and fertilizer. If you are a beginner , don’t be afraid. Follow the instructions step by step and perhaps ask someone more experienced than you for advice, or read books on the subject. And then remember that you only learn by doing, so don’t worry about making so many mistakes, especially at first. If you are a horticultural professional , there may still be something you are missing or certain plants that you have not yet dared to grow. Maybe now is the right time.
Soil preparation
Contrary to what one might think, the ground must be prepared at the start of winter. The land, in fact, must be moved, fertilized and must rest before sowing in spring. At this point, it’s time to roll up our sleeves. You must first dig up the ground, turn over the earth where you will make your garden and remove the roots of weeds and weeds. Also remove as many stones as possible, so that working the soil later will be easier. Feed the soil with fertilizer : the best is equine, but it is also the most expensive; Otherwise, use compost , perfect for fertilizing as it makes the soil very friable. Chop the larger clods, using the pickaxe and rake, and finally mix well with the fertilizer added to the soil. Ultimately, the floor surface will need to be as uniform and level as possible.
Before sowing
The efforts did not stop there. The garden soil must be reworked just before sowing . Weeds and weeds should be removed if still present, as well as large and medium-sized stones should be removed. Work the soil until it is crumbly and well leveled. At this point you can organize your vegetable garden. Think about what produce you will want to grow and divide the land into areas of different sizes; Seedlings and seeds must be placed in furrows spaced apart and made transversely to the slope which will follow the flow of water. How do you decide the groove distance? Simply by imagining what vegetables you are going to grow and what the majority of plants will be grown just before harvest. Another important aspect is knowing how to place the plants in the furrows: if they are spring or summer products, you must insert the plants in the furrows to avoid dispersing the water; For winter products, you should rather place them at the top of the mountains of earth that you have prepared in the furrows, to avoid possible stagnation of water.
What to Grow
There are vegetables that are easy to grow and others that are more difficult. If you are a beginner with spade and rake, it is best to focus on the simple ones. The tomato is one of them. It needs good exposure to the sun and soil acidity between pH6 and pH7. Dig a hole for each seed and space the holes made at least 30 cm apart. It’s a climbing plant, so get a structure that supports its growth. Zucchini should be sown in spring, from March to May. Place two or three seeds for each hole and space the holes between them by at least one meter. Zucchini needs a lot of water, so water every day and in a few weeks you will see the first shoots! I can’t think of a vegetable garden without carrots . On Ohga we have already explained how to grow carrots. You should sow them between January and October. Also in this case, make well-spaced holes where you will put a few seeds for each hole. Make sure the soil is always moist, water as needed, especially when the plants are still in the growth phase. Lettuce will give an ornamental touch to your garden: its leaves, in fact, are very beautiful, large and bright green, or for certain varieties, tending to yellowish to red. Excellent for salad, rich in folic acid and vitamin A, lettuce needs well-fertilized soil. Seeds should be planted at a depth of between 8 and 16 centimeters and should be watered daily. Rich in iron and calcium, spinach should be grown in soil well fertilized with compost. Water them abundantly and keep your distance between one seedling and another. But there are also plenty of other vegetables at your disposal. On Ohga, for example, we explained how to grow strawberries and how to grow the orange tree.
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