Vegetable Gardening for fun and flavour!

Improve your Vegetable Gardening

1. Vegetable Gardening
For fun and flavor!

2. Site Selection
•Where?
•Water
•Rotation

3. Gardening equipment
•Minimum tools
needed are a shovel,
a rake, a hoe, and a
hand trowel.
•Buy good quality
tools
•Power Rotary tillers

4. Planning
•QUESTIONS:
•Who will do the work?
•What does the family like to eat?
•How will the produce be used?
•How much space is available?

5. Preparing the soil
•Ideal garden:
–Soil is deep
–Easily worked
–Well-drained
–Contains at least 5% organic matter
•Soil testing
•Tilling

6. Water
•Watering is a must
•Drip irrigation
•How much?
•When do I water?
•Why mulch?
•Fertilizing

7. Intensive gardening
•The purpose of an
intensively grown
garden is to harvest
the most produce
possible from a
given space.
•It gives better yields
with less labor and
uses water more
efficiently without
wasted space

8. Raised Beds
•What is a raised bed?
•How do I make a raised
bed?

9. Planting
•Choose varieties
suitable for our
climate
•Look for short-
season, quick
maturing varieties
•Read seed packets

10. When to plant
•Soil temperature
•Soil consistency
•Frost tolerance
•Air Temperature
•Read the seed
packet

11. Peas
•One of the earliest
and easiest to
grow.
•Adds nitrogen to
the soil
•Staking is required
if not planting bush
varieties
•Use innoculant

12. Onions
•Most successful
starting from sets
or transplants.
•Size of bulbs.
•Red, yellow, and
white sets –yellow
store the best

13. Broccoli, Cauliflower &
Cabbage
•These are best set
out as transplants.
•Make sure to
harden off if
coming from
indoors or warmer
conditions.
•Susceptible to
cabbage lopper

14. Root Crops
•Small seed –
shallow planting
•Can be inter-
planted
•A light frost makes
the carrots sweeter
•Radishes need to
be planted while
weather is cool.

15. Potatoes
•Plant in hills
•If frost threatens
cover whole plant with
soil
•A must to rotate
•Evenly moist soil
•Dig in fall after tops
have frozen

16. Greens –Lettuce, Chard,
Spinach
•Don’t pull whole plant keep cutting to
keep producing
•Evenly moist
•Good air circulation

17. Green Beans
•Plant after danger of frost
•Pick when leaves are dry
•Pick often to keep plants producing
•Innoculate
•Adds Nitrogen to
the soil

18. Summer Squash
•No frost tolerance
•Keep evenly moist
•Plant in hills
•Use season extenders

19. Corn
•Plant short season varieties
•Not reliable but stocks are fun to use in
fall decor

20. Tomatoes
•Use season extenders
•Cold season varieties
•Not frost tolerant

21. Herb gardens

22. SEASON EXTENDERS
•Cold Frames
•Greenhouse
•Wall-o-water
•Frost blankets
•Cloches and Row
covers

23. Cover crops
•Decreases soil erosion
•Prevents compaction
•Adds organic material when
incorporated
in the spring
•Reduces
leaching of
nutrients

24. Beneficials
•Spiders
•Lacewings
•Ladybeetles
•Praying mantids
•Etc.