Mulching

Preparing the plot adequately can benefit by reducing the need to water as regularly. It is important to make sure that the soil can provide sufficient supplies of water. On soils that do not hold moisture naturally, such as clay soils, deep digging is required to increase the amount of soil roots can reach in search of moisture and nutrients. The use of an organic material such as rotted compost or leaf mould being applied to the soil straight after rain or watering can reduce water loss. This can also benefit the crop as it provides additional food.

Watering 2

Different vegetables can vary in the amount of water needed right from the seedling stage. For example, leafy vegetables such as cabbages, in which the foliage is eaten, require around 10-12 litres of water per square meter a week during the growing season throughout dry periods. In contrast other vegetables such as peas and beans require very little artificial watering after the seedling stage. Overwatering would result in lower yields as foliage would thrive at the expense of flowers. It is always best to try and water crops in the early morning or in the evening as lower temperatures reduce the risk of evaporation. During watering it is necessary to apply a reasonable quantity so that it penetrates deeply into the soil, allowing the roots to obtain nutrients necessary for growth.

Watering 1

All vegetables, like humans, require water to function and grow. Water is an essential element for plants to absorb nutrients, it is vital in the manufacture of food. Water is constantly lost through the process of transpiration, from the surface of the leaves. When the amount of water lost through transpiration is more than which is absorbed by the roots, the plants begin to wilt and whither, resulting in poor health for the crops and highly reduced yields. Water is also lost from the soil as it evaporates and warmer weather may cause a loss of up to 4.5 litres per square meter. However, you have to be careful not to overwater, as this may result in reduced soil aeration affecting root and shoot growth. It could also affect flavour adversely.

Preparing the Soil

Most certainly not a favourite chore of the home vegetable gardener, digging over is done for three very important reasons. Firstly to ensure that the annual weeds that can plague your vegetable patch are buried or removed, to make sure that your seedlings once sown will have very little competition for key nutrients and water. Secondly to introduce compost or manure into the soil, and finally and very importantly to aerate the soil for the coming year.

This preparation is fortunately only required on a once a year basis and is best performed in autumn or early winter, allowing the harsh frosts common of the UK to break down rough exposed soil. Thankfully if this is done properly come spring merely superficial attention may be required ready for planting and sowing.

Carried out properly digging over should not be an unduly strenuous exercise and time out should be taken to ensure all be it a chore, the enjoyment of tending to your patch is not lost. People who find themselves exhausted after this task are often rushing in head first without planning and without regard for certain simple rules. Start off gradually and always use quality tools making sure tools such as spades and forks are the correct size for your height.

Single digging

Single digging is a method of turning over the soil to the depth of a single spade. This method as a rule is sufficient but if you believe an area to be in need of deeper enrichment, a double digging can take place. Either way the most efficient way of digging over the soil is by the use of the trench method. Working across the plot in orderly trenches of around 15 inches wide and back filling with a soil and manure mix. You must however check the requirements of the crop you intend to sow on the affected area as for some crops the application of manure may be unbeneficial. If your plot requires an application of lime you must add this to the surface to be washed in by the rain. If you have recently dug in manure to your plot it is not a good idea to add lime also as they react chemically.

Double digging

Double digging is an extra thorough way to improve the ground. This method is especially valuable on heavy soils or soils that tend to get waterlogged. Carrots, parsnips and other such root vegetables grow deep into the ground in search for nutrient rich soil and water. If they meet a hard layer under the surface they can deform and their growth is stopped. Many years of single digging may result in a compact layer, otherwise known as a pan layer, just below the surface. To solve this it will be necessary to double dig the affected area. Either way a compacted growing medium is a poor choice.

Introduction

A major incentive for the home garderer such as yourselfs must be the far superior flavour and freshness of vegetables personaly selected and tended to on your very own door step. Understandbly the main concern of commercial growers the world over is to reliably provide produce that is capable of high yield's, a uniform shape and can travel vast distances and still be in a suitable condition for sale. Unfortunatly flavour is often a lesser concern. Thankfully the home grower need not be resticted by these requirements and the produce you grow can be choosen to personally meet your taste's.

Within this blog i will be discussing various topics and techniques that will give an understanding of how plants grow and how they respond to various conditions to help make the experience of tending to your very own vegetable plot, a more satisfactory one. These will include plot preperation, sowing, watering, pests and diseases and my favorite harvesting. YUM!!! And of course details on how to grow a wide selection of produce from aubergine to zucchini.

While in this blog i will be writing for growers who live in a cool temperate climate such as the north of England, Sowing can take place earlier in more mild and favorable locations such as the south of the United Kingdom. The section on cloches and cold frames will demonstrate how plants can be protected against adverse climatic conditions. First and foremost you must decide what produce you are wanting to grow and secondly where you are going to get your seeds from. One option is your local garden centre and an increasingly popular method is by ordering them from the internet. Companys such as seeddirect.co.uk is an option.