Friday, December 19, 2008
Growing your dinner in a home vegetable garden
John Arbogast
Landscape consultant John Arbogast answers your questions every Thursday. Send questions about your lawn, garden, plants, or insects to:
Dear John
5102 Greenfield St. SW
Roanoke, Va. 24018
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Q: Is it possible to help one’s family budget by growing more vegetables in a small home garden? We don’t have a vegetable garden yet, but I recall my grandparents and older neighbors gardening when I was a youngster. We do have all kinds of gardening tools and even have a small rototiller that we bought 2 years ago for making flower beds. What are your suggestions? We have a big yard with only a few trees on the borders and school-aged children who can water a garden as needed. We’re planning on reducing our expenses in 2009. Please give your suggestions and talk about what we should be doing now.
A: Yes, it is possible to save money by raising your own vegetables, or at least some of the produce or canned goods that you buy at the store. However, successfully saving on your food bill by working on a home garden takes a significant amount of time and is a real commitment.
Some questions:
Who in your family is committed to making the home garden budget-saver work? It can be fun to plan a garden for the growing season, but when it comes time to harvest and wash ripened produce or get out in the heat and fight off gnats to water and weed, winter commitment easily fades away.
Where will your vegetable garden go? You'll ned a spot that gets full sun, has decent soil, and is away from buildings and trees or shrubs that can block disease-fighting breezes from circulating through your plants.
I have learned that it’s a good idea to start vegetable gardening with a small plot.
Big or small, the plot should be level and near an outdoor spigot for ease of watering.
You'll need to haul in mulch in spring to retain moisture and slow the invasion of weeds.
Take soil tests through local Extension Offices and Land Grant Universities. Soil for tests needs to be taken from the upper 4 inches of ground. Apply either lime to raise soil pH or agricultural sulfur to lower soil pH as recommended. Nutrients needed by most vegetable plants are available to the plants in a just slightly acidic pH of 6.5, although Irish potatoes have a lower susceptibility to the disease called “scab” at a more acidic lower pH.
Make sure what you plan to grow are vegetables you and your family like to eat. This should be obvious enough, but thinking about growing only those plants your family likes to eat will make this project a success.
I’ll mention things we have grown successfully for a spring, summer, and fall garden.
Much of knowing when to plant various vegetables comes from knowledge of the spring and fall average frost dates for your particular location. Learn these important dates from calling your local Cooperative Extension Office.
The Arbogasts have had budget saving successes from our small vegetable gardens.
The spring garden grows spinach, leaf lettuce, onions from “sets” and broccoli from transplants.
The summer garden: snap beans (very productive), tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers (productive until mid to late summer).
The fall garden: more leaf lettuce, more spinach, and continued production of bell peppers.
Learn important details about each vegetable you plan to grow such as spacing, proper planting, fertilizing, and harvesting from your local Cooperative Extension Office publications, agents, or Master Gardener volunteers.
