Women's Home Activities

Spring has arrived and as our nearly two year old grandson would put it, “Yea! Yea! Outside, OUTSIDE!” I will finally get to start getting my vegetable garden ready. I am just as excited as he is about being able to go out in the fresh air and sunshine only my “playtime” is all about digging in the soil.  As I have mentioned before in my post on Starting a Vegetable Garden we choose Traditional Vegetable Gardening because of the space we have available to plant our garden.

My father-in-law is eager too, he has already put out a few tomato plants and other vegetables at his home and now I am anxious to get going with our vegetable garden. He helps us out every year and I am grateful that he does. He is truly the master gardener in our family and I am learning a lot from him. While there are different vegetable gardening designs to choose from we stick with traditional vegetable gardening because he knows how we can best utilize the space that we have.

This year we are also gearing up to have our two granddaughters join in on the gardening activities. Together Great-Grandpa, Grammie (me) and Poppy (dear hubby) will get our girls started out with some container vegetable gardening and raised bed vegetable gardening because they don’t have as much space at their house as we do here. I will let you know about those adventures in vegetable gardening in future posts so keep an eye out for them.

In another previous post I mentioned that there are Different Vegetable Garden Designs to choose from. Today I wanted to share with you some tips on Traditional Vegetable Gardening. We will go over just what growing your own vegetables means in a traditional vegetable garden.

Traditional vegetable gardening has its roots in agricultural type gardening. However instead of laying out a garden in massive quantities such as farmers do to produce large crops of vegetables those who wish to have a home garden can scale down growing your own vegetables to a manageable size garden.

Traditional Vegetable Gardening Tips

• Vegetable Garden Layout – it is a good idea to decide on an area in your yard where you will plant your vegetable garden and how much space you will need for the types of vegetables you want to grow.
• Draw out an area for the vegetable garden before you start to plant with the dimensions you will need for the vegetables you intend to use.
• The soil must be prepared before you can plant your vegetables.
• Using a good quality garden tiller will help to get the soil ready to plant your vegetables and also remove unwanted debris.
• Traditional vegetable gardening crops are planted in rows.
• In each row there is a different type of vegetable.
• The rows should be planted from North to South in order to take advantage of the optimal amount of sunshine available from morning until afternoon.
• Leave enough space between the rows so that you will be able to walk between each row that gives ample space for the vegetable plants to grow and will allow you to harvest the crops easier. (about 12-16 inches is a good estimate)
• The vegetable seeds or live plants are planted in single rows.
• Use a stake at either end of the row with a string tied to the stake to keep the row straight.
• Space out your seeds or live plants giving each vegetable room to flourish.
• Have an available water source for keeping your vegetable crops hydrated. You may choose to use a soaker hose or a
  Microsprinkler Garden Kit Drip System for each of your garden rows.
• Keeping your vegetable garden free of weeds can be another issue. There are weed barriers available that will help you with managing pesky weeds.
• Know which vegetable plants will grow well next to each other. Some plants just don’t get along; do some research before you plant your rows.

This should give you a pretty good idea about what is involved in traditional vegetable gardening. You may want to give this a try yourself. Although some people look at traditional vegetable gardening as a lot of work, I see it as a pleasure.

Sure there is work involved but the healthy outcome far outweighs the negatives. Being able to grow your own vegetables not only gets you outside in the fresh air but it provides exercise and wholesome nourishment for your family. Working along side my husband and father-in-law in this bountiful family bonding activity is another example of building memories that will last a lifetime.

This year I am proud to say we are getting a new generation to join in on the fun. I know that it will make a lasting impression in our granddaughter’s young minds. They too will be able to tell to their own children and grandchildren one day and then the tradition will again be passed on. What a wonderful thought for the future. Why not start building your own set of memories with your family by beginning your own vegetable garden this season.