Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Own Vegetables?

Everything you need to know about growing your own vegetables, now there is a bold statement. The first question you should be asking is whether it is possible to teach you everything and whether it is really necessary. 

Firstly the desire to create a home grown vegetable garden is truly commendable and the right thing to do if you have any suitable garden space, whether large or small. What you have to decide is whether the grow your own vegetable garden route is right for you as it is a long term commitment and not a short term fad. 

If there is one reason that is heard for not gardening, whether flower or vegetable gardening, it is because someone does not have green fingers, a brown thumb or whatever your local saying is. So is a gardener born or is gardening a skill that anyone can learn? My own view is that most people who want to learn how to vegetable garden will acquire the basic knowledge to create and maintain a home grown vegetable garden. Of course there will be a number of gardeners who are better than others but this applies to other skills and disciplines. In my case I would love to be able to draw and paint proficiently and to play a musical instrument but for me it is a struggle. If I freed up time, applied myself and had some basic lessons I am sure that I would succeed but not attain the standard I would wish. I always describe myself as a failed perfectionist! 

I was lucky enough to have a father and grandfather who were practical people with different skills. Dad was good with mechanical things and granddad could make anything out of wood and most things to do with the building trade. Both were vegetable gardeners, they had to be to help support their families. Mother was a very good seamstress and so taking all into account there is no wonder that I have never been frightened to have a go at making or maintaining something. 

But the moral of the above story is this. When I bought my first home I decided to construct a built-in wardrobe. I planned it on paper and bought the materials and fittings but when I started to build it I encountered a problem; I could not get all the openings square and obviously this meant that I would never be able to fit the doors in squarely. Luckily I had a relative who had served his apprenticeship as a joiner and he came to the rescue. He spent literally ten minutes showing me how to get everything square and left me to it. The rest was easy and those ten minutes have served me well for years, I have tackled many more difficult home construction jobs since using those basic principles. 

You see firstly I had the desire to have a go but that alone was not enough, I needed to be taught a few basics. To me learning how to vegetable garden is the same. Learn the basics of good vegetable gardening and learn the rest as you go on, do not try to learn everything before you start because you will be overwhelmed and more than likely fail. Also I have to tell you that you will never know everything you need to know about growing your own vegetables. No matter how long you garden you never know everything, each season presents new challenges. That is the exciting part and equally frustrating part of gardening. 

One thing I should add about my joinery projects, I soon found out that the jobs were made so much easier by having the right tools for the job. The same applies to vegetable gardening; buy the best tools that you can afford. The basic tools are few, a garden spade, garden fork, rake, hoe, hand trowel and hand fork. Take the garden spade as an example, a spade manufactured from stainless steel is much easier to use and will last a lifetime if looked after. If the cost of a stainless steel spade is too much then buy the best that you can afford which is just what I did. That first spade lasted me for several years but by the time the second handle gave up the fight the spade blade was about half the size it was originally! 

Growing your own vegetables is very satisfying and rewarding and entails work and time dedicated to the cause. But do have a go, just sowing those first seeds and seeing them germinate can fire you up with enough enthusiasm to try even more vegetable varieties. Imagine going into your own backyard and cropping vegetables that two minutes later are being prepared in the kitchen for your meal. Now think about vegetables that have travelled hundreds if not thousands of miles to get to your plate. Which would you prefer, is there any contest? 

That alone should be the incentive to at least the desire to learn everything you need to know about growing your own vegetables.