[EBOOK] VEGETABLE GARDENING ENCYCLOPEDIA (GROWING FREEZING - CANNING - DRYING - STORING), SPECIAL SECTION ON HERBS

Any gardener will tell you that gardening is one of the most absorbing and rewarding occupations you can undertake. Any gardener will also tell you — probably loudly and at length — that gardening requires patience, resilience, hard work, and a lot of planning. Paperwork is probably the last thing you have in mind when you think about growing your own vegetables. More likely you see yourself leaning contently on your spade as all sorts of lush, healthy plants shoot up In front of your eyes. The fact of the matter, though, is that gardening begins not with seeds and a spade but with paper and a pencil.

A successful vegetable garden begins with a well-organized plan of your garden space. Drawing a plan may not sound as exciting as getting outdoors and planting things. But if you don't spend the necessary time planning what to grow in your garden and when and where to plant It. you may spend the rest of the growing season correcting the mistakes you made because you didn't have a plan. It’s a loteasierto erase a bed when it’s a few lines on a piece of paper than when It's an expanse of soil and plants.

Your plan should include not only the types and quantities of vegetables you're going to grow and how they'll be positioned in your garden, but also planting dates and approximate dates of harvest. Making a plan may seem like a lot of work to get done before you even start gardening, but careful planning will help you make the best use of your time and available space and will result in bigger, higher-quality crops.

This chapter discusses all the questions you need to take into account when you're planning your garden—the hows, whats, whys, whens, and wherefores. The specific cultural requirements of each vegetable are given in detail in Part 2.

THE FIRST DECISION: WHAT TO GROW (AND HOW MUCH)

The first step to planning a successful vegetable garden is to decide which vegetables to grow. This may sound fairly straightforward, but there are a lot of factors involved, and you need to answer some basic questions: What vegetables do you and your family like? Do you want to eat all your crop fresh, or store or preserve some of your harvest? Can you grow the vegetables you like successfully in your climate? How much time and energy can you put into your garden? The first factor to consider is personal preference.

What vegetables do you like to eat? The first decision to make in choosing what to grow In your vegetable garden is simple: What vegetables do
you and your family like to eat? Perhaps you'd love to grow peas because you remember how wonderful they tasted fresh out of the garden in your childhood. Or maybe your family's crazy about spinach salad or broccoli casserole, or you're just plain tired of frozen vegetables.

What are you going to do with it? How do you plan to use your vegetables, and what are you going to do with the part of your crop that you don't eat as soon as it's harvested? Do you want to freeze, can. dry. store, or make preserves with some of your crop?

How much do you need? How you plan to use your vegetables directly affects how much of each vegetable you want to grow, and will influence your decision about the kind of vegetable you're going to plant—all carrots aren't alike, and there are hundreds of different tomato varieties.

Can you grow it? Not all vegetables grow satisfactorily in ail climates. Some vegetables like it hot: some refuse to grow in hot weather. Some vegetables flourish when It's cold; others just shiver and die. Certain plants go from seed to harvest in a couple of months and will grow almost anywhere in the United States —green beans and some kinds of lettuce are among these obliging vegetables. Others are very picky and need a long stretch of warm or cool weather. You have to take the plant's needs into consideration before you can make a decision on whether or not it's a practical choice for your home garden.

Do you have room for it? There are plants that are rather like large pets —they're very endearing, but you just can't live with them because they’re too big. You want to grow vegetables that will give you a reasonable amount of produce in the space that you have available. Some vegetables — especially some vining crops like pumpkins — need a great deal of room and give you only low yields, so they’re not a practical choice in a small home garden. And if you're growing an indoor container garden, you'll do fine with cabbages in flowerpots, but there's simply no place you're going to put a healthy watermelon vine or a Jerusalem artichoke.

Is it worth the bother? Some vegetables require very little nurturing, and you can grow them with a minimum of toil, others require special attention and need to be babied. Celery and cauliflower, for example, have to be blanched — blanching is a process that deprives the plant (or part of the plant) of sunlight in order to whiten it and improve its flavor, color, or texture. Before choosing a crop that's going to need special handling, be sure you really want to give it that much attention. Some crops, too. are bothered a lot by insects or plant diseases — corn is one of them. If you're not willing to deal with these....

[EBOOK] VEGETABLE GARDENING ENCYCLOPEDIA (GROWING FREEZING - CANNING - DRYING - STORING), SPECIAL SECTION ON HERBS

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS EBOOK

Keyword: ebook, giáo trình, VEGETABLE GARDENING ENCYCLOPEDIA, GROWING FREEZING, CANNING, DRYING, STORING, VEGETABLE GARDENING, VEGETABLE, GARDENING, vườn rau, rau xanh, bách khoa về vườn rau, ức chế sinh trưởng, đóng hộp, sấy khô, bảo quản