How Do I Grow Tomatoes with Limited Space?

There is no more popular vegetable (actually a fruit) to grown in the home vegetable garden today then the tomato. With over 2,000 varieties to choose from the tomato gives you many options on size, taste, color, texture, you name it.

For those of you that may live in a condo or an apartment where your space is limited, do not fear you still have plenty of room tomatoes. The bigger problem you will have is choosing which tomato you actually want to grow.

So as long as you have access to adequate sunlight and the means to water your tomatoes you then have everything you need.

The first method is using raised beds. Raised beds are great because you can build them up anywhere and on top of anything. So for example, lets say the only backyard you have is a concrete slab of patio, not to worry, build up a raised bed by using cedar wood and build a box. The length and the width should be no less than twelve inches in both directions and the height should be no less than twelve as well.

Simply fill your new raised garden with good gardening soil, available from any home or garden center for a couple of bucks, plant your seeds and you are ready to go.

If building a box does not excite you or interest you then you can always rely on the good old pot. Just like you would grow flowers in your pots, tomatoes grow great in them as well. Pots also give you the added freedom to move them around to ensure that they receive the most sunlight. Just make sure your pots are at least ten inches in diameter and twelve inches deep with holes in the bottom for proper drainage.

Implement either one of these methods this year and you can be well on your way to great tasting tomatoes fresh from your own garden in no time.

About the Author
Mike is the owner of Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC where you can sign up for their Seeds of the Month Club and receive 4 packs of vegetable, fruit and herb seeds every month.

Tips to Successfully Growing Kohlrabi your Home Vegetable Garden

When you mention the word kohlrabi to novice home vegetable gardeners they are not one hundred percent sure what you are talking about. That is because kohlrabi is not a very popular vegetable to grow. I am not sure why though, because this cousin to the cabbage can be added to a variety of traditional recipes to make them taste better and more importantly kohlrabi is an easy vegetable to grow.

If you live in a part of the world where you will experience cooler temperatures, and have an area that receives full sun throughout the day, then you have everything you need to grow kohlrabi in your home vegetable garden. Here are some tips to increase to productivity of your kohlrabi plants.

Kohlrabi seeds are fairly small therefore you only need to plant them about a quarter to half inch beneath the top soil. Make sure you space them out at least eight inches to give the plant plenty of room to grow and expand when the weather is cool outside.

Kohlrabi likes the soil pH level to be near neutral as possible. A 6.0 to 7.0 reading is ideal. You can obtain the pH level of your soil by purchasing a soil testing kit for less than five dollars from your local home or garden center. If you need to adjust the pH level, follow the instructions that come with the tester.

As stated earlier, kohlrabi likes cool weather, but it also grows best when it receives full sun. So make sure you pick an area of your yard (or patio for those container gardeners), where the sun will be the most abundant.

Give you kohlrabi an even and moderate watering (do not overwater) and you will be well on your way to healthy productive kohlrabi plants.

Because kohlrabi is a member of the cabbage family avoid following cabbage in a crop rotation. However, bush beans, beets, celery, cucumber, lettuce, onions, potatoes and tomatoes all make great companion plants for kohlrabi, where as pole beans make for a terrible companion plant.

Follow these tips and you will be well on your way to great tasting kohlrabi.

About the Author
Mike is the owner of Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC where you can sign up for their Seeds of the Month Club and receive 4 packs of vegetable, fruit and herb seeds every month.

Homemade Compost

Making homemade compost is a great idea. It is environmentally friendly, saves you money and improves the quality of your soil. Synthetic fertiliser is made from petroleum and is hazardous to the environment. The oil used in fertiliser has to be extracted from the environment, the material has to be processed to make the fertiliser and then finally, the finished product has to be transported to a retail outlet.

To make homemade fertiliser, all you need is a container which is suitable to be used to hold the compost and you can begin. Suitable containers can be purchased from garden suppliers or alternatively, you can make your own. To make your own compost container, you can drill holes in a rubbish bin, which will allow oxygen to help with the decomposition process. A further method would be to use wooden pallets arranged in a suitable fashion, so as to hold the decomposing material. A benefit to use wooden pallets situated on top of soil, is that the earth worms can gain access to the compost and aid in the composting process.

To start the compost, you can layer dry leaves, shredded paper, straw, twigs or dead plants, with a layer of weeds, grass and kitchen scraps on top. The primary layer will add carbon and the secondary layer will add nitrogen, however, it is advisable to leave out any meats, fats or anything that has been cooked, due to the risk of attracting vermin. It is best to combine this layering affect, to try to combine the right ratio of nitrogen to carbon. Too much nitrogen will result in a foul smelling compost heap and too much carbon will slow down the composting process.

To aid with the decomposition, cow or horse manure can be added. You can then add water to the mixture, however, it is unnecessary to saturate the mixture. The compost can then be turned using a fork or shovel. You can move the outer layers in to the centre and vice versa to keep the mixture aerated. If new scraps are going to be added to the pile it is advisable to bury them in the centre of the mixture, this way you are reducing the risk of attracting pests.

The amount of time required for the compost to be suitable to be used as a fertiliser will vary according to the climate. A warmer climate will speed up the process and a colder climate will increase the timeframe. As a rule when the mulch has started to turn brown and crumbly, it should be ready to be used.

By: Ryand

For your garden equipment go to World Of Mowers.

Tips to Make Money from Your Home Vegetable Garden

I wanted to write an article that goes beyond the basic tips, tricks and techniques for proper growth of fruits and vegetables. I wanted to share some ideas that can help fellow vegetable gardeners take their love of the hobby to earn a little extra cash which could go a long way to pay for much needed supplies.

I posted a request on our vegetable gardening Facebook fan page for ideas on how other vegetable gardeners use their garden to make some money. Here are some ideas that the fans wrote back with.

Roger Marshall, author of the book How to Build Your Own Greenhouse, recommends growing herbs and produce that are typically out of season. Out of season produce will usually command higher prices from local restaurants and shops. Of course being able to provide enough herbs and vegetables to local restaurants takes enough area to grow everything you need, so if you have a smaller home garden this option may not be for you, but for those that do have ample land, this is definitely a great money maker.

Do you know how to can your vegetables? Jar your jams? Pickle your cucumbers? According to Ellen Christian, a working mom blogger, she suggests that if you posses these skills, it creates a tremendous opportunity to sell fresh grown fruits and vegetables to friends and neighbors.

Tia Meer, of Homegrown Delights, LLC based out of Orlando, FL, uses their 600 square foot garden to sell sprigs or perennial herbs such as rosemary, lavender and lemon grass. Tia also starts all of her vegetables from seed and then sells four inch starter plants of vegetables and herbs for one dollar through three dollars. Her final tip was to get in touch with a local co-op where Tia says she has plenty of success selling her produce through them as it eliminates the need for interaction with customers.

Sure none of theses ideas will make you a millionaire (of course I never said they would), but what they can do is help you with the cost of maintaining the fun hobby of vegetable gardening.

About the Author
Mike is the owner of Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC where you can sign up for their Seeds of the Month Club and receive 4 packs of vegetable, fruit and herb seeds every month.

3 Tips for Great Peppers in your Home Vegetable Gardening

Peppers are the number two most grown vegetables, behind tomatoes, in the home vegetable garden according to a recent study by the United States Department of Agriculture. Many home vegetable gardeners simply take a pepper seed, drop it in a hole, give it some water and hope for the best. However there are some great tips to increase the produce output of the pepper plants you grow.

After asking around on our vegetable gardening Facebook fan page, we came up with the top tips from fellow gardeners on producing the best results for peppers. Here are those results.

Start Indoors
Nearly all responses came back with starting the seeds indoors at least six weeks prior to the last frost of the year in your zone as per the frost zone map that can be found on our website in the downloads section. This gives the plants a chance to get a “running start” so to speak.

Create Heat
According to many of the home vegetable gardeners we talked to they all agreed that peppers like heat and although they used all kinds of methods for creating heat for the plant, from grass clippings to extra compost, but the most favorable way was putting a landscape fabric around the base of the plant. It prohibits weeds and keeps a steady higher soil temperature.

Sulfur
Out of the one hundred plus responses received from our request I would say nearly ninety percent of them used some method to make sure their peppers received more sulfur. Peppers love sulfur. One tip from Jen Fritz of KittyVista LLC likes to drop in a tablespoon of Epson salt (magnesium sulfate) into the hole where you will transplant your pepper plants. This allows for a timed release of sulfur for your plants. Another popular method which dated back to old time farmers was dropping two matches into the hole before planting.

If you are like most home vegetable gardeners then chances are you will at some point grow peppers. Use these tips above to maximize each pepper plant that you grow.


About the Author
Mike is the owner of Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC where you can sign up for their Seeds of the Month Club and receive 4 packs of vegetable, fruit and herb seeds every month.