Home Vegetable Gardening: Common Questions that You Need Answered

The vegetable gardening community is 48 million people strong and still growing. Some do it as a hobby, others to grow the food they will eat all year round. Regardless of which is your reason, here are three questions I constantly get. If you have been wondering the same, here are the answers and the advice to carry out a good action plan.

I live in an apartment. Is it possible to grow great vegetables in pots or containers with such little space?

In short the answer is yes but with everything there is a longer answer to every question. Because you live in an apartment (or those that are in a condominium complex), you may also be limited to sunlight due to how your building is situated. Sun is extremely important to growing great vegetables. Without it they can not complete the process of photosynthesis and all of those great scientific happenings that go on unseen to the naked eye (I did not want to get too technical in this article).

If you live on the side of the building that gets the sunlight late in the day, then there is a chance you may not be getting enough. One excellent solution that came from a member of ours on our Vegetable Gardening Facebook page is to take your plants to work with you (if possible of course). If you drive to work you can leave your plants on top of your car (this was the member`s suggestion), or bring them in the office and place them by the window. Just remember to rotate your plants if you have more than you can bring in a single day.

What should I grow?

I answer your question with another question. What do you like to eat? Start there and then find out which vegetables are indigenous to your area of the world. For instance here in New Jersey we can not grow citrus fruits due to our lack of necessary temperatures, where as in the heat of the plains of Texas, spinach is almost impossible.

I love gardening, but hate it when I have to pull weeds. Do you have a solution that does not cost a lot of money?

What would any type of outdoor gardening be without weeds? More pleasant I am sure. However, weeds are one of those things that no one can avoid. You can simply pick the unwanted scoundrels as they pop up or you can make life easier on yourself and use the following method. Before you put any plants in the ground put down two layers of newspaper over your entire garden. As you lay the paper down make sure you wet the paper so it doesn’t blow all over the place. I would not recommend doing this on a windy day.

Once the paper is down, cover it with one to two inches of compost (preferably) or a mulch of your choice. Then go back and plant your vegetables. This method works best when you are transferring plants that were started indoors. You can use this method when starting plants directly from seeds, however not all seeds can push their way through two inches of compost or mulch.

Now that you have your questions answered, follow the information provided and get started on a great home vegetable garden.

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.