| PLANTS |
| Vegetable gardens are a great way to save money during the harvesting season. The taste of home grown veggies is unbeatable! Some vegetable plants you will want to start by seed. Some you might want to buy the actual plant and replant into your garden. |
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| SOIL |
| If you have a spot picked out for your garden, check the soil. Hopefully you have good soil. If not, you may have to add compost mix along with manure until they soak into the ground really well. This will make your soil nutrient rich and should yield you more produce. Keep in mind that too much manure can burn your plants. |
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| IRRIGATION |
| If you are going to hand water your garden using a hose, then you might want to make rows to plant your plants and/or seeds in. If you are going to use a sprinkler, then you will want to be careful not to break your plants down with the hose when you have to move the sprinkler |
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| SYSTEM |
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I found a system that I think works great for vegetable gardens. I went to my local hardware store and got a roll of black hose called "Funny pipe". Along with that I got some sprinklers and a lead hose that popped right into the funny pipe. They have a piece that hooks on to the funny pipe that will thread right on to your water spigot just like a hose would. I also found a battery operated timer that threads right on to the hose spigot. I threaded my funny pipe on, making sure all of my plants were getting watered, and then set my timer. That's it! I was done, other than weeding and picking the fresh veggies! Dig Corp. has a kit for gardens that has everything except the timer. Their kit, however, was not big enough for my garden. I therefore bought it all in separate pieces. Even so, it was well worth the money! I now have a better garden than I've ever had. At the end of the season, all I do is pick up my funny pipe, sprinklers and timer and put them away for use in the upcoming year. |
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| PLANTING |
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When placing your plants in the garden, you will want to keep some of them separate. You will want to do this for two reasons. One: If you are planting things like squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, or pumpkins, you won't want to put them next to your tomatoes because they vine out. This could choke out your tomatoes so that they don't grow. Even if the tomatoes did grow, you will have to fight with the vines to pick your tomatoes. You will want to place these types of plants with some room around them. Two: You will want to give ample room between your tomatoes and chilies. The reason being is that sometimes plants will inner mix and who wants hot tomatoes? |
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| SPACE |
If you live in a small apartment or if you don't have room for a garden, an easy way to grow your own tomatoes and/or chilies is to plant one plant in a planter. Put them in a sunny spot and don't forget to water them. Tomato plants will get big so you might want to get a wire frame to help support them. This will give you some fresh tomatoes and/or chilies. |
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