Grow your own fruits and vegetables at home
Start your urban vegetable garden in an easy and simple way
There are many reasons why creating a garden at home brings benefits to your life. Whether in your garden, terrace or balcony, being able to grow your own food is a great way to eat fresh and healthy produce, while taking care of the environment and doing a sustainable and relaxing job. It’s a more economical option and you’ll know what you’re eating. Not to mention the positive impact it brings, if you have children who can discover the whole process of growing fruits and vegetables, because it is an educational activity in which they will learn to be responsible, self-sufficient and to have a protective relationship with nature.
It’s never a bad time to start growing your own fruits and vegetables at home.
It is true that the spring and autumn seasons are more suitable for cultivation, but following a series of good tips, you will see that you can create your own vegetable garden at home at any time of the year.
Here we give you the keys to make it start to bear fruit quickly and easily:
1. Choose a good location
The first thing to consider is the location, which will depend mainly on what you want to grow, because each type of plant has special needs on which depends whether the garden is a success or not. The main factors to take into account are:
- Light hours: As a general rule, the hours of sun exposure are key for the good growth of most crops, however there are certain vegetables that require partial or total shade. Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and parsley require a minimum of 5 hours of direct sunlight per day, while lettuces, watercress, celery and endive require at least 3 hours per day. In case of not having a good orientation, which allows to comply with the required hours of light, we can always opt for artificial light.
- Water: Another factor to take into account is the water needs of each crop. It is important to have the orchard in an area with easy access to a water supply either for manual irrigation or drip irrigation.
2. Orchard design
Another fundamental aspect, which is often not given the importance it deserves, is to plan on paper the distribution of the different fruits, vegetables and greens that will be planted in the garden. Drawing up a plan helps to anticipate technical problems that may arise.
A good planning would be, for example, to distribute the crops in groups of four, so that it is easier to rotate themaround the plot and thus avoid pests and soil exhaustion. The most common method of crop rotation is that which alternates throughout the year, fruit-leaf-root-legume crops.
3. Preparing the planting ground
The first thing to do in the field is to clean the weeds and roots. If possible, leave the cleaned soil for a couple of weeks in case there are any weed seeds left to germinate. It is also important to cover unused areas with membrane or thick cardboard to keep weeds under control.
4. Choosing a good substrate
For a good growth of our vegetable garden, you will need a fertile soil rich in nutrients, fluffy and with water retention capacity. We invite you to visit Roots Macaronesia and consult our garden advisors, who will be able to advise you on which substrate is the best for the type of cultivation of your garden. There you will find all kinds of substrates, from the universal one, which is the most versatile and common, to specific substrates with a higher content of fertilizer and guano.
Once the growing cycle is over, the substrate must be removed and discarded every two years.
5. Prepare the planting bed for planting.
Whether in a plot of land or in a container, the cultivation area where the seeds of our vegetable garden will be deposited must be properly prepared. In the case of having a land, it will be necessary to delimit the plot of cultivation with wooden planks, bricks or ropes with stakes, thus making a kind of frame where we will pour the substrate. Whether it is a land or a container, it will be filled with the chosen substrate, but making sure that it is loose and without lumps. Finally, the surface should be smoothed with the help of a rake and the seeds and seedlings can be sown. Water generously and cover with a layer of clean straw to retain moisture and protect it from heat and cold.
And remember, if this is your first urban garden, start with easy crops that will allow you to be successful while gaining experience. Zucchini, potatoes, beans, strawberries, radishes and beets are excellent vegetable crops for beginners.
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