Best Garden Location is Where the Sun is!

Without your best garden location, you can’t expect to dig a hole, insert a plant, and hope to get lots of vegetables and fruit. You have to decide the best garden location. A quick way to determine the best garden location is to see what is growing in your yard and why. If you have great ferns, you guess that the area is shady. If your roses are great, then it is sunny.

You can be successful in a tiny area as well as a large open lot. You can use containers in small well-lit areas, and larger raised beds in locations that make sense.

Soil is ALL important.

• It is the beginning, middle, and end of successful gardening.
• Healthy soil makes for healthy plants and lots of vegetables and fruit!
• Nurture your growing medium with lots of compost and water

Know your micro-climate

• Use only plants that excel in your garden.
• Your plant description indicates what plants should have full sun.
• Most plants need a minimum of six hours of direct sun every day.
• Always beware that the late afternoon sun can burn your plants.

Use only the healthiest seedlings.

• Don’t waste time and garden space with sickly plants.
• Choose the healthiest you can find.
• Make sure it the right time of year to plant your kind of vegetables.
• Plant at the proper depth and spacing.
• Loosen up the outer roots on the plant ball.
• Make sure your planting hole soil is not compacted.
• Plant tomatoes deeper than the roots. Generally, up to the first leaves on the stem.
• Remove any container material before planting.

Soil temperature

• Don’t transplant summer vegetables in the ground until the soil has warmed to about 63 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Peppers, especially, will never really thrive when transplanted too early.

Use trellises

• Trellises enable the best use of the soil since you can plant more closely.
• Keep trellises on the north side of the garden to reduce the shading effect.
• Tomatoes come either indeterminate or determinant, which grows only so high.
• Indeterminate grows throughout their season, so give them support before they get too big and flop over.

Always plan ahead

• Fertilize at peak times to ensure optimal growth and production
• Use deep watering to train the plants where the moisture is
• Fertilize before planting so your plants will have the nutrients they need

What fertilizer to use and when

• Before transplanting, know what kind and amounts you will need.
• Tomatoes need a slightly acidic environment and need different fertilizers at different times.

Watering

• Your garden should always have good drainage.
• It is easy to drown young plants with too much water.
• Were possible use drip irrigation to cut water usage
• Learn what plants need more water and adjust your irrigation

Mulch

• Always keep 3 or 4 inches of much too moderate soil temperature.
• Provides organic food stocks for the plants
• Retains moisture
• Keep weeds out of your garden.
• Compact the much acts as a water barrier