I don’t know about you, but I aost looking forward to summer right now. One of my favorite things about summer is fresh vegetables right from the garden! My husband is the “green thumb” in our family, so I usually leave the veggie growing to him. That’s why I have a special guest post for you from Ann over at Sumo Gardner. The gardening season will be here before you know it, and Ann is here to share her tips on how to grow a nutritious vegetable garden for the whole family to enjoy.

How to Grow a Nutritious Vegetable Garden Quickly

Growing your own garden is a fantastic way to save money on ingredients while also having
nutritious meals all the time. However, inadequate planning can get in the way of an established garden. Thus, it’s important to learn how to build a nutrition vegetable garden quickly. Here are some tips to get you started.

Take Note of the Growing Season

Some vegetables grow during the cold seasons while others grow when the temperature starts to warm up. For cool-season vegetables, you should plant these between the start of spring and fall. Crops such as carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, radishes, turnips, kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, beets, and broccoli grow well when the temperature hovers at or even below 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
On the other hand, you should plant warm-season vegetables after the last frost of spring arrives. This ensures that no sudden cold period will deter the robust growth of your crops. Some of the most delicious and nutritious vegetables you can grow when temperatures go beyond 70 degrees Fahrenheit include eggplants, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers.

Be Efficient with Space

Don’t just randomly plant the seeds in an empty area in your garden. While it’s common for homeowners to dream of growing a huge vegetable garden, it’s not the most practical option. Some vegetables such as broccoli, alfalfa, cauliflower, eggplants, and Jerusalem artichokes require too much garden space. Instead, you are better off planting bush beans, carrots, peas, spinach, and turnips if you only have a small vegetable garden.
One popular method for quickly growing a vegetable garden is to use raised vegetable beds. Instead of garden rows, beds with a width of at least three feet each should be made. This is due to how garden rows require a path between them. Thus, you get less space for growing the vegetables. With garden beds, more of the area can be grown with vegetables.
In addition, trellises as a form of vertical gardening can be made to grow beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers. You can do this alongside growing in garden beds to maximize the available space you have, no matter if it’s small or not. If you already have a fence, you can use that as a trellis.
To keep the vegetables in place while they are still growing, we recommend that you tie them or weave them around the trellis.

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Provide Enough Sunlight and Water

Usually, vegetables require a minimum of eight hours of direct exposure to sunlight. There are vegetables such as lettuce, kale, spinach, turnips, and beets that will grow even with just six hours of direct sunlight every day, but growth will be better with more hours than that.
Likewise, your vegetable plants need to be grown where you can water them with ease. After all, around 90 percent of the overall plant weight is composed of water. In general, vegetables should have at least one inch of water weekly.
However, be mindful of any incoming rainfall. You should reduce the amount of water to avoid overwatering. It’s disadvantageous to have soggy so in your vegetable garden. Also, you’ll just be wasting water. Worse, too much water can make the vegetables prone to pest infestation and plant diseases.

Practice Crop Rotation

If you want to soil to remain healthy enough for robust vegetable growth, you should conduct crop rotation. Essentially, each crop should only be planted once every three years in a given area. It will require extensive planning, but it’s important to achieve optimal growth every year.
Crop rotation ensures that no crops can effectively deplete any nutrient in the soil. Likewise, this method prevents pests and plant diseases from spreading once you’ve harvested the vegetables. Through crop rotation, you sustain the essential nutrients in the soil while having the benefit of growing and harvesting new vegetables every year.

Here is a helpful video about crop rotation:

In conclusion, growing a vegetable garden requires smart planning. You need to maximize the space you have and you should know how to control pests and plant diseases without spending money. Similarly, having the awareness of when and where to plant your vegetables will encourage optimal growth.

We hope that our guide helped you in growing your own vegetable garden. If you have any queries, feel free to send us a comment.

I’m Ann, I have dedicated most of my life in gardening. This is a subject I enjoy the most. I have been a fan of flowers and plants ever since I was a kid. My blog: http://sumogardener.com