Vegetable gardening how it differs from growing flowers
Are you a big into flower gardening and are interested in trying other forms of gardening? One form of gardening that you might be interested in trying is vegetable gardening! However, before you automatically go out and start to buy your vegetable seeds and starters, you should stop and take a minute to read this! Vegetable gardening is a little bit different than growing flowers, and there are a couple of things that you will need to do differently as a gardener! Here are some of the ways that vegetable gardening is different from growing flowers:
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- "Dead heading" is slightly different: As a flower gardener, you are probably used to dead heading your flowers continually, meaning that when the flower begins to wilt you cut of the head of the flower at the part where the flower head stem meets a "junction" with other leaves and stems. However, as a vegetable gardener, "dead heading" is a little bit different. Instead of waiting for a vegetable to start to be overripe and die, you will want to pick the vegetable before it reaches that point! Instead, you will want to pick your vegetable at its height of beauty and freshness! This is quite a bit different from flower gardening, when you want to leave your beautiful flower in the garden and on display when it has reached its peak!
- Figure out when the vegetables are ripe: Finding out when vegetables are ripe and ready to be picked is another aspect of vegetable gardening that does not occur with flower gardening. Many plants that are above ground, such as tomatoes and corn, are ripe when the plants have reached their full size and bright color. However, if you have vegetables that are growing underground, then it will be a little bit trickier to tell. For example, if you are growing carrots or potatoes for your vegetable, then you will want to make sure that the plants above ground reach the suggested height in your seed or plant instructions. If the plants are the right size above ground, then there is a pretty good chance that their roots (or the vegetable itself) is ready to be pulled out of the ground!
- Be even more aware of bugs: Although in flower gardening you don't want to have your bugs eat your flower leaves or petals, it is even more important that you keep bugs away from your vegetable plants! If you let bugs attack your vegetable plants, you will not end up with any type of a crop whatsoever, and if you do, it might not be healthy enough for you to eat or enjoy! When you are vegetable gardening, there are a couple of ways that you can get rid of bugs that are in your vegetable garden. For example, you can buy chemicals or pesticides that you can spray on your vegetable plants. Or, if you are interested in organic gardening, then you will want to use some type of natural way to get rid of your bugs. The product Garlic Barrier or soapy water dilutions are two things that you can use to help keep bugs away from your plants!
- You get to eat what you grow! One of the big differences between vegetable gardening and growing flowers is that you can eat what you grow with vegetable gardening! There aren't too many flowers that you can eat after growing them! One of the rewarding things about vegetable gardening is that you can eat what you grow! Healthy, fresh vegetables that are straight from a garden are one of the best rewards of vegetable gardening! Enjoy your vegetable crop!
