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Grow Vegetables

Growing your own vegetables is a growing trend as consumers demand more choice and less processing in their food. As the popularity of Organic food and less productive varieties of vegetables (such as purple sprouting broccolli) rises so do their prices, as industrial farming pushes out small producers. Growing vegetables as a hobby can be as involved as you want it to be, depending on how much you enjoy gardening in general. You can always throw a few seed around and see what happens, but to feed a family some knowledge of what each plant requires is preferrable A surprising amount can be produced from what seems to be a limited growing space. A 4x4 foot veg plot can supply enough veg to remove all from the shopping list of a family of four, with something you can pick every day of the year. To acheive this level of productivity several methods can be utilised:

• Crop rotation - Necessary on any scale, as plants have varying needs from the soil. Also prevents diseases from surviving in any patch for too long
• Cut-and-come-again varieties - of spinach and lettuce. Courgettes have a similar effect as they are cut when they are small, forcing the plant to grow more rather than into large marrows
• Three Sisters - A Native American technique in which Corn (Maize) Beans and Squash are grown together as they each benefit from the presence of each other. They also ensure some crop can always be harvested despite extreme weather conditions
• Composting - requires it's own section as an absolute necessity. Our waste is like gold to the soil and despite good top-soil conditions, many plants just won't be productive without it.
• Prolific producers - Veg that are technically fruit ( with the seeds inside, such as tomato, cucumber, pumpkin) are among the highest yeilding plants, and those that tend to grow upwards also have an advantage in production per square meter of soil.

eBooks

Vegetable Gardening.pdf - Guide to growing common vegetables

Saving-Your-Own-Vegetable-Seeds.pdf - Guide to using seeds from your own vegetables

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