Fertilizer should be applied to garden soil based on:

* The soil’s natural fertility,
* Quantity of organic matter that is present in the soil,
* The type of fertilizer being used,
* The vegetable or fruit being grown.

There is only one way to determine the current condition of the soil and that is to have the soil tested by a laboratory. When you have received the test results, you will be able to determine what areas of the soils structure need to be improved and hence, choose the correct formulation and type of fertilizer.

Soil testing is available from:

* Most universities and colleges that offer agriculture programs,
* State Agriculture Departments,
* Private laboratories,
* Garden Centers,
* On-line garden facilities.

Fertilizer Analysis:

Fertilizers, by law in the US and Canada, must provide an analysis of the three main elements of their fertilizer’s formulation, commonly known as N-P-K, which we mistakenly refer to as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium when in fact the N stands for nitrogen, P for phosphate (P205), and the K is for potash (K2O).

The numbers given, on the bag or box, are based on each elements amount by a percentage of weight. As an example, a 50-pound package of fertilizer labeled 10-10-10 would have 5 pound of N, 5 pound of P205 and 5 pound of K2O. The conversion is as follows:

To convert:

* P205 to phosphorus multiply the weight by 0.43.
* K2O to potassium multiply the weight by 0.83.

In our example of the 10-pound package of fertilizer, you would have the following elements:

* Nitrogen = 5 pounds.
* Phosphorus = 2.15 pounds.
* Potassium = 4.15 pounds.

Fertilizers and pH:

The pH of the soil is as critical as the elements available for plant nutrition as pH extremes can stop the nutrients from being available to the plants. Your soil analysis could show that the elements are in fact in the soil but with a pH around the 8.0 level elements such as phosphate, iron, and magnesium will not be absorbed by the plant roots. If the pH is 4.5 or lower, elements such as calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus will not be readily available for the plant to absorb. In some cases, having the wrong pH can increase the availability of certain elements to a level whereby they are toxic to the plant. Soil that contains aluminum at a low pH will have a toxicity problem. The pH can be raised by the addition of lime. Vegetables do best with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0.

Elements:

Believe it or not, a prosperous vegetable garden requires 16 elements that are essential for healthy plants. The air and water provide three of the elements - hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. Plants also require three elements in large quantities; termed macronutrients, these are the elements that are contained within commercial fertilizers - nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Three other elements that are essential and also considered to be macronutrients are calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. Most home gardeners do not have to concern themselves with these three elements as they are generally present in most soils and are added by the use of materials such as lime. The seven micronutrients are required in trace amounts and do not present a challenge to most home gardens as they are normally present within the soil and are enhanced with proper soil preparation techniques.

It is important to use both synthetic and organic fertilizers. The trace elements that are needed for a healthy garden are present in the organic fertilizers. As synthetic fertilizers are chemically formulated, they are a relatively pure product without additional trace elements within them. The best organic fertilizers are manure, mulch, and compost.

Summary:

It is impossible to know what supplemental fertilization is necessary in your vegetable garden beds, to produce abundant and healthy plants, without soil analysis. It would be like going to the pharmacy and buying an assortment of pills, because you don’t feel well, without having a doctor determine what is wrong with you first. Once you know what is lacking, you can purchase the correct fertilizer and use it in proper amounts.

Renovation Headquarters is your complete source of information for fertilizing your plants, trees, shrubs and lawn.

For those of us who love to nurture and consume vegetables, home gardening is a great activity to take part in. Once you have decided to have your own vegetable garden, the next step is to decide what type you want. There are two types of gardens: land gardens and container gardens. When one plants vegetables in the ground, it is called land gardening. When one plants vegetables in pots, it is called container gardening. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Find out which is right for you through this simple guide to land and container vegetable gardening.

Land Vegetable Gardening

To plant a vegetable garden on solid ground, you must carefully determine the size, location, and soil of your garden.

When you’re planning a garden, it’s important to decide the size of garden you want. In order to easily maintain a garden, you should start out small with a small garden and gradually expand if you later on desire to. I recommend starting out with a garden of 25 square feet or smaller. As you get the hang of gardening, you can expand your garden to be as big as you wish.

Before beginning a vegetable garden on solid ground, consider the location of your garden. Plants need about six hours of sunlight in order to fulfill their potential. Therefore, it is inadvisable to place your garden where there is a lot of shade. You should also make sure that you can locate your garden in a place with sufficient drainage. To protect your vegetables from drowning, make sure you can position your garden away from the bottoms of hills and other places where water is likely to collect.

Before planting in the ground, you should make sure that the soil is compatible for gardening. Soil that’s slightly loose and simple to till is best. Stay away from hard, difficult-packed soil. If your yard has mediocre soil, mulch or compost will be a big help for your garden. In fact, composting won’t only greatly help your garden, it will also decrease the amount of your trash.

If you have the desired size, location, and soil for a land garden, you will enhance your chances for success in gardening on solid ground for beginners.

Container Gardening

If, on the other hand, you have little space, little sunshine, infertile soil, or impaired mobility, you may want to grow vegetables in containers. Container gardening allows you to position the plants in places where they can receive the best growing conditions in your area. Container gardening also creates better pest management and a chance to have color in areas where you want color. The downside of container gardening is that containers demand daily watering, which you must do by hand.

Some plants are especially fit for container-gardening. Vegetables that grow appropriately in containers are those that are used to growing in confined spaces, such as salad greens, spinach, eggplant, Swiss chard, beets, radish, carrots, peppers, bush beans, tomatoes, bush varieties of summer squash and cucumbers, green onions, and many herbs. Other plants will also grow well in pots, even if they are not meant for container gardening.

Regardless of the type or size of container used, adequate drainage is a necessity for successful plants. It is wise to add about 1 inch of coarse gravel in the bottom of the container to control drainage. For most vegetable crops, 5-gallon containers are the most appropriate size.

Some Last Notes

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to have a garden without pests, and land gardens attract the most bugs. Unless you want to use chemicals, you will have to kill any pests on the plants yourself and with the help of pest-eating bugs. You can buy these pest-eating bugs, such as ladybugs or praying mantis, from garden stores to get rid of pests. For larger bugs like grasshoppers and such, you will have to pick them off by hand.

Another issue you may have while vegetable gardening is to make sure the weeds do not take over your garden, especially if you have a land garden. If you don’t go out daily to pick the weeds, the weeds will choke out the plants and take over. Watering your garden is important not only to keep your plants alive and healthy, but also to repel some of the bugs that might otherwise eat your plants.

Your Final Decision

This is a rewarding experience, because you end up with a delicious plant harvest. The question is whether you should start a land garden or container garden. This question is usually answered by one’s own resources. If you have an area outdoors that is sunny for at least six hours a day and yields good soil, opt for the land garden. If you live in a city, let’s say, and do not have a parcel of land to garden on, then create a container garden. Either way, don’t miss out on the cherishing moments of farming in and eating from a vegetable garden. If you loved the ripe vegetables that grandma used to grow, you should relive those precious memories by starting your own land or container vegetable garden.

Mary Amos loves to garden and is blessed with green fingers. Take a look at Vegetable Garden | Organic Vegetables to make the most of your garden. Also visit Home Improvement | Home DIY for other home improvement ideas.

Many people plant vegetable gardens because vegetables are easy to grow. In fact, 6 out of 10 gardeners grow vegetables. However, to maximize the production of the crops, a gardener needs to do proper vegetable garden landscaping.

Good vegetable garden landscaping starts with placing the garden in an area where the plants could get 6 to 10 hours of sunshine in a day.

Next, check the soil to make sure it is in good condition. But this cannot be done just by looking at the soil. Instead, a sample should be sent to an agricultural extension agent in the area for testing. Soil tests are cheap around $4 to $6. The results will help the gardener determine what should be added to the soil to grow healthy crops.

If the soil is of average quality, a gardener can enrich it by adding compost. Compost materials are decayed leftovers from leaves, vegetables and other organic compounds.

Leveling the soil is also essential in vegetable garden landscaping. Leveling will prevent the soil from forming low areas where water would pool.

The garden is now ready for planting. Plant arrangement is important here. Perennial vegetables, like asparagus, should be planted separately from annual ones. When planting annual vegetables, a trench should be made in the soil. Once done, the vegetables should be watered gently.

Basically, the vegetable garden is complete. Soon, however, insects will come to prey on the young plants. To protect them from these insects, a wall of cardboard must be placed around the plants. Although this destroys the aesthetic beauty of the garden, it is nonetheless essential for protection. When the plants are mature enough, the cardboard wall could be removed.

Effective vegetable garden landscaping allows crops to grow healthy. However, the garden still needs to be tended once in a while. Aside from watering the plants regularly, a layer of straw mulch should be sprinkled over the soil. Straw mulch evens out the soil temperature and reduces moisture loss. It also reduces the presence of weeds and lessens the need for the gardener to water the plants often.

The success of a vegetable garden starts with the basics. With these simple things in mind, the gardener can be sure of a good harvest.

Milos Pesic is an expert in the field of Landscaping and Gardening and runs a highly popular and comprehensive Landscaping web site. For more articles and resources on landscaping designs, landscape ideas, garden landscaping and much more visit his site at:

There are a wide variety of vegetables that you can choose from to put into your first garden. The key is choosing the ones that you love to eat. This will give you something to look forward to and you’re more likely to take better care of something you like than food you hate. Some of the more popular vegetables that people usually start with are sweet corn, beans, peas, and tomatoes. There are many others but these are the ones most people will start with. These are also very hardy and grow fairly quickly so you will see progress and that will make the first time gardener very happy.

Dividing up your garden space is also a very important part to your new gardening venture. People will just start planting without proper planning and they are just asking for troubles. Different vegetables have different needs as far as sunlight and moisture. If your garden is located where sunlight isn’t on it all the time than where you plant certain things can really affect how they grow and the time it takes for them to grow. Many of the packets of seeds have the growing season and the amount of sunlight they need. Follow these requirements carefully. If you are going to plant seeds start them in potted plants inside your home first. This will give you a much great chance for success when you plant them in the ground. Make sure you put markers so you know what is in each row of your garden. This way you can see how things are growing.

Weeds are something you will have to deal with as your plants get bigger. Many people think that these really don’t affect the growth of your plants, but that isn’t true. The weeds that are in your garden the less room your vegetables have to grow. Weeding weekly is a good idea as your garden progresses. Insects and rodents are another thing that you may have to deal with. Rodents are less of a problem compared to some of the insects you will encounter. Go to your garden supply store and they will have many different products that can be used to protect your plants and help your plants grow quicker.

Get your whole family in the act of helping with your new garden. You will be surprised on how much help your family will give you. Kids love seeing plants grow and they could be your biggest helpers especially when it comes to weeding. Gardens can be a lot of work sometimes, but the rewards that you can reap from it far outweigh the work involved. Why not get yours started today and see how much fun it can be.

Jeffrey Meier of Jam727 Enterprises at http://www.Jam727.com offers information articles on a wide variety of subjects including vegetable gardening at http://www.jam727.com/gardening/Vegetable-Gardening-Tip.php

The first thing you should consider in your planning is the location of your garden. Vegetable gardens need a sunny open space in order for the plants to thrive. So take a look and find the best location that you have available that fits this ideal.

Once you have pin-pointed an open and sunny area for your garden, take note of how much space you have in that location. Space will be an important factor in your planning. You will need to consider the space requirements of the vegetables that you would like to plant. When you know the space that you have available, make a scaled drawing of your vegetable garden.

No doubt, you are already dreaming about the types of vegetables that you want to plant. When you have the location and size of your plot figured out, you are almost ready! But before you go out and buy those seeds or plants, you will want to know the planting zone in your area. You will need to know which vegetables will grow well in your area. Knowing your planting zone will help you estimate the first and last frost dates in your area. This helps you to be able to estimate the length of your local growing season.

Let’s review the top three things that should be taken into account when planning a vegetable garden. 1. Location of the garden. 2. Space available for planting the garden. 3. Your local planting zone, to determine planting times, vegetable varieties suitable to your zone and first and last frost dates.

Gardening is a very rewarding experience. Nothing compares to growing the vegetables that you serve on your own table. If you enjoyed these tips about planning a vegetable garden, find even more information here. http://meg-heartathome.blogspot.com/2008/02/growing-your-own-vegetablesplan-ahead.html

Megan Mart is a mom, wife and friend who knows that “Home is where the heart is”. For more tips visit: http://meg-heartathome.blogspot.com

Of course, most of us don’t have the space for large gardens. Many of us have very small yards. Apartment and condo dwellers may have no space at all! That is where container vegetable gardening is very handy. Growing vegetables in containers means you can grow your vegetables on a deck or patio, or even indoors using special grow lights. Because of container gardening, we can now grow our own vegetables no matter where we live.

Some types of vegetables are more appropriate for growing in containers than others. Some of the larger types of plants won’t do as well in containers. For example, corn is so large that you would have to use a very large, very heavy pot to support it. Large melons grow on long vines and may set out multiple root systems, thus they don’t do well in containers. Very large varieties of tomatoes and squashes may be hard to support in pots.

Some types do especially well in containers. Lettuce, spinach, and other leafy vegetables typically do very well in containers. Smaller varieties of tomatoes such as salad tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, and grape tomatoes are great for container growing. Many types of bush beans and peas do well in containers. If you use large tubs, you can even plant potatoes in containers! It’s not difficult to do this, and they grow remarkably well in this manner. In fact, most smaller varieties of vegetables will grow just fine in pots.

The biggest concern with regards to growing your vegetables in containers is choosing the right size of container for your plants. You should look up the average root depth, as well as the average diameter of the plant. If your plant has 6 inch deep roots and normally grows about 10 inches wide, you should get a container that is about 8 inches deep and 10-12 inches wide. You should always leave a small amount of room for error. Sometimes your plant’s roots may grow a bit deeper than normal, or the plant may grow larger than expected. You don’t want to have to risk damaging your plants by transplanting them if you don’t have to.

If you are concerned about the safety of your food, I suggest you give container vegetable gardening a try. Remember, you can also grow many types of herbs and even fruits in containers, too!

Amy Stevens has been an avid container gardening hobbyist for many years. She runs several gardening websites, including Container Gardening Tips.

For more container gardening tips, visit her site Container Gardening Tips.

Planting on a cool day (if you can) as opposed to a hot sultry one will cause less stress on you and your plants. Water your plants in the pots they came in the day before you plan to plant them and never leave them in the pots in the sun, they will Dry Out. Loosen the roots before planting, this gives them room to spread out and grow when transplanted into the ground. Plant the plant at the same depth as the pot it came out of, not to high or the roots will show and dry out and burn and not to deep or the stem will rot.

Once you have them in the ground cover with soil but don’t press to hard when covering them, watering will help them to settle into the soil. Remember to water your garden as soon as you have finished planting and be sure to give it a least one inch of water a week. On hot dry summer days some afternoon wilting is normal but you will need to water more often. If your plants are wilting in the evening chance are they are stressed from the heat or are not getting enough water and or not enough nutrients, if it s been extremely hot, you will need to water more often.

If your vegetable garden is small plant vegetables that will give you a longer harvest, such as tomatoes, lettuce and beans. Keep in mind that tomatoes will need to be staked or caged but they can be pruned (cut back) allowing for air to circulate. Other appetite appealing vegetables that grow well are bell peppers, cucumbers, radishes herbs and carrots. In the long run growing, harvesting and eating your own home grown vegetables at mealtime in the summer will be the best part of the summer season.

Eudora DeWynter offers tips on Starting a Vegetable Garden on her blog at http://www.gardentoolguru.com