Growing a Vegetable Garden with Easy Plants for Organic Crops

By choosing vegetable plants carefully it is possible to enjoy abundant fresh vegetables with miminum fuss.

Growing Zucchini (Courgettes) and Squash

Zucchini and squash are easy to grow and give abundant harvests for little work:

• Leave plenty of space between plants as they grow very large! Check recommendations for the variety.
• Water generously and regularly at the roots.
• Incorporate plenty of compost or well rotted manure into the soil before planting.
• Plant in a spot protected from wind if possible.
• Do not plant until the last frost has passed. If cold weather threatens cover plants with horticultural fleece.

Pick zucchini regularly, but leave fall and winter squash to ripen on the vine.

Growing Leeks

Leeks provide a delicious and nutritious crop through the winter months.

• Sow quite thickly in early to mid spring in rows in a seed bed.
• When the seedlings are as thick as a pencil use a dibber to make a hole for each plant.
• Drop a small plant into each hole, and water a little, there is no need to refill the hole.

This deep planting will encourage long delicious white stems, but do eat the green leaves too as they are rich in nutrients!

Growing Broad Beans

Dwarf broad beans such as variety Sutton Dwarf are excellent sown in the autumn or the spring and are resistant to falling over in the wind, unlike larger varieties.

Growing Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is a long lived robust crop that continues to produce leaves that may be cooked like spinach through all but the coldest weather. Sow seeds in pots or modules and plant out in rows. Variety Bright Lights has beautiful colored stems.

Keeping a Vegetable Garden Healthy

These tips will help all crops to grow strong and withstand pest attack.

• Use a seaweed extract such as maxicrop either as a foliar feed or when watering. It contains a wide variety of minerals that gives plants a deep green colour.
• If organic matter is in short supply scatter chicken manure pellets around plants to give them a boost.
• Create wildlife havens such as overgrown grass, a small pond and rotting logs to attract natural predators of garden pests.

Control Weeds in the Vegetable Garden

Work little and often to control weeds organically

A Swiss oscillating hoe is an excellent tool for slicing through weeds effortlessly. It may be used with precision to avoid your crops while thoroughly weeding the spaces between the precious vegetables.On areas without a crop for any period, grow a vigorous green manure crop to preserve soil nutrients, keep the soil in good condition, avoid compacting, and to control weeds. Hungarian grazing rye is an excellent green manure crop for overwintering in temperate climates, whereas buckwheat will quickly compete with weeds during the growing season. Both of these two green manure crops have the advantage of fitting in anywhere in your crop rotation.

Overgrown plots, particularly those with perennial weeds need careful preparation before planting vegetables. But it is possible to clear an overgrown garden while growing vegetables.

Growing a vegetable garden is a wonderful and productive pastime with a little planning and regular work.