Garden Resources

You may think you haven’t a clue about growing vegetables. But the truth is that you can easily learn enough to be growing useful crops in quite a short timespan, and each session spent in your garden teaches you something new. You will learn much that is unique to your own situation, such as local soil conditions, your particular aspect in relation to the sun, and oddities that relate to your local microclimate. You will learn most of this by getting out and giving it a go.

Without question the taste of home grown vegetables is vastly superior to that of the commercially grown produce. Have you heard people comment that tomatoes no longer have any taste? They will have when you grow your own – you will never taste better. The lack of taste with the commercial crop is not all the fault of the growers, as they are under pressure to produce a crop, of uniform size and colour, to the schedule of the wholesale market, and ultimately the supermarket. When you grow your own vegetables you set the schedule.

The freshness of your own crop is a big plus. Vegetables I have bought from the supermarket, and stored in the refrigerator, have started to become inedible after only few days. I have had home grown produce still fresh in the refrigerator after 2 weeks!
Typically, your home garden will produce a generous yield, and can readily help pay for the cost of growing them. You can effectively end up having free vegetables. Summer, especially, is normally a time of abundance, even glut, as family and friends leave your place with perhaps more produce than they had expected to see. A tip – when giving away fresh produce, try to limit your generosity – it is better to give a small amount to many rather than to give to the few more than they can actually use.

One of the turn-offs to trying something you have not done before is the intimidating flood of information (and misinformation) you will receive.

If you are browsing one of the major bookstores, you may see hundreds of books on the topic – which do you buy? To begin with, look for the simple, basic information. Skip those full of jargon – you will learn the technical terms as you go.

You will hear folklore from the family, such as “Uncle Henry always put … (you name it) … on his … (name it again)”. Folklore is part of our heritage, but there is no guarantee of its usefulness.

And you will hear from the office genius, who has done nothing, but still knows all the answers - nod wisely, and then ignore him.

Plants evolved thousands of years before humans, and they actually want to grow. It has been said that in many cases plants grow despite what we do to help them. If you provide the basics, and these are reasonable nutrition and regular watering, Mother Nature does the rest – let her work for you.
Of course, after all that hard work in the garden you need some place to relax. And the perfect spot is under a pergola. Buy a set of pergola plans and hire a handyman to build It for you. That way you can save hundreds of dollars as it is far cheaper that buying a pergola kit. Learn more
Build a pergola
Pergola design
How to build a pergola

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