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Many people throughout the world love to grow vegetable gardens. In some places these gardens feed the family throughout the year, but in other places they are grown more for pleasure than for food. Sure, the people that grow in these areas will enjoy the produce as well, but for the most part it is something that is done for pleasure. One thing that all people with vegetable gardens are interested in, however, is growing great vegetables.

If you want to grow some of the best vegetable plants that you can grow you are going to need to plan carefully and give them plenty of care throughout the growing season. Some of the most typical variety of garden vegetables will have various results, simply according to the amount of time that is spent on them throughout the year. For example, most people with vegetable gardens grow tomatoes. They are a hardy plant that will grow without much attention from the gardener. In fact, most people simply grow them in a cage and pick their fruit when they become ripe. You could do the same thing, but why not grow a better tomato plant?

Tomato plants will put off shoots that come up in between the stalk and branches. They are typically called suckers because they do not give your tomato plant anything, they simply take away from it’s strength. If you pinch these suckers off when they first appear you will give your tomato plants a chance to grow strong and produce well throughout the season. If you are consistent with this process you can expect to have some strong plants that produce extra large fruit and most people love having large tomatoes.

You will also need to keep your tomato plants upright. Some people use cages to keep their plants off of the ground but if you have been pulling your suckers like we discussed earlier then you will need something more. I always use tall wooden stakes to keep my tomatoes upright. These stakes are sometimes 6 feet in length and get driven into the ground a couple of feet. I put one by each plant and then keep the tomato tied to it by use of old nylons.

The first year that I used this method I ended up having to get taller stakes, simply because they were growing so tall. They also produced some of the largest, best tasting tomatoes that I ever grew. So if you want to grow great tomatoes, try giving them the care they deserve. If you take care of them, believe me, they will take care of you.
New to gardening? Get lots more gardening tips at: http://www.garden-plants.org

For anyone accustomed to the notion that a vegetable garden must be a fairly large affair - its rows stretching fifteen or twenty feet at a minimum, the concept of crops pushing up from a small container or appearing to burst the bonds of a tiny patch of ground only a few feet square - it is almost unsettling.

Yet growing vegetables in cramped spaces is not only possible but highly rewarding. One can grow tomatoes in tubs at the edge of a patio, strawberries in empty milk cartons on a windowsill, lettuce in a modest window box, watermelons along a strip beside a driveway or beans on a trellis on a small apartment balcony.

A space no larger than a card table can supply you with vegetables year-round. The trick is to create a garden that has the right growing conditions and to buy seeds that are well suited to smaller areas.

Many seed companies have started offering miniature, compact plants to meet the needs of people with limited space. You’ll often find them in their catalogs or on their websites under categories like space miser, midgets or space savers.

Producing vegetables on a reduced scale, however, is basically a different proposition from other kinds of gardening. Small gardens devoted to woody ornamentals like dwarf conifers, rhododendrons or heathers or to miniature bulbs or alpines are arranged and managed largely for appearance: they exist to be decorative, to please the eye.

Vegetables are most often grown to reward not the eye but the palate. So while corn stalks and bean bushes can make the mouth water they rarely make the eye pop, and they are not likely to be found gracing a well designed border, although creative horticulturists have combined a few of the handsomest vegetables with flowering plants to good effect.

The biggest challenge with a small vegetable garden is practicality. Some vegetables such as lettuce will grow fine with only 4 hours of sunlight a day, but anything that produces a fruit (tomatoes, corn, beans, etc.) needs a solid 8 hours of direct sunlight or they aren’t going to be very productive. That sunlight isn’t necessary for dwarf azaleas, however.

A proper soil mix is also important, along with the right fertilizer. It can be too much for some dwarf plants, however and can make them grow beyond the space they’re given. Plus, you need to turn the soil in your vegetable garden annually. This kind of tilling can’t be done in some small spaces.

In spite of the challenges, growing vegetables in a small space is worth the effort. You’ll need to decide whether you want miniature fruit or just miniature plants. Small vegetables are cute, but often not so practical. There are some that are widely used though - cherry tomatoes and radishes are two perfect examples.
Are you planting vegetables this year? Plan your vegetable garden layout before you start planting. Learn more about planning your garden and get my free reports on mulching, composting and pest control at http://www.vegetablegardeners.com