Growing produce provides myriad benefits, from saving on groceries to being great exercise. Gardening requires a lot of time and effort, though, which feels wasted when your harvests are paltry. Here are some ways boost your crop production to get more out of your time, space and money.
1. Take advantage of the spring and fall. By planting cool-weather crops prior to your summer garden, you can enjoy fresh veggies for a larger window of time. Peas, lettuce, spinach and asparagus all enjoy the cool, wet spring months, and may be done producing by the time your summer crops come on.
2. Protect fruit from birds. Birds love berries, grapes and other fruits, and they can rapidly deplete your harvest. By creating mesh barriers around and over the top of your bushes and vines, you can keep birds away. You can use sections of pantyhose to encase bunches of grapes on the vine, as well.
3. Start your own seedlings indoors. Plants nurtured indoors for the last few weeks of frost season are ready to pop into the ground when the cool weather finally ends, allowing you to jump-start your garden. You can use a variety of containers for starting seeds, from egg cartons to biodegradable seedling pots that you simply plunk in the ground.
4. Be efficient about spacing. Always follow the instructions on the packet for each type of crop you plant, but be careful that you don’t give each plant too much room. You can fill small, extra spaces with lettuces or herbs; not only will this allow you to get more out of your space, but it will keep weeds from growing in these areas.
5. Water often. If you do not have consistent rain, you must water your garden regularly. A garden hose, sprinkler or irrigation system will add continuous moisture to the soil, which maximizes the absorption of nutrients and establishes strong roots, keeping your plants healthy. Inadequate watering can cause plants to shrivel and wilt before you ever harvest anything.
6. Grow steadier harvests by planting in succession. Staggering your plantings will prevent your crops from coming on all at once, leaving you with more veggies than you can process and encouraging waste. Rather than putting out all of your tomatoes or corn at once, plant them in batches about a week apart.
7. Plant perennials once, and enjoy them for years. For the minimal effort and expense required to plant them, perennials like asparagus, rhubarb, radicchio, kale and garlic will reward you with years of yummy harvests.
8. Plant “come-again” veggies. Vegetables with edible foliage, like lettuce and many kitchen herbs, can be trimmed and snipped and will continually regrow. When cutting lettuces and other vegetables that grow in heads, you must be careful not to cut below the growing point, which is the place where new leaves begin. If two leaves are joined, you have cut too far, and the plant may not sprout more leaves.
The tips in this article can help you make the most of the time and money you put into your garden, rewarding you with bountiful yields for a longer period of time.
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