DIY Gardening Tips

submitted: Mar 25th 2008 | by: Admin | Total views: 196 | Word Count: 565 | |

So you've decided to grow vegetables at home. Which specific vegetables should you think about putting in your garden? The usual rule is that anything you can buy locally at a good price, you should just buy it rather than growing it. However, if you can significantly improve the quality by raising your own vegetables, then maybe that's reason enough to grow it at home.

Lets take a look at the top ten vegetables that are grown in home vegetable gardens.

Tomatoes

Did you know that tomatoes are actually fruit? It's true, but the tomato finds itself most often at home in vegetable dishes. Most of the tomatoes that you can buy are picked green and ripened artificially. Commercial growers discovered that ripe tomatoes were almost impossible to ship without being damaged. Plus, ripe tomatoes don't last long on grocery store shelves. So regardless of how much tomatoes cost at your local grocer, anything you grow at home will be vastly superior. Because of this taste improvement, tomatoes are probably the most common, most popular choice for home vegetable gardens.

Lettuce

If you only eat iceberg lettuce, they you can probably stick with store-bought heads. But if your tastes run to more exotic or fancy leaf lettuce varieties, you can often grow these more inexpensively at home. And your lettuce will almost always be sweeter and crisper from your own garden.

Peas

Your garden can really shine when it comes to peas. Finding fresh peas in the grocery store can be difficult. After peas are canned, they get pretty mushy. Frozen peas are closer to fresh taste and texture, but the freezing process still tends to rob them of color and flavor. Once you taste the delicate, delicious sweetness of home-grown peas, you'll be hooked on vegetable gardening for life.

Carrots

In order to keep carrots fresh, grocery stores store them at very cold temperatures. After a certain point, this makes the carrots bitter and tough. Fresh carrots from your own vegetable garden will be sweeter and more tender.

Radishes

You can usually find radishes in the produce section, and prices are often quite reasonable. However, the quality deteriorates quickly the longer they're stored. Once you put them up against fresh radishes, you'll discover there's really no comparison.

Greens

Again, the advantage with greens is freshness. What good is a cheap price when the greens are yellow and wilted?

Asparagus

Canned asparagus isn't really asparagus at all--at least that's what fresh asparagus lovers would say. Fresh asparagus in stores can be really expensive. To really enjoy asparagus as it was meant to be, plant some in your home vegetable garden.

Peppers

An pepper that's not a green pepper will probably be very expensive in the store. Plus, there's a good chance it will be starting to shrivel. For peppers that are vibrantly colored, crisp and affordable, grow your own.

Cucumbers

If you're tired of dry, bitter cucumbers that are mostly seeds anyway, add this vegetable to your garden.

Corn

Sweet corn is almost impossible to buy at its peak from the grocery store. Corn quickly loses its sweetness and moisture when it's been off the stalk for as little as six hours. You can bet that it's not in the grocery store six hours after picking. But it could be on your dinner table in 30 minutes at home.

These are the top ten vegetables found in most home vegetable gardens. If you've been wondering how to get started, this should give you some ideas.

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