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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature:  Vegetable Gardening


A garden isn’t always about aesthetics.  While a flower garden in full bloom is sight to see, gardens can be designed for utility as well.   A vegetable garden is the perfect solution to reducing your carbon output.  Every tomato you grow in your own yard is a tomato that doesn’t have to be shipped across the country before you get to eat it.  Fruits and vegetables from your own yard, picked at their peak, are fresher, riper, and more flavorful than anything found on supermarket shelves.

When deciding where to plant your vegetable garden, choose the best available location. You may have little choice concerning the soil type available to you, but you can use a simple test to find out whether your soil is in good condition for planting. Squeeze a handful of soil to test for moisture content. If the squeezed soil forms a clump, the soil is too wet to work. If you work soil that contains this much moisture, it might form into hard, cement-like clumps, which can cause problems for the remainder of the year. If the soil crumbles easily when it is squeezed, it is in an ideal condition to work. Correct tillage and the use of good organic and soil amendments can improve poor soil and can increase yield, even in good soil.
California nature is a great place to learn about vegetable gardening Level ground is best for growing vegetables. It is easier to prepare, plant, and irrigate than sloping ground. If you must plant on sloping ground, run rows across the slope, not up and down, to keep the soil from washing away during irrigation. 

Locate your garden near an abundant supply of water easily reached with a garden hose. Vegetables need at least 8 hours of sunlight each day for best growth. Plant vegetables where they are not shaded by trees, shrubs, walls, or fences. Trees and shrubs also compete with vegetables for the water available in the soil. If your garden is large enough for you to use power tools, be sure you have easy access to a road or driveway wide enough for equipment movement.

A key to any successful garden is planning. Time and space cannot be wasted if the gardener is to produce large amounts of vegetables from a limited area. Gardeners should pay close attention to timing of planting and harvesting, selection of varieties, trellising, and other space-saving practices.
It's wonderful having flowers in your yard! Even if your main focus is raising vegetables, adding ornamental flowers enhances the look of your garden and makes it more attractive to the pollinators you need for a successful crop.

In California it is possible to have both a spring and a winter garden in most parts of the state. The key to successful winter gardening is knowing the average date of the first killing frost in your region. You then plant your winter crops early enough to let them reach their full maturity before that killing frost. Local garden authorities can give you information about the timing of first frosts and the hardiness of various crops for your area.

You can add from 10oF. to 15oF. of warmth to your fall and winter garden by taking advantage of windbreaks and walls. Many gardeners have discovered by surprise that a south-facing wall of the home, shed, or greenhouse is ideally situated for constructing easily built structures that use the free solar energy of the sun.
You can grow almost any fruit or vegetable in California nature Permanently edged raised beds have been used for growing vegetables and flowers for centuries. They may be made of stone, bricks, concrete, or with either treated or untreated lumber. The soil in a well made and maintained raised bed can be between 8 and 12 degrees F. warmer than the same soil in the surrounding garden areas. Another advantage is the lessening of the need to bend over to work in, or harvest from, the raised beds

Do not plant the same fall or winter vegetable crops in the same location as they were planted the previous year or the summer season. It is important to note that if the same crop is planted in the same location, not only will the soil be weakened through continual loss of the same nutrients but the plants will also attract the same insects and diseases to that part of the garden.

Grow only those vegetables you enjoy eating. Give priority to those prized for incredible flavor when eaten fresh from the garden: sweet corn, beans and peas, tomatoes and young spinach, among others. Your yard is a unique micro-climate that is affected by heat-retaining walls, patios and driveways, shade trees, exposure to sun and wind, elevation, slope and many other factors. Selecting the right spot for each plant can expand the number of varieties you can grow successfully.
The inland valleys are subject to desert influences from the Mojave desert, and feature very summer temperatures and cold, often freezing, winters. While not generally considered agricultural, these valleys do allow use of fruit trees with high chill requirements. The extreme temperature range limits many cool weather crops that will bolt rapidly as the heat comes on, and cold winter temperatures rule out most sub-tropicals. This short hot summer does offer the ability to get crops in and producing early and to plant fall and winter crops after the heat has passed.

Because of California's low rain fall, all undisturbed soils tend to be high in minerals and slightly alkaline. Most of the disturbed, and many of the native, soils lack organic matter, making soil amendments and mulches an important part of garden preparation. If you amend your garden soil by mixing organic materials into it, it should have nitrogen-rich fertilizer added to the amendment before addition. The added nitrogen will feed the micro-organisms as they digest the organic material. If amendments are not high in nitrogen, the soil organisms will drawn nitrogen from the soil, lowering the amount available for your plants.
 
 
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