Care and feeding

Most vegetables like a steady supply of moisture, but not so much that they are standing in water. About an inch of water per week is usually sufficient. Irrigation is necessary should the rains fail.

Weeds compete with your vegetables for water and nutrients and could host pests, so it’s important to keep them to a minimum. Use a hoe or hand fork to lightly stir (cultivate) the top inch of soil regularly to discourage weed seedlings.

A mulch of clean straw, compost, or plastic can keep weeds at bay around larger plants like tomatoes. Pests and disease are ongoing problems for most vegetable gardeners. Should they occur, seek assistance from experts.

Fertilising your crops is critical to maximizing yields. Experienced gardeners often find that digging in high-quality compost at planting time is all their vegetables need. Inorganic fertilizer supplement is also recommended.

Crop rotation: the sensible farming practice of not growing crops in the same place doesn’t work on a small scale, as the crop turnover is too fast. Instead, try not to grow things in the same spot two years running.

Harvesting

Many vegetables can be harvested at several stages. Leaf lettuce and spinach for example, can be picked as young as you like; snip some leaves and it will continue to grow and produce.

Squash and cucumber can be harvested when the fruit is just a few inches long, or it can be allowed to grow to full size.

The general rule: If it looks good enough to eat, it probably is. Give it a try. With many vegetables, the more you pick, the more the plant will produce.

Keep good records

In conclusion, we end up where we started — with the realization that, although vegetable gardening can be rewarding even for beginners, there is an art to doing it well. There is also a mountain of good information and advice from other gardeners available to you.

Yet one of the most important ways of improving your garden from year to year is to pay close attention to how plants grow and note your successes and failures in a garden notebook.

Just as drawing a garden plan each year helps you remember where things were growing, taking notes can help you avoid making the same mistakes again, or ensure that your good results can be reproduced in future years.

For instance, write down all names of different vegetable varieties, and compare them from year to year, so you will know which ones have done well in your garden.

Many people keep a book in their car to record when they change their oil and perform other routine maintenance. In the same way, get in the habit of jotting it down whenever you apply organic matter or fertilizer to the garden or the dates on which you plant or begin to harvest a crop.

Over time, this careful observation and record-keeping will probably teach you more about growing vegetables than any single book or authority.

Additionally, the notes you make will be based on your own personal experience and observations and will reflect what works best for you in the unique conditions of your garden.

As in so many other pursuits, so it is in the art of vegetable gardening: practice does make perfect!