Home vegetable gardening

Few experiences can match the pleasure of savoring homegrown vegetables, especially if you grow them from seeds or seedlings. The flavor and number of varieties that you can grow far exceed what you can buy at a grocery store. Growing vegetables does not have to be time consuming or difficult. In fact, you do not even need a garden. Many vegetables can be grown successfully in containers on patios and rooftops. Experience really is the best teacher, and as your knowledge increases, so will the rewards of gardening.

When you grow your own food, you know where it came from and exactly how it was grown. If you are concerned about the use of chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides, you have control over the fertilizers and soil amendments used to make your crops flourish as well as what you use to fight pests and diseases. Additionally, you will know that your vegetables are as fresh as possible.

Resources

• Vegetable Gardening 101 covers just about all aspects of growing vegetables in your home garden (PDF 98kb).

• Grow your own vegetables tip sheet (PDF 78kb) covers the basics of home vegetable gardening including planting requirements, when and how much to plant.

• Growing Vegetables - answers to frequently asked questions about planning, planting, caring for, and harvesting vegetables from the California Garden Web. Also includes specifics about more than 30 vegetables, including Growing Tomatoes in the Home Garden and Pumpkins.

• Vegetable Garden Basics, ANR publication #8059 (PDF 86kb), is a 7-page document that covers planning and planting a home vegetable garden.

• UC IPM - Managing Pests in the vegetable garden gives cultural tips and guidance for dealing with pests and disorders of more than 20 commonly grown vegetables.

• Tips for managing weeds in the vegetable garden from the UC IPM program.

• Cover cropping (PDF 168kb) in home vegetable gardens explains how and why to plant a cover crop to improve soil quality and nutrition.

• UC IPM program explanation of soil solarization for gardens and landscapes using the heat of the sun to manage soilborne pests.

• Crop Rotation lists the top ten vegetable families and their members to help vegetable gardeners plan a crop rotation schedule.

• The information that may be found on a seed packet is explained.

• Optimum soil temperatures for germinating a wide variety of vegetable seeds.

• Growing edible flowers in your garden includes information about which are edible and ones to avoid.

Sacramento Publications

• Information about tomato varieties favored by Sacramento County Master Gardeners (PDF 104KB).

• Sacramento Vegetable Planting Schedule shows proper times for planting vegetable seeds and transplants for the Sacramento area.

• See timely vegetable gardening tips to help you get the best from your vegetable garden.

Vegetable Container Planting Tips gives information about growing vegetables in containers, including the best vegetables and varieties.

• Growing Beets in Sacramento gives information about beets, including planting, care, pest problems and harvesting.

• Growing Melons in Sacramento provides information about melons, including planting, care, pest problems and harvesting (PDF 104kb).

• Melons describes the cultural requirements, varieties grown, results, and tasting comments from a melon growing demonstration at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center in 2007.

• Carrots provides information about the cultural requirements, varieties grown, results, and tasting comments from a carrot growing demonstration at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center in 2007-2008.

• Cherry Tomatoes describes the cultural requirements, varieties grown (with pictures), results, and tasting comments from a cherry tomato growing demonstration at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center in 2007 (PDF 168kb).

• Report of a soil solarization research project conducted in a Sacramento County strawberry field (PDF 292kb).