Have you ever tried to grow your own vegetables in a backyard garden? With the growing trend to become self-sustaining and lead a “greener” lifestyle, many people have found ways to provide their own vegetables, fruit and eggs, right from their own backyard efforts. Living off the land is not as difficult as you think, it just takes a little bit of knowledge, some space and a couple of seed packets to get started.

When planning your home garden, be sure to choose some crops that are typically costly to purchase from your local grocery store. By doing this, you can end up saving yourself a lot of money, sometimes fifty dollars or more every month, depending on the crop. Plus, you are guaranteed to have the freshest vegetables available!

Collecting and preserving autumn leaves is a fun gardening project, especially for the kids. Generations of kids have used the “wax paper method” to preserve fall leaves at peak color – with a little help from Mom. Just select colorful thin leaves that don’t have a high water content and place them between two sheets of wax paper. Place a cloth – like an old tea towel – on top of the waxed paper “sandwich” and have Mom slowly run a hot iron (no steam) across the cloth. Peek underneath to see if the wax paper is melting and bear down hard to get a good seal. The wax paper may seem cloudy while it is warm, but it should dry clear as it cools. Enjoy your pretty display of colorful leaves!

Fruits

When the vegetable season is over, grow a shoulder season crop if possible. Fruits like strawberries or raspberries bear fruit very early or very late in the season before or after the summer vegetable crops take over and can be planted. Raspberries can be planted to bear fruit in the fall and strawberries can be planted to bear fruit in the spring.

A great tip to having a fantastic garden is to be realistic. When shopping the glossy packages of seeds are very appealing, yet many of them only grow in specific climates. Be realistic to what grows in the area and do not plant items that do not grow well. It is so disappointing to plant a garden and have almost no fruits and vegetables come from it.

Vegetable

Vegetable oil can keep your trimmer running smoothly. If you find yourself stopping frequently to deal with trimmer line jams and breaks, get some cooking spray or vegetable oil out the next time you need to refill. Spray the trimmer line thoroughly before installing, and it will feed smoothly without breaking.

Planting a vegetable garden can be a truly rewarding experience. To be sure your garden is successful, you must pick a location that gets plenty of sunlight. The crops will need to be in a spot that is very open and sunny, giving them lots of room to thrive and grow.

Plant your garden in stages. Put in a new vegetable every week, or plant vegetables with different maturation speeds when you do your planting. This helps prevent you from having a large harvest all at once, and will better allow you to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables!) of your labors.

Just think of the beautiful harvest you can add to your dining table from your garden. Not to mention the environmentally friendly impact of growing your own food. Maintaining a personal vegetable garden can provide food at low cost to your family — and wait until you savor the amazing taste of vegetables, picked straight from the plant. Store-bought produce never tasted this good!