Benefits to growing a vegetable garden:
- Reduced costs at the grocery store
- Increased physical activity for the whole family
- Encouragement to eat healthier
- Inspiration to try new recipes
- The ability to share extra with friends and family
- Flavour, flavour, flavour! Home grown food tends to have much more flavour as its picked at it’s ripeness.
Easy to grow vegetables for beginners
- Lettuces (spinach, leaf lettuce, arugula, swiss chard)
- Potatoes
- Zucchini, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, cucumbers
- Onions – Green onions, red onions, shallots
- Carrots, beans, and peas
- Beets
- Bell Peppers
- Radishes
Limited space or no backyard?
Did you know you can grow many fruits and vegetables in containers, planters or garden boxes? The following do really well in these if you are limited on space.
- tomatoes
- peppers
- eggplant
- green onions
- beans
- lettuce
- squash
- radishes
- herbs – parsley, basil, thyme, oregano, dill
Soil
Soil quality is very important you need high quantity of valuable nutrients available. If your soil contains too much clay or has too high of a pH value this is not ideal for vegetables. You may need to amend the soil or use a soil mix with 60% top soil, 30% compost, and 10% potting soil. It is recommended that you mix in fertilizer for vegetables to provide the optimal pH value for a vegetable bed or container (between pH 6-7).