Growing Vegetables in Your Own Back Yard

In an effort to eat healthier and to reduce our environmental "footprint," my husband and I have been growing our own vegetables for the past few years. What I have found is that you do not need a lot of experience-or a lot of space-to have a great yield of fresh veggies. Here are some tips if you would like to try your hand at your own backyard veggie garden.

We have two little plots that we use for vegetables. One is about 4ft X 10ft and the other is about 4ft X 5ft. You do not need a lot of land to have a lot of success. Just be sure to put up a fence to help keep out nibblers like rabbits. Although deer are pretty bold in most places, if your garden is fairly close to your house, it is less likely to be raided. Living in upstate New York and having an extended winter, I was not sure what, if anything, I could grow. I was pleasantly surprised. The first year, we only planted zucchini and tomatoes. The tomatoes never ripened, but they did get to a great size. The next year they did much better, and the zucchini was wildly successful...some measuring 12 inches in diameter! All of this with just water and a few doses of vegetable-safe plant food.

This past year we experimented with green beans and sugar snap peas, as well as zucchini. The peas and beans absolutely went nuts. The peas were close to 6 feet tall and yielded more than we could even freeze. I was giving away gallon bags to neighbors I didn't even know just to get rid of them! The beans did just as well, some of them getting to be as big as Crayola markers while we were away on vacation.

This is not to say that we haven't had some set-backs to our success. Two summers ago we were over-run by these little yellow-and-black-striped bugs that ate our zucchini as fast as they could grow. Once we got rid of the bugs, grey mold claimed the rest of the plants. We did not have very many zucchinis that year. Last year, the pea plants did so well that their flowers attracted what I believe to be every Japanese beetle in the county.

Since I did not want to use chemicals to combat my enemies and defeat the whole point of growing my own veggies, I scoured the internet for eco-friendly ways to crush them. This turned out to be the answer-literally crushing the bugs and spreading their little carcasses around the garden proved the most effective. The only downfall was that the dead Japanese beetles STINK (and this stench is what repels all their little buddies)! You also have to repeat any time it rains. Some might argue that the act of having to crush hundreds of beetles would be a downfall, but it can be very therapeutic to destroy that which is destroying the plants you have so tenderly raised from seeds, but I digress. I highly recommend the Japanese beetle bags that you can find at any home and garden center...just be sure to place them away from your garden (read the package) so you do not draw the bugs into the garden. Also be warned that the beetles are VERY hardy. One website went as far as to recommend using your blender. When I asked my husband what he thought about that he just said "I'd NEVER use it again for anything else!" 'Nuf said. So I took to the task of crushing them with rocks in the beetle bags. I also read that tobacco and beer will keep pests off of your plants...and the beer did seem to work. The only problems were: 1) talking my hubby into using his beer and 2) I'm pretty sure that the beer helped contribute to the mold problem. If you don't want to deal with the "ick" factor of killing the bugs, just use the beetle bags and dispose of them when they are full. Some beetles will not be the end of your garden, and honestly, they only really attacked the peas. The green beans and zucchini were left almost untouched even though they were in the same space. To better combat mold, use proper spacing of the plants. Some zucchini really spread out when they are doing well and will over-crowd each other. Plant fewer plants or buy seed that render more compact plants to help with this issue. I was convinced the "mold year" that the more plants, the more veggies, and they grew so thick that the mold killed almost all of the veggies...now I cut back the weaker seedlings and have fewer, healthier plants.

As far as when to plant in New York, that can be tricky as the weather can remain cold and unpredictable well into April, even freezing and snowing. You shouldn't sow seeds until after the danger of the last frost has past, which can delay when you will have veggies to pick. If you want to get a jump on the season, plant your seeds inside in those peat cups, also available at any garden center. This way you will be starting with seedlings instead of seeds. Just be extra careful to acclimatize your plants to their new home gradually. Exposing your seedlings suddenly to more extreme light and temperature will kill them faster than any beetle. Also be sure to rotate the types of veggies you grow as growing just, say, tomatoes in one spot year after year changes the acidity of the soil. Finally, if you do get some monster veggies like my Crayola-sized green beans and watermelon-sized zucchini, carefully cut them open and dry out the seeds inside. Once they are dry, store them in a paper bag and use as your starter seeds for next year.