7 Ways To Keep Your Garden Healthy And Maximise Harvest
When you grow vegetable seeds at home, produce is more nutritious and delicious than typical store-bought food. If you want to enjoy the vegetables in your garden all year long, you need to grow as much as possible during the hot season.
This shouldn’t be an issue in Malaysia, where hot weather extends beyond months. Growing enough vegetables can be difficult when you are working with limited time, space and budget.
You need to find ways to keep your vegetable garden healthy and maximize harvest. Keep reading as we are going to give you the best vegetable garden care and maintenance tips so your garden reaches its fullest potential.
Vegetable Gardening Tips and Hacks For Beginners
1. Plan For Good Garden Production
It is a good idea to write and draw your garden plans with a pencil and paper or use a vegetable garden planner. It is a good idea to think ahead and come out with a strategy you can follow to maximize harvest.
2. Grow High-Value Vegetable Seeds
Before growing things, it is important to buy high-valuable vegetable seeds. The best place to buy vegetable seeds is online as they provide variety and high quality.
Choose the easiest tropical vegetables to grow from seeds in Malaysia, such as amaranth, chives, choy sum, cabbage chili pepper, and eggplant. For example, if you have limited space you can grow choy sum, also known as sawi bunda or sawi mani in Malaysia as it can be harvested as a microgreen.
But remember high value is also about flavor so it is a good idea to grow fresh herbs. You will be amazed by how much money you could save by growing vegetable seeds and herbs at home.
3. Don’t Plant In Rows
The traditional garden design is planting in rows. You should know that few vegetables need to grow this way so don’t do it unless it is necessary. Row cropping is not a good idea for home gardeners. Why?
- Rows waste valuable space.
- When you walk in the garden, the soil gets compacted.
- Unless drip lines are carefully rigged, irrigation water may be wasted in the space between rows.
4. Plant In Raised Beds
For your vegetable garden to be healthy and to maximize harvest, it is important to plant your seeds in rich soil.
Rich soil helps the growth of healthy, extensive roots, which in turn are able to reach more nutrients and water. If you want to get that deep layer of rich soil, the fastest way to do it is to make raised beds.
Raised beds harvest up to four times more than the same amount of space planted in rows. When you use raised beds the rich fertile soil is loose and you have more room to grow vegetable seeds.
Besides, raised beds to save you time.
5. Be Careful With Bugs
You need to be careful with insect damage because viruses and bacteria can only enter a plant through some sort of opening, and bug damage provides that.
Besides, many insects are responsible for transporting viruses from one plant to the next. To help protect your vegetable plants from insects, here are some ways to do it:
- Fertilize and water your plants regularly
- Pull weeds around your plants as well
- Plant herbs and flowers around your vegetable seeds. For instance, basil plants ward off whiteflies, and oregano can help protect tomato and cucumber plants.
- Cover your vegetable seeds. Just make sure it allows light, air, and water to get through
- Spray vinegar on your weeds
- Weed your garden well and regularly to minimize hiding places for insect pests
- Remove infected plants to prevent the pests from spreading to other plants.
6. Find The Easiest Tropical Vegetable Seeds and Herbs To Grow In Malaysia
Vegetable seeds that are easy to grow in one climate may be challenging in others.
Find the seeds that excel in your garden, growing as many of them as you can to achieve food self-sufficiency. Some of the easiest tropical vegetable seeds to grow in Malaysia are:
- Amaranth
- Rocket Lettuce
- Beans
- Bell Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Broccoli
7. Include Tropical Herbs
A healthy vegetable garden should also include tropical herbs as they are easy to grow yet pricey to buy. Some of the easiest tropical herbs to grow in Malaysia are:
- Basil
- Dill
- Mint
- Parsley
- Sage
- Coriander
Don’t forget to grow herbs in individual pots, rotate them weekly and space them out.
Planning to purchase quality vegetable seeds? Feel free to get in touch with us. Happy planting!
