Home-Grown Vegetables!

 With the first warm days of spring, most residents of Santa Clarita find themselves driven to the great outdoors.  Thoughts of home-grown tomatoes and peppers offer encouragement to get out and prepare the vegetable garden.
If your yard does not have an area designated for a vegetable garden, consider creating one from a section of lawn or an unused side yard.  All that is needed is soil and a sunny area.  Even large containers set on a sunny patio will serve to grow many vegetables.
Late March to early April is an ideal time to set out vegetable seedlings.  Seeds sown indoors during January and February may now be planted in the garden.  For those who did not start their seeds early, most local garden centers will be well stocked with a great variety of vegetable starts as soon as all danger of frost has passed. Homemade compost, or bagged amendments purchased at the garden center should be added to the soil at the rate of six cubic feet per one hundred square feet of garden area.  An organic fertilizer may also be applied at this time.  The soil may be turned, amendments added, and plants planted all in the same day.
Most vegetables do fine with a deep watering several times a week.  A soaker-type hose or drip system also works very well.
Vegetables are relatively easy to grow.  Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and squash are a few varieties that most home gardeners have success with.  Root crops such as radishes, onions, garlic, and carrots also flourish with very little care.  Fertilizer and insect control are probably the only additional expenditures needed after purchasing the plants.
So, enjoy the fine weather, treat yourself with a trip to the local garden center, plant your vegetable garden, and reward yourself with fresh produce all summer long.
For additional information, consult the garden pros at Green Thumb Garden Center, 23734 Newhall Ave., Old Town Newhall.