6 Basics of the Vegetable Garden in Houston

Versión en español

Learn the 6 Basics of the Vegetable Garden in Houston. A couple of weeks ago I adopted a new school garden and had been thinking about how to re-design it and make the most of it. I will serve a kindergarten class so it must be effortless to access for short arms 🙂

These are the Basics of the Vegetable Garden in Houston:

1. Location: always choose the sunniest spot in your yard, everything else is secondary.
2. Preparation of the soil: if you plan on time you can cover the ground with black bags for 2-3 weeks, to “cook the soil” and kill weeds. If not, weeding by hand is needed.
3. Installing raised beds: although in many places you can grow directly in the ground, this is not the case in Houston, I recommend raised beds because it creates a barrier to prevent weed growth and prevent the soil to get compacted so that the roots can quickly grow. Also,?they protect your crop from minor flooding events.
4. Soil: The essential thing (second to the sun exposure), the quality of the soil will determine the quality of the vegetables grown. Buy organic soil if possible and specifically develop to grown vegetables.
5. Irrigation: your water source should be close to the garden, so that during the summer when it is sometimes necessary to water two times a day, this is no problem.
6. Records: Always keep a record of where you grow the plants in each bed so you can establish a proper crop rotation. Do not think you are going to remember next year. A simple diagram will save you time and disease to your plants.

Visit our collection of articles on how to grow vegetables in Houston.

See the transition from abandon garden to a productive vegetable garden. This garden is located in the Medical Center Area in Houston.

It is a small vegetable garden with four raised beds for children from pre-K and Kindergarten. When planning a garden for this age group, 4-5 years, it is essential to focus on deep raised beds; higher is easier for children to work on them. And the beds cannot be too wide, as his short arms should be able to reach the middle of the bed to cultivate and plant.
The garden had been abandoned during the winter, and they used to grow in plastic buckets. I do not recommend this system because for large plants like tomatoes you do not have enough soil and small pots or buckets dry out almost immediately, requiring permanent irrigation for the plants not to get stressed.

The first thing I did was weeding and pulling out all the grass and weeds. Then, we set up the raised beds; these are plastic, found on Amazon. We cover the bottom of each bed with five layers of newspaper. Filled them with the best quality soil you can buy. Plants and cover with mulch around. Ready to enjoy with the kids for years to come.

If you have questions, leave me a comment.