The roots of success depend on the care of your vegetables from the beginning. Deciding to grow a vegetable garden is exciting and just the thought of it could make sugar plums dance in your head! The possibilities are endless! The idea of walking out into your backyard and harvesting fresh, plump, and tasty green beans, tomatoes, lettuce, squash, succhine, and cucumbers are a fantasy that could become a reality. I think it's important for me to point out the fact that it doesn't become a reality very easily. Just like everything else is in life, the result will have everything to do with your amount of planning, persistence,and good ol' hard labor. Most folks say, "Oh, it's not really work if you love it." Well, lets be real, if you're outside digging around and working up a sweat, it's work! There's something about that sweat rolling down into your eyes and soaking your shirt that seems different to me than a ride in the pumpkin field, so let there be no illusions. This vegetable business is not for the faint of heart. I't for pioneers on a mission and not necessarily for the Club Med crowd who pays one price for an all inclusive package. You'll soon see it's all a learning experience!

Sun
If your vegetables are going to meet their optimm potential, you're going to need at least seven hours or full sun each day. Plenty of times people have told me that their vegetables got full sun and still they were not doing well. I later find out that the garden gets fullsun from 2 - 4 p.m.! It may be hot then, but it's still not enough. They usually will still grow, but they will be leggy and fruit productin will be low or nonexistent, for most varieties. Of course, at times, depending on the angle of the sun and the height of some vegetables, some shade could occur. If that happens, remember that leafy plants like spinach, lettuce, and many root vegetables can squeeze by with a bit less than a full day's sun.

Soil
I've said it for years, "To be a good gardener, you must think perpendicular!" The soil needs to be enriched with nutients such as cow manure and compost. It also needs to be very well drained. If you have sandy soil or clay-type soil, you can amend it with cow manure, peat moss, oak leaves, and topsoil. Since the soil stays friable and rich in texture and color, you won't have soil problems. If your soil is particularly poor and you want instant gratification (and I know you do) you can take theasy way out and order a truck load of rich black topsoil. It can be mounded into a vegetable bed or it can be mixed in 50/50 with your native soil. Before planting, a shovel or a tiller can be used to soften up or to break up any clumps of soil that would be tough for fresh, young roots. Hey, I told you earlier that vegetable biz certainly had some "WORK" to it, but if you're not too discourage at this point just keep reading.

Water
Yes, water, certainly the main ingredient for life. The garden needs to be uniformly moist, after watering. This is why the soil you have is so important, and good soil needs to be distributed evenly in the garden. Ideally, the irrigation system that would be best, would be a "drip-system", which soaks the rootballs and keeps the foliage dry. This of course allows no water waste and is by far the most "efficient choice" for watering. A drip-system is easy to install and remarkably takes very littel money to set up. I also love the fact that drip irrigation is so concentrated on the roots, sincer our water supply becomes more critical and precious each year as droughts do ocur and the population continues to expand. By keeping the filiage dry you should have less of a disease problem as disease "spores" are spread through water distribution.

Composting
All of the most successful gardeners use ocmpost as a major part of their gardening life. almost anything natural that will decompose fairly quickly can become part of a compost heap. Leaves are generally the best and the most readily available source to start your compost pile. Cow manure rich with nutrients can be added every few months and a minimal amount of rich topsoil will help to keep the compost pile moist which is important along with the natural heat build up that occurs with any compost pile. any left over table scraps (vegetable) can be thrown into the pile to eventually become part of the earthy mix. I don't recomment meat table scraps. They aren't beneficial. Never throw any diseased or bug infested plants into the pile. We don't want to clog the arteries of the compost pile. In regard to vegetable table scraps in the compost pile, sometimes this practice could attract rats or other undesirable wildlife; somehow cover the pile to prevent unnecessary visitors who will try to turn your compost pile into a local bed and breakfast inn. Do not use grass clippings if you use any weed killers or bug killers on the lawn. The beneficial psychological fact of knowing that the specific food in a specific spot is 100% natural, is of great importance. I recommend that the compost pile be placed in a back corner of the yard or any place where it could be camouflaged, since it is normally not he most aesthetic part of the landscape. However, if your next door neighbor happens to do a lot of chemical spraying be aare that some wind drifts could occur and could potentially be problematical for you and your vegetables. By the way, if your compost pile is in fact an eyesore you could consider adding some latticle panels in front of it, painted white, which would then be a great place for two or three flowering vines, or a clipped hedge, with an opening for a wrought iron gate in the middle. This idea could be quite a classy addition to the yard.

Organic Matters!
Remember folks, the root of the plant is the foundation of the plant. Here are some of the benefits of adding organic matter.

• Builds organic structure of soil to hold water and nutrients.
• Releases nutrients slowly which promotes healthier growth.
• Adds nutrients, both major and trace.
• Supports soil's micro-biological activity (the life of the soil)
• Improves tilth and condition of the soil.

Information provided by: The Garden Rebel. The information above is an exerpt from one of his many books. Click here if you are interested in purchasing one of the Garden Rebel's books.