What do you do when you are urban dweller with a passion for farming but you have limited space? Start a backyard garden. You don’t have to live in the ranches found at the countryside to put your farming skills into use. A backyard garden is also one of the ways of landscaping your home.

A backyard garden, if tended to well, can produce enough yields to meet your family’s need for fresh organic products like vegetables and fruits. Additionally, it will save you the money you would have otherwise spent at the grocery store.

Here’s everything you need to know to start your backyard garden.

Choose the right crop

Different crops thrive under different conditions and their maturity periods also differs from one to another.

Find out the types of crops that grow best in your particular locality. The best is to start with fast-maturing crops like kales and spinach but this depends on the needs of your family.

Tomato, pepper and onions also make for good backyard garden plants since you won’t wait for long before harvesting.

Crop rotation

Crop rotation is important in allowing the soil time to replenish its nutrients and regain its fertility.

Different crops consume different soil nutrients and you don’t have leave your backyard fallow to give the soil time to regenerate its nutrients. Simply rotate your crops appropriately. Expert gardeners are those who know how to rotate their crops in order to always get the maximum yields from their gardens.

The idea is to know the different plant families and the nutrients they need. For example, potatoes and tomatoes belong to the same family and use the same nutrients, therefore you should not replace one with the other since it will use the very same nutrients like the other.

Rotate your tomatoes with leguminous plants like beans which have nitrogenous nodules that improve the fertility levels of your backyard garden.

Improving fertility

Add compost and manure in your garden to increase fertility and improve yields. However, be careful not to put too much manure since it can alter the soil pH values and make your crops to die. Moderation is key.

If you must add fertilizers, use suitable organic fertilizers and get the right timing of adding farm inputs to your crops. There other Gardening Tips And Reviews that can help you get better yields.

Watering

Rain-fed agriculture is possible during the wet season but you must regularly water your plants during the dry seasons.

Your watering schedule is determined by the types of crops in your garden. Some require a lot of water, others do not. Leafy vegetables, for instance, require more water than potatoes and onions which are usually damaged by too much water. Yellowing of the leaves usually indicate too much watering.

Using the correct watering techniques prevents the rotting of leaves and the spread of diseases.

Weeding and pest control

Minimize the amount of herbicides you use in your garden by get rid of weeds when they are still small and can be pulled by hand. Most herbicides contain harmful chemicals that pose a danger to your health when inhaled or ingested.

If the weeds are grown, use a hoe to dig them up.

Mulching and spacing your crops well helps ward off weeds and pests from your garden.