How to Grow Your Fruit and Vegetables as a Vegetarian or Vegan

Being a vegetarian means you can have fun in your garden too. Growing your own fruit and vegetables definitely puts you in control of what you are eating. You get the benefit of having your vegetables fresh, fresh, fresh, as well as knowing that what you are eating is chemical and pesticide free.

Having your own garden to grow fruit and vegetables for your vegetarian table allows you to choose the foods you like best. If you have a fondness for tomatoes or zucchini or eggplant, you can fill your garden with them and eat them to your heart’s content. You can also grow foods in your garden that may be hard to find at your local grocery store or market, such as certain varieties of fruits or vegetables. You local stores may only carry Ida Red apples, Delicious or Granny Smith, where you may love Snow White apples. Having your own garden gives you the choice to grow what you want.

It also allows you to eat your garden’s bounty at their peak freshness. When you buy food in the grocery store or at the market, many of the fruits and vegetables are picked before they are truly ripe so that they can travel well. This means that much of the flavor is lost. If you have your own garden, your fruits and vegetables can ripen naturally and you will have better tasting specimens.

Your own garden may even allow you the benefit of an extended period of when certain foods are in season. Grocery stores and markets only provide foods in quantity when they are in season. The food growing in your own garden may produce one or two specimens earlier for you to enjoy, or you may even still be able to have a few after the season is believed to be over.

Having your own garden also allows you to save money. A little pack of seeds that produces dozens of plants is a lot less costly than purchasing one basket of tomatoes at your local store.

And you can have the fun of ‘mucking’ in the garden and getting your hands dirty. Gardening can become quite a hobby for some people and be quite soothing when they ‘commune with nature’.

One of the biggest benefits to growing your own fruit and vegetables as a vegetarian or vegan is that you know what exactly you are eating. You know that everything has been organically grown without chemicals or pesticides, and if you are a vegetarian because you believe in eating healthy, that is the healthiest way to eat.

Being a vegetarian or vegan means that you care about what you eat. Having your own garden allows you the comfort of knowing exactly what is going into your body. You can choose which fruits and vegetables you like best to grow in your garden. And there is nothing like being able to go out and pick your food fresh from the plants.

Growing Saladr
Bags of salad leaves are expensive to buy in supermarkets and because they're washed and ready to eat, they have a short lifespan in the fridge. By growing your own, you can pick the exact quantity and combination of colors that you want for each meal. Most varieties of lettuce are foolproof and can be sown anytime between spring and summer. But by giving the plants protection, it's even possible to sow seeds in the autumn for tasty leaves over winter. For a continuous supply, sow a few seeds every four weeks.

What to do & How to sow:
Choose a sunny or partly shaded spot, and prepare the soil by digging over, removing stones and then mixing in well-rotted manure or garden compost. This will add nutrients and help the soil retain moisture. Rake to leave a fine finish.

Seeds often come in ready-mixed packets, so you can recreate your favorite supermarket salad mix.

Sow seeds in short rows about 30cm (12in) apart. To do this, make a shallow trench with a cane about 1.5cm (1/2in) deep. Tip a small amount of seed into your hand, take a pinch and spread thinly along the trench. Cover with soil, label and water. If birds are a problem in your garden, spread netting to prevent them eating the seed.

When the seedlings are about 2cm (1in) tall, thin them out to give them space to grow. The distance will depend on variety, but is usually betwee
15cm (6in) and 30cm (12in).

Lettuces are perfect 'fillers'. You can fit a row in between other crops, such as tomatoes, as long as they have enough light.

Tip: lettuces are easy to grow in containers and window boxes. Simply fill it with a mix of potting compost and John Innes and sow seeds as above.
Aftercare

Keep soil just moist. This is particularly important when the lettuces are one or two weeks away from harvesting, as dry soil now will cause the plants to put their energy into producing flowers.

When to harvest:
Harvest leaves from cut-and-come again lettuces when plants are about 5cm (2in) high, or allow the plants to grow to about 15cm and cut the whole head off leaving a 3cm (1in) stump - a new plant should soon re-sprout.

Loose-leaf lettuces need to have leaves harvested regularly to remain productive, while traditional lettuces are harvested by severing at the base or by pulling the whole plant up from the ground.

Find out more about growing salad & other topics related to Vegetarian Lifestyle by visiting http://www.vegetariancooking.podbean.com