Vegetables for Home Garden
Since most of the vegetables are seasonal in nature, you may practice a definite cropping pattern as far as vegetable growing is concerned. Most of the home gardeners adopt ‘winter vegetable-summer vegetable-rainy season vegetable’ pattern. Cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, spinach and beets may be grown during winters while gourds and melons may be grown as summer vegetables. Amaranthus, beans and peas may be grown during rainy season. Some vegetables such as tomato, chillies, and okra may be grown during all seasons. Vegetables that are suitable for your home garden are: Beans, Beets, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Cucumber, Gourds, Mustard, Okra, Onions, Spinach, and Tomatoes.
Fruit Plants for Home Garden
You can grow almost all fruit plants in your home garden if you have sufficient space. Fruit plants must be provided with sufficient space in your garden for their healthy root development. Fruits plants are classified into different categories depending upon the nature of their growth. There are herbaceous fruit plants, shrubs that bear edible fruits and fruit trees.
Herbaceous Fruit Plants
Best examples for herbaceous fruit plants are strawberries, papayas and bananas. These fruit plants require less space for their growth and their life span is short as compared to other fruit plants. Most of the herbaceous fruit plants are annuals.
Shrubs That Bear Edible Fruits
Best examples for woody shrubs that bear edible fruits are orange plants, lime and lemon fruit plants, guava, and mulberry plants. These fruit plants require considerable space in your garden for their root growth; yet lesser space as compared to that of trees. These fruit shrubs are perennial in nature.
Fruit Trees
Best examples for big fruit trees are mango trees, coconut trees, and apple trees. Fruit trees are perennial plants.
Best Fruit Plants for Your Home Garden
Some of the best fruit plants that are suitable for your home garden are papaya, different varieties of banana, custard apple, mulberry, mango, guava, pomegranate, different varieties of citrus fruits and strawberry plants.
Annual Flowering Plants for Home Garden
There are a large number of plants to choose from for growing in your home garden. Since it is not possible to grow all these plants together at a time, you may consider utility and aesthetics before selecting appropriate plants for the garden.
A list of popular annual flowering plants are: Ageratum, Alyssum, Amaranthus, Aster, Bachelor Button, Baby’s Breath, Celosia, Coleus, Cosmos, Daisies, Dahlias, Geraniums, Impatiens, Marigolds, Moonflower, Morning Glory, Nasturtium, Pansy, Petunia, Salvia, Sunflower, Sweet Pea, Vinca, and Zinnias.
Herbs for Home Garden
While selecting herbs for your home garden make sure that selected plant population is a healthy mixture of culinary, medicinal and aromatic herbs. Some of the culinary herbs that you can try in your home garden are rosemary, parsley, oregano and thyme. Among medicinal herbs, you can choose aloe, basil and mint. Some of the aromatic herbs that can be grown in your garden are lemongrass, palmarosa and citronella grass. herbs that are suitable for your home garden are: Aloe, Basil, Catnip, Chives, Citronella Grass, Coriander, Dill, Lavender, Lemon Grass, Mint, Oregano, Palmarosa Grass, Parsley, Patchouli, Rosemary, Sage, Stevia, and Thyme.
Pest and Disease Management in Home Gardens
Good gardening practices eliminate most of the garden pests and diseases. Soil sterilization before planting a garden kills most of the harmful soil microbes. This can be done either by covering the soil with a black polyethylene sheet to build up soil heat or by exposing the soil to the scorching sun. During plant growth, regular hoeing may be done to improve soil aeration. Manual weeding may be done to eliminate weed problems. Removal of dried, dead and rotten plant parts from the garden site eliminates most of the garden problems up to some extent. If garden soil is prone to nematode attack, marigolds, a nematode repellent crop may be cultivated in the garden. In case of serious pests and diseases, biological control methods using beneficial insects may be tried. Constant monitoring of garden helps you identify any outbreak of diseases and pests so that you can take immediate control measures in the beginning itself and thus you can prevent the problems in the initial stage itself.
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