Making Things Grow

To have the garden of your dreams, make sure you pick the right plants for your hardiness zone and select the right fertilizers for your plants. If your garden is shady, this Cheat Sheet offers a list of plants made for the shade. When you're planning and measuring your garden use the handy conversion chart for metric and standard measurements.

When you create a rain garden, you situate your garden to use rainfall and runoff from gutters and storm drains. Planning a rain garden is water-wise and ecologically low-impact, and it produces a beautiful garden that provides a home to birds, butterflies, and other insects. ©Richard Pratt / Shutterstock.comNot only do you save water when you create a rain garden, its placement (in the path of runoff water) prevents erosion.

The best and most refined of organic matters is compost, which is organic matter and/or manures that have decomposed until they resemble loamy soil.Thoroughly decomposed compost contains lots of humus — the beneficial, soil-improving material your plants need. Whether the original source was grass clippings, sawdust, animal manure, or vegetable scraps from your kitchen, all organic matter eventually becomes compost.

When deciding where to plant your vegetable garden, assess sun exposure, soil quality, and water access. Choosing a garden site that's best for growing vegetables is based on good old common sense, as these tips reveal: Keep it close: Plant your garden where you'll walk by it daily so that you remember to care for it.

Insect and disease killers that come from plant extracts are called botanical pesticides or botanicals. Although derived from natural sources, botanicals are not necessarily safer or less toxic to non-pest insects, humans, and animals than synthetically derived pesticides. In fact, most botanicals are broad-spectrum insecticides, which kill both good and bad bugs indiscriminately.

If you want to be green and grow your own food but have only a small space, you can still garden in containers. Container gardening offers the advantages of fewer insects and weeds to deal with and can be placed right outside your door or on your kitchen counter, so it’s very handy. ©Priscilla Du Preez / Unsplash.

Before you reach for the insecticide sprayer to attack pests in your vegetable garden, try some of these lower-impact methods to reduce problems from harmful insects and diseases. Often, a pest problem in a garden can be averted before it actually becomes a problem. Plant your vegetables in the proper locations.