Seaside Vegetable Gardening, Eating Fresh from your Garden
Living on the coast is pretty amazing and has its benefits, but one of the challenges that many homeowners face is how to grow their own veggies from their home garden while having to deal
with factors such as high winds, sandy soils, and salt sprays that come from the ocean. The good news, however, is that with proper planning you can have the garden that you have always dreamed of
as you eat veggies grown in your home garden. Seaside vegetable gardening is a great way to connect with nature as you give nature a helping hand.
Steps to installing a seaside vegetable garden
1. Container gardening-Container gardening is a great way to grow veggies because depending on the size of the container you can always move plants around in an area where they are protected and then bring them out once the weather is back to normal Or you can cover them for protection.
2. Raise beds-Raise beds are also a great choice because this method like container gardening allows you to grow your veggies above the ground level. Adding compost or organic soil mix will help your plants to establish easier while providing them with all that added benefit. Also, it is easy to cover plants under high winds with all that salt spray that comes from the ocean.
3. Ground Level or existing soils-If you decide to plant at ground level you may have to do a little more work but success is still possible. Choose an area that does not get as much salt or high winds.
Add compost or organic soil mix, add a good amount be generous because you are working with Sandy soil that has a good amount of salt, and the soil its self is also sandy.
Provide fresh water for a week by water soil before installing plants, this will help to push any trapped salt away from the zone where plant roots must run.
Other planting tips
1. Install your veggie garden in full sunlight.
2. Providing fertilizer is an added benefit. Slow, Quick, and Organic Fertilizers.
3. Adequate water is a must to keep your veggies happy.
4. Keep an eye out for insects. Garden insect and insect control, organic insecticides.
Vegetables to plant
Here is a list of veggies that can be planted in your seaside garden.
Additional information on gardening
Garden fruits and vegetables
The final word
Seaside gardening is possible for those who live in coastal areas and desire to have a home garden where they can grow and harvest their own crops. This is a great way to garden for all
those nutrients these veggies contain. So give it a try, have a garden of your own, and grow your veggies the healthy way.
About the author
Norman loves being in the garden, both at home and for his job....
he is 'Natures Little helper' being outdoors, growing his vegetables and flowers from an early age.
Now having spent over 22 years in the profession he want to give some of his knowledge to others...
his vast array of hints and tips you will find scattered over this site will help you no end growing plants in your garden.
Very interesting. Not living near the ocean, I never thought about salt being a factor when gardening. Are the plants that you suggest more tolerant to high salt soil? Just wondering if growing something like squash, watermelon, or corn would be recommended or not. These vegetables can be grown in contains. At the beginning of the season, the soil would have no salt if you purchased it. During the growing season how much salt accumulates? Would you need to replace the soil every year?
Thanks for the article.
-Frank
Hello Frank so good to meet you what I would focus on is growing plants in containers and raise beds. Wash off plant with fresh water that comes in contact with salt. Also you can use a fabric cover cloth that can be purchased from your garden home center to protect your plants from the salt sprays. Hope this help and please let me know how it goes. Have a good day.
I grew up for the first 13 years of my life on a sailboat traveling all over the place. We had a herb garden onboard that we had to give away herbs it grew so well. The rest of my life I have lived in Toronto, Canada, right on the largest freshwater source around and thought of nothing with growing around salt water. I can’t believe I never realized or thought of this. Thank you for teaching this old dog a new trick. Great site and I will be back for some of those recipes!!
Hello Jair so good to meet you, sounds to me that you had a pretty exciting life as a child being able to travel as you did. I am so happy that I could help, thanks a lot for your kind words and please let me know how your garden project goes. All the best to you and have a wonderful day.
Planters and raised pots/baskets will help no end will mean that you can move the plants whenever you need to. Specially if you find the conditions not right in a particular spot. I’m not near the coast, but follow a similar process to protect our crops against chickens eating them. Most are raised off ground level and positioned to get the most sunlight.
Hello so good to meet you, thanks a million for sharing. All the best to you and have a good day.