I try to keep myself involved with a number of gardening forums and pitch in with answer where I can or learn from others. Over the past few months there have been a number of questions I have come across about Vegetable Gardens, this post takes a look at those questions and what are the solutions.

Can I add vegetable/fruit peelings into my vegetable garden?

People often ask about whether it’s a good thing to let vegetable or fruit peelings compose in a vegetable garden, does it provide additional nutrients to the soil?

The simple answer is YES, peelings and fruit make excellent compost for the garden helping to nourish soil and feed the plants or whatever else you are growing.

Can I use rust instead of lime in a garden?

In a vegetable garden it is often advised to use lime to lower the acidity of the soil, would rust be able to do a similar job?

No, it can work in some cases but in general we wouldn’t advise using rust. Lime is used to add calcium and so Iron is not a substitute but can sometime be used alongside lime.

Is it possible to grow tomatoes from the seeds of a tomato that you buy from a supermarket?

Once you have bought a tomato or other fruit or vegetable from the supermarket, is it possible to grow fresh fruit from the left over seeds?

The answer is yes, if you have bought them fresh there is no real reason why they shouldn’t grow, I would recommend that you make sure that you have bought organic fresh vegetables as you can generally rule out any potential harmful chemical which may affect the growth of new plants. Also remember that environment is key, don’t expect something to grow which is imported and doesn’t really grow in your country.

What are your best organic vegetable gardening tips?

This is such an open question but still useful for many a budding new vegetable gardener.

Firstly the ingredients you will need are:

• Organic fertilizer,
• Compost
• mulch
• No pesticides.

When it comes to making your vegetable bed, start by mixing horse manure, peat moss and sifted dirt with a layer of top soil.

When planting your vegetables, add a mixture one or two tablespoons of fish emulsion and seaweed emulsion with a gallon of water.

Winter crops for vegetable garden?

So what vegetables should you try and grow over the winter?

The key is “what vegetables will grow if the temperature drops as low as -5C (23F)?” Well Tomatoes can often still survive at this temperature but other alternative vegetables which will have a better chance of survival are:

• (red, white, green) cabbage
• Carrots
• Beetroot
• black reddish
• pumpkin
• garlic
• onion.

It’s also a good idea to cover your vegetable garden to keep some heat in but in general the above will grow during the winter in soil outside.

We hope you found this post useful, if you have any questions or comments please leave a note below.

Andrew Taylor is an avid garden enthusiast who works for Alfresia Garden Seat cushions. He writes for a number of blogs and other gardening publications.