Horticulture Principles and Practices

Backyard Gardening
The growing of crops in the
private area of the house.
so that the surplus can be marketed for supplemental income. This kind of small-scale
production, whether as a hobby or for commercial purposes, is commonly called home
gardening or backyard gardening.
When growing to sell, postharvest handling and marketing become very important
considerations in planning a garden. In herb gardening, one has to decide whether to
grow mainly for culinary use or also for ornamental purposes. Some herbs may be grown
indoors in pots for ready access for culinary use.
20.1 NUTRITIONAL AND ECONOMIC VALUE OF VEGETABLES
Vegetables vary widely in their nutritional value. Some are high in carbohydrates (e.g., dry
bean, white and sweet potatoes), while others are high in protein and amino acids (e.g.,
legumes and brassicas). Others are rich in minerals (e.g., greens, brassicas, and root crops),
and pro-vitamin A (e.g., carrots, peppers, and greens), vitamin C (e.g., brassicas, peppers,
tomatoes, and greens), and dietary fiber (e.g., carrot). Because they are generally high in
bulk but low in dry matter as a result of the high water content (often more than 90 percent),
a person needs to consume large quantities of vegetables in order to obtain the FDA
recommended daily requirement of the nutritional factors they supply. Vegetables are often
called “high value crops” because they account for only about 1 percent of the crop land in
the United States but almost 15 percent of the cash receipts from crop production.
20.2 ADAPTATION OF VEGETABLES
As previously discussed in Chapter 4, plants may be classified according to temperature
requirements as either cool season or warm season. This is an operational classification
and hence the categories are only approximate.
Cool-Season Vegetables
Some cool-season vegetables are slightly freezing tolerant (e.g., spinach, cabbage, broccoli,
radish, beet, turnip, rutabaga, and cauliflower), while others are damaged by
temperatures near freezing (e.g., lettuce, celery, artichoke, endive, mustard, carrot, and
chard). A few vegetables are frost tolerant (e.g., asparagus, garlic, kale, Brussels sprouts).
Warm-Season Vegetables
Warm-season vegetables are frost intolerant and include sweet corn, pepper, snap bean,
squash, pumpkin, lima bean, cucumber, tomato, and muskmelon. Some warm-season
species are long-season (e.g., watermelon, sweet potato, eggplant, and okra).
612 Chapter 20 Growing Vegetables Outdoors
20.3 REGIONALIZED PRODUCTION OF VEGETABLES
Whereas backyard gardening can be undertaken by all homeowners who have suitable
space for the activity, commercial vegetable production is largely a regionalized activity.
Based on plant adaptation, production of vegetables is localized in the United States in
the various USDA plant adaptation zones. In fact, because of seasonal variation within
regions, various states in a production region can alternate in leading the production of
one specific crop. That is, one state may lead in spring production of a crop, while
another leads in fall production of the same crop. Further, vegetable production on the
commercial scale is produced for two markets—fresh market and processing market.
Different states or parts of the production state may lead in the production of one market
type but not the other.