Watering the plants, seeing them grow full of life and then harvesting the fruits! Taking care of a vegetable garden is fascinating and beneficial, it relieves stress, anxiety and also allows you to have fruit, vegetables and aromatic herbs available every day. Today we talk about how to grow tomatoes and zucchini.
Tomatoes
The tomatoes are plants that really cannot miss in a vegetable garden. Elongated tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, ribbed tomatoes, there are many varieties of tomatoes and all indispensable for cooking to prepare salads, sauces, bruschetta or as a yummy topping for pizzas and focaccias. But tomatoes are also healthy because they contain lycopene, a powerful antioxidant, with anti-tumor properties and a protective action for the heart, especially when tomatoes are cooked and combined with a fat such as olive oil (Story et al, Annu Rev Food Sci Technol, 2010). Do not forget also that tomatoes are an excellent source of vitamins such as E and C, in this case, instead, eating them raw guarantees the maximum intake of these substances (Frusciante et al, Mol Nutr Food Res, 2007). Given these characteristics, why not try to grow tomatoes yourself in the garden or on the balcony? When cultivating tomatoes be sure that the soil is draining and that the water does not stagnate, because this would favor plant diseases. Tomato doesn’t like dryness, so it is good to water it frequently, always without excess. Another thing, the tomato loves the sun so always look for a sunny area for this seedling. As for pruning, it is good to eliminate all those shoots that form between the main trunk and the branches of the plant, because in this way the plant does not waste its energy. It is also good to tie the tomato plant to tutors.
Zucchini
Growing zucchini is a real pleasure, also to see since zucchini will make your garden colorful and full of joy thanks to the fleshy flowers of a beautiful intense yellow color. Then, zucchini brings vitamins, such as vitamin C, but also carotenoids and phenolic compounds, it is antioxidant, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antimicrobial (Martínez-Valdivieso et al, Nutrients, 2017). If you have decided to start the cultivation of zucchini from the seed, put the seeds on the ground at about 1 centimeter of depth with the tip pointing downwards and cover them with soil. Just a couple of seeds per hole. In a couple of weeks, the seedlings will sprout. After sowing the zucchini needs frequent watering, in the following stages you can water the plant twice a week, by taking care not to wet the leaves. In addition to the zucchini, you can also harvest and add zucchini flowers to your dishes, for example, in the Healthy Food section you can find the recipe Stuffed zucchini flowers Italian style. In this case, however, attention must be paid to the difference between male flowers, with a thin stem, and female flowers, with a thicker stem where the zucchini will then form. To ensure the production of zucchini it is better not to pick the female flowers but to prefer the male one, but not all! Always leave some male flowers that can pollinate female flowers and ensure the production of zucchini.
