Grow it Yourself
🥒 How to Start a Vegetable Garden 🥒
Where and What to Plant
A good size for a beginner's vegetable garden is 6X6 feet. Select up to 5 types of vegetables to grow, and plant a few of each type. You'll get plenty of fresh produce for your summer meals, and it will be easy to keep up with the chores. Growing vegetables in containers is also a good way to start out. With them, you don't even need a yard; a sunny deck or balcony work just fine!
Follow the Sun
Misjudging sunlight is a common pitfall when you're first learning to garden. Pay attention to how sunlight plays through your yard before choosing a spot for your garden. Most edible plants, including many vegetables, herbs, and fruits, need at least 6 hours of sun in order to thrive.
Stay Close to Water
One of the best gardening tips you'll ever get is to plan your new garden near a water source. Make sure you can run a hose to your garden site, so you don't have to lug water to it each time your plants get thirsty. The best way to tell if plants need watering is to push a finger an inch down into the soil (that's about one knuckle deep). If it's dry, it's time to water.
Preparing Soil for Your New Garden
You may have heard of a vegetable garden installation method called lasagna gardening where you layer materials like grass clippings, leaves, straw, compost, and shredded newspaper over the lawn to create a new garden bed. This is great, but it takes time and a lot of materials to construct these beds. Even though these materials can be sourced for free, they take a while to break down and time to collect. The same goes for building framed raised beds. That task requires building skills and building materials, and it can be costly to purchase enough soil to fill the beds.
Learn more about soil preparation here!
Add Some Mulch
Apply a layer of mulch that's 2 to 3 inches deep around each plant. This will help reduce weeds by blocking out the sun, and reduce moisture loss through evaporation, so you have to water less. For a polished look, put down a layer of Scotts® bagged mulch. Or, you can put down straw, shredded leaves, pine straw, or some other locally available material.
Feed Plants Regularly
We've already talked about the importance of starting with great soil, but that soil works best in concert with regular boosts of high-quality nutrition for your plants. In other words, amazing soil + top-notch plant food = super garden success! So, a month after planting, begin feeding your garden with plant food.