Gardening For Beginners
There are so many wonderful reasons to start your own garden. Sunshine, fresh air, free therapy and the freshest produce around to name a few!
If you are thinking of starting your own garden you will need to find some space that gets at least 6 hours of full sunlight per day. You will also need your garden to have good drainage. So if you have a backyard space then look for a spot in the yard where no puddles remain after a good rainfall. If you are planning to use container or vertical gardening you will need to ensure that there are drainage holes in your containers.
Once you have found the best spot then you get to ask yourself what you need from your garden. Do you want to make a lot of tomato sauce for the winter, then planting tomatoes will be on your list. Do you like having fresh fruit? Then melons or berries will be on your list.
My goals for this year are to grow, harvest and preserve as much food as I can for my family over the winter. Every year my garden gets a little bit bigger, and more things are added. This year I will add some vertical space to my garden so that I will get higher yields in the space I have and a fruit tree.
One of the easiest gardens to grow is a salad garden. It can be grown just about anywhere and is a great place to start if you have never tried gardening before. Containers and Vertical gardens are great for this type of garden. All kinds of greens, onions, cherry tomatoes, chilies, and beans are some ideal veg for this garden. And let's not forget herbs! Herbs can very easily be grown in pots and vertically.
Once you have your location and you have an idea of what you would like to plant then you have to get your space ready. You will need to prepare your soil, whether it is tilling and adding compost or prepping your containers with good-quality compost. High-nutrient, noncompact soil is what you are going to need.
Once you have that ready you can then decide moving forward what you need in terms of compost next year. I love composting as it is my give back to Mother Earth for helping me grow beautiful veg for me and my family. You can check out different kinds of composting here.
Next is choosing your vegetables. If you are new to gardening then I suggest starting by asking yourself, “what will I eat?” This is a good guideline on what to plant and if you enjoy eating what you grow you will feel more motivated to keep your garden growing.
There is a wonderful community of gardeners out there that will be happy to share seeds, plants, and knowledge with you if you shall seek it. In the community where I live, there is a couple of seed exchange programs and plant exchanges where you can swap different plants or seed to get some new varieties in your garden. This is a great place to exchange some seeds if you get too many in a package to use.
You can start your garden from seed or transplants whichever works best for you. I love starting my veg from seed as I save all my seeds from the year before and i love to watch them grow into fruition.
Let’s talk mulch. Mulch is a must if you want a more low-maintenance garden. Mulch deters weeds, keeps in moisture, and add vital nutrients as it decays. Mulch comes in the form of leaves, wood chips, and old weeds that haven’t gone to seed.
Now for watering, fruits, and vegetables need light water every day or two. Once your plants are mature they will need a couple of inches of water per week, more in hotter regions or well-drained soil. I have a rain barrel that I water my gardens with as I don’t want to add chlorinated water from the city to my garden.
You will need to harvest and weed your garden regularly. Some crops mature in as early as 20 days after planting, so check them regularly so that you get your harvest before the squirrels, raccoons, skunks or other critters get them. Weeds will shoot right up after an intense rainfall so be sure to get out there and pull them out. I just leave them on top of the soil as mulch. Most of all have fun starting a garden!