How to Start a Vegetable Garden for Beginners
Starting a vegetable garden is a wonderful experience. In this day and age where who knows what goes into your food, a vegetable garden gives you some control over what you are eating. It also provides great exercise. Whether you live in the country or even in the middle of a busy city you can start a vegetable garden. You just have to know the basics.
I personally enjoy growing a vegetable garden more than flowers because they are much easier to get to grow. They are not as delicate as flowers, and don’t die as easily when there are changes in the weather. In fact, 2 inches of ice fell on my veggies this year and they are still going strong. Vegetable gardens can take up a lot of space, but growers have now come out with many dwarf varieties that will grow in containers just as well.
Before you start your vegetable garden you will have to decide what type of garden you want. There are a few different styles of garden. The most traditional of gardens is set up in rows. You plant all your seeds or plants in rows evenly spaced. This requires a lot of space, and you will have a lot of weeding to do to keep your garden looking good and producing well. This is the first type of garden I went with. We only did it for a year or two.
We tried the traditional method for our garden for a couple years. It was a lot of weeding and really just too much for us to manage. We then came across the raised bed method of vegetable gardening. This is what we still use today. You create a raised bed, usually not more than 4 feet across. This is so you can reach the middle from either side. Our beds are about 12 inches high, but you can have them as short as 6. We find it much easier to maintain these beds, the weeding is much less, and it’s easier to get to the vegetables for harvesting without compromising the soil. If we want more space for gardening we simply create a new bed.
If you love having flowers, but don’t want an entire flower bed you can easily add some flowers to your vegetable bed. In fact, some flowers are edible and it’s nice to add them. Some flowers also help repel insects so that is a great natural way to keep the bugs out of your vegetables.
For people who have constrained living spaces (especially those who live in the city), vegetables and herbs can grow in smaller plant boxes and containers. Vegetables will need a lot of sunlight and open spaces.
As a beginner it’s good to start small, even if you have acres to grow on. So whether you have a patio or a homestead to grow on, it’s good to start small so you don’t get overwhelmed. A huge garden may seem like a wonderful idea, but if you’ve never done it you may find it’s more than you can handle. Start with a few of your favorites, whether you grow them in pots or in the ground. Starting small is the way to go.