Vegetable Gardening For Beginners

Click Here To Have A Look At One Of the Best Resources For Vegetable Gardeners

Starting a vegetable garden can be overwhelming if you’ve never had one before! Not to worry… vegetable gardening for beginners is not as difficult as you may think. Sure, it will take some work, but the rewards are more than worth it. The fact that you are looking for information before you start is a very good sign.

You see so many people just rush in and start planting their garden. Hey, just throw a few seeds into you soil and hey presto you will be eating great home grown veg for the rest of your life. WRONG This approach does not work. Then when its time to harvest your crop and its not edible, people get very disillusioned and give up. They have wasted time (probably a whole season) and money (soil supplements, tools, seeds etc) and are now left thinking that they just can’t have their own vegetable garden. WRONG again. Planting your own vegetable garden and produce wonderful vegetables (that are edible) is EASY IF YOU KNOW HOW Read that bit again.

Whether you are starting with container gardening or herb gardening or planting you entire backyard, you do need to understand some of the basics of vegetable gardening before you throw your seedlings and money down the drain.

More and more people are starting vegetable gardens in their backyards and getting good results, after all growing your own food is not rocket science! Not only is it more cost-efficient to grow your own veggies, it’s healthier too! When you grow your own vegetables, you know exactly what has gone into growing them… you control how many chemicals (if any) are used, and of course you know for certain that they have not been genetically modified in any way.

Vegetable Garden Plans

This really is the best place to start. If you do not have a good solid plan for your project then it will most likely fail and you will have wasted time, money and emotion in getting it wrong. So the best thing you can do for yourself is set out a plan.
So before you even think of hitting your local nurseries for tools and seeds, sit down and plan out or draw up your vegetable garden plans on paper. For some help with planning your vegetable garden check out this great resource.

Vegetable Garden Planning For Beginners

Yep, on paper! You’ll need to know how large (or small) your growing area is. For the average family of four people, you’ll want at least a 16×20 foot garden. If you don’t have a large enough space to dedicate to your veggie patch, you can look at container vegetable gardening.

Make a list of the types of veggies you’d like to grow. Obviously, you’ll want to choose things that your family likes to eat, and eats on a regular basis. Don’t forget about herbs as well. For beginners, it’s also a good idea to choose veggies that are easy to grow. More about this later.

Vegetable Gardening For Beginners Tips

Choosing Your Location

Make sure that wherever you locate your garden is convenient for you to get to. Of course, it has to get a good amount of sun. Generally speaking, veggies need a minimum of six hours of sun, ideally eight hours. It doesn’t matter if that sun comes in the morning, in the afternoon, etc… it just needs six to eight hours of light in total.

Many people worry about their soil quality, but it isn’t as huge a deal as you might think. No matter what kind of soil you have, you will likely have to supplement it anyway. Of course, if your soil has been exposed to any toxins, such as paint or motor oil. Drainage is far more important. Very few plants can grow in soil that is waterlogged, so you want to make sure that your area gets good drainage. Having your garden elevated somewhat is a good idea… and don’t place your garden at the bottom of a slope or in an indentation.

More Beginners Vegetable Gardening Tips

Choosing Your Crops

As we’ve said, you want to choose veggies that you and your family enjoys, and that they like to eat regularly. That said, beginners are often best to start off with veggies that are easy to grow, and that tend to have good yields in small or backyard gardens. You can speak to your local nursery about which vegetables grow best in your particular area and climate. In general though, there is a ‘top ten’ list of popular and successful backyard veggies:

*tomatoes
*cucumbers
*bell peppers
*beans
*lettuce
*summer and winter squash
*peas
*carrots
*cabbage
*radishes

To learn more about the best vegetables to start with, and why, pop over and have a look at this information HERE

What you can do is choose a few from this list and try them out in your yard. Tomatoes, carrots and beans, for instance, would make a great starter veggie garden. Most herbs grow quite well too, so consider adding a few to your garden or in containers. Basil, parsley, chives, sage and thyme all grow very easily and well.

Vegetable Garden Layout

Click Here To Look At Some Great Vegetable Garden Layouts And Designs

The layout of your vegetable garden is so important, we cannot stress enough that if you get this wrong then no matter what else you do right, things just are not going to turn out good.  Placing vegetables beside each other that do not like each other, and that do not help each other to grow is disastrous. In fact some vegetables will activley try and kill or destroy other vegetables, not many people know that, so pay attention to the design.

Here are some of the basics. For simple maintenance, plan your beds to be about three or four feet wide and separate them with small pathways so you can easily move between them and avoid trampling your veggies. Use plastic sheets overtop to help keep weeds out, and cover them with mulch to make them look nicer. Mulch around your veggies also helps your crops keep in moisture.

If you have any tall plants, keep them either at the back or in the center of your beds, with smaller crops coming out from there and decreasing in size. If you have some plants that grow early and some that grow late, then plant the later veggies before the earlier ones die… you’ll have a garden that is continually growing.

Of course, if you’re using containers or pots then you can lay things out however you like. Just make sure that they are always getting enough light. You can hang some plants, while keeping others on the ground or on your deck.