Starting a Garden 101

Lately, I have come across a lot of people that have expressed a desire to start a garden. They have attempted in the past but given up for one reason or another. It often seems that one of the biggest culprits as to why is because they feel overwhelmed with where to start. With that in mind I put together a few thoughts of what I feel are the most important things to consider when starting a garden. 

The first thing is where to place the garden. Most vegetables need 8 hours or more of full sunlight. If you are unsure how the sun tracks across your yard during the summer there are apps that can help or you can simply watch what spots receive the most sun. One way to achieve maximum sunlight is to have the bed run north to south, with the tall vegetables on the northern side to avoid shading the shorter ones. Sometimes you are limited to where the garden can be due to how the yard is already set up. As long as your vegetables receive at least 8 hours of sun each day the garden should still be able to produce plenty of vegetables. 

Now that you have a garden space picked out it is a good idea to pick what you want to grow. If you're like me, you'll want to grow a bit of everything. It is so hard to narrow down the grow list when there are a lot of interesting plants out there. When first starting a garden think about what vegetables you would normally purchase at the grocery store. These are the ones you will look most forward to. While it is always exciting to try a new vegetable, if you haven't eaten it or know how to cook it the effort put into creating a harvest might be frustrating in the end. I suggest starting with five vegetables that are already in your diet for the first year of growing. If you must try a new plant try to limit yourself to one new variety.

The garden spot it is picked and you have the plants you want to grow. The next big decision is to start the seeds indoors or buy seedlings. If you decided to grow from seed there are a few things to be aware of. You will need to have a space big enough to keep the seedlings for about six weeks. Growing seedlings need between 12-14 hours of light to produce strong and bushy plants. When a seedling does not receive enough light the plant will stretch towards the light, resulting in thin, weak stems. To achieve optimum light you will need a grow light set up to supplement the extra light. While this can be an expensive set up the nice thing about growing from seeds is that you can grow anything you can find seeds for. Buying seeds early in the season will give you a better selection of options then waiting for April or May to purchase your seeds. 

The second option for plants is to buy seedlings from a greenhouse or nursery. With this route you don't have to spend the money on a light set up, or find a space for the plants to grow for six weeks. Someone else has done the work for you in raising the seedlings. The biggest downside is that you are limited to what is avaible at the nursery.