Gardening for beginners
Do You Want To Grow Your Own Food?
Gardening basics for beginners
Gardening is a hobby that you can do for a lifetime. No matter how old you get, if you can get around, you can garden. It is also rewarding and fun. If you are interested in gardening, I will walk you through getting started.
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Start Small
If you get the bug to garden and you want to grow your own food and flowers, start small. It’s easy to want to go all in and create a sizeable garden. It can be done, but it’s not the best idea for new gardeners. If you start small. You will be more successful because you won’t have to know everything. It’s easy to go overboard at the start because you want to do it all right away.
I did that when I started. It ended up being ok, but I made some mistakes that I would not have made if I started small. I went from nothing to a full garden. I planted things next to each other that I should not have. Some plants get very large, others not so much. If you plant big plants that cover over smaller ones, the smaller ones will not do well. Don’t plant zucchini near anything. It will overrun your garden. I have my zucchini now in grow bags in the yard away from the other garden. It can go crazy and not bother anything else.
If you do a lot of research and think you know what you are doing, you may be ok, but things you could not have known will surprise you.
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Plan your garden
Planning your garden is one of the most important things to do when you start. It will save you time and headaches.
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The first thing to plan is where you have the space to plant. If you’re going to do raised beds or containers, it takes less space. If you do raised beds, look up square foot gardening. The sun is also very important in deciding where to make your garden. You will want to have a minimum of 6 hours of sun on your garden space for vegetables. Keep in mind that the farther north you are in the country, the more directly overhead the sun will be in the summer.
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Next plan what you want to grow. If it’s vegetables, what do you like to eat? What things do you want to try? Determine how much space you need for each plant and how it will fit into the space you have available.
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Draw up a picture and see how the plants will fit into the space you have. There are some plants you should not plant next to other plants. Look at complimentary gardening to see what not to put next to other plants.
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You can then determine how many of each plant to get. If you are just starting and have no gardening experience, I recommend you do your first season in pots or containers. Containers are easy to care for and you can move them if they need more sun. When growing bigger plants, you can use five-gallon pails like they sell at Home Depot or Lowes. You can also use grow bags, which I use even with a garden, and they work well and are not very expensive.
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When you are a beginner, buy your plants from a garden center or greenhouse. Starting from seed is fun and much less costly, but it is a lot to do when you are a newbie to gardening. The most important thing when starting out is to have success. Starting from seed can wait till next season.
Soil
The soil you use is important. It can make the difference between success and failure. If you are digging up the ground, add a good amount of compost to the soil before planting. It will put good things in the soil that plants need to grow well. You should also use an organic fertilizer when needed. I use kelp and fish mixture. It does not smell good, but the plants love it.
If you are using grow bags or buckets, get a good, raised bed soil or good potting soil. I like raised bed soil best because it doesn’t compact, so the plants will breathe. Raised bed soil and potting soil have some fertilizer in it already and compost.
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Plant zone
The plant zone you’re in is not important if you are growing vegetables. You grow them in a single season, so it is not an issue. If you are growing flowers, it is important to know what zone you’re in. To see if your plants can survive over winter in your area. Annual plants are like vegetables. The zone is not an issue. If you are planting perennials, it is important.
If you get plants that are not for your zone or colder, you can still grow them as annuals, but they will not likely survive the winter.
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Last and first frost
These are two dates you need to know about. The last frost is the average last day of frost in your area. After this date, you can plant most annual plants outside. The first frost is the average first time you get frost in the fall. This is the date when you will probably need to cover or stop growing. Most annual plants will not tolerate frost.
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Try new things
As you get more into gardening and learn more, you will want to try new things and experiment with things that interest you. A big thing that I have found. When you grow vegetables from seed, you open a whole new world of possibilities. There are so many other varieties you can try.
If you want to grow tomatoes, who doesn’t. And you get them from a garden store, you have maybe 10 possibilities of choices. If you start from seed, you have thousands of choices. Some of the best tomatoes to grow, I have never seen available for sale in the store. I have found my favorites are sun gold for cherry tomatoes and Kellogg’s breakfast for the bigger ones. There are many others that are good, but these are my favorites.
The biggest key to gardening is trying new things. Don’t get down when something doesn’t work like you planned. It happens to everyone. Try doing it differently or try something else. And have fun. Gardening is a fascinating hobby, and the coolest thing is you get something back out of it. Many hobbies are something fun to do. Gardening gives you food. You will like it as well as your friends and families.