Want to start a Garden, let me help you navigate the process!

 

Want to start a Garden, let me help you navigate the process!

 

Since I love gardening and have created, maintained, and harvested both a vegetable and herb garden over the years, I’m asked all the time how does one start a garden and what does it entail? First, I laugh at the question then I get serious and begin to ask questions. The questions I ask are simple, what do you want to grow? How much do you consume of that vegetable? And most importantly, how much time do you have to devote to gardening? Gardening takes a lot of hard work in creating and maintaining, so if you think it’s just planting and pick you’ve got a rude awakening ahead of yourself. So, let’s get started. Let’s say you have plenty of time and energy to create your dream garden filled with all sorts of vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Then you would need a huge backyard with plenty of space and lots of helping hands. But what if you live in an apartment with not much space, then you have to think smaller and more logically.  

First of all, ask yourself these questions: 1) how many people do you want to feed? 2) Do you want fresh daily, or are you looking to put up your crop for the winter to save money? 3) How much space do you have to dedicate to a garden? 4) How much time do you have to dedicate to a garden? 5) Do you have the excess funding to start a garden? (It is a huge investment that is worth every penny in my book). 6) Do you have the back-to-work garden on the weekends? (7) Do you want to start a garden with seeds or mature plants? 8) what types of vegetables and herbs do you wish to grow?

 

My suggestion to you is this if you know nothing about gardening, how about starting off small with a patio garden or a fenced garden. Both of these are easy to maintain and yields enough produce for two people for the summer months.  The fence concept can be purchased online from Wayfair for approximately $200 dollars, and the second can be purchased through Walmart for about $50 dollars. Either way, you can start your garden without and real financial outlay.

 The fence concept can be purchased online from Wayfair for approximately $200 dollars, 

The second can be purchased through Walmart for about $50 dollars. Either way, you can start your garden without any real financial outlay.

Backyard gardens can be hard work and costly to set up. And you lose half your backyard at the same time. No more entertaining the family with those outdoor parties, unless you recruit them to help weed and maybe set up the garden with you. A flat garden or a raised bed garden depending on how much work you want to do with the garden. The flat garden needs a rototiller to move the soil, where a raised bed garden is simply to build boxes and fill will bags of soil.

 

Raised garden with boxes

A flat garden without raised boxes but with borders. 

 

Let us not forget to plan out your irrigation system before you plant any seeds or mature plants.

Hose system or PVC drip system.  After trial and error and large water bills, I finally went with the drip system. Using a hose, you can create pinholes into the hose and lay it out in your garden as shown above. Or you can buy drip system hoses already with holes.  Hint: Never water your garden at night or late in the day, always water first thing in the morning so the sun will burn off any excess moisture in and around your plantings. Too much water in the soil invites slugs, and other nasty bugs to infiltrate the soil and eat at the roots of your plants. All your money will be wasted if your plants die or yields infected veggies.

 

If you opt for the patio garden you won’t need many tools, but you will need these for sure.

If you go for the yard garden then you’ll need more expensive tools to get it going like a rototiller and many of these tools. Don’t go buying everything at once, unless you’ve won the lottery and have excess cash to spend. Only buy what you need for the job then add to your tools as you need them.

 

Now that the planning of the garden is finished, now is the time to decide what you are going to plant.  Here is a photo chart of the most planted veggies.

 

In my old garden, I had both kitchen herbs and medicinal herbs as I am very much into holistic remedies instead of pharmaceuticals.

 

No matter which type of garden you choose, you will enjoy the ability to grow your own food.  Next time we will talk about canning those excess veggies and herbs so you can enjoy them throughout the winter months.

 

Author Elizabeth Kilbride is a former political operative, author, scriptwriter, historian, journalist. business professional, and creative artist. Ms. Kilbride holds a Masters in Criminology and a BS in Business Management who stepped out of the loop for a while, but who is now back with a powerful opinion and voice in the direction of this country and our economy. Ms. Kilbride is also a gourmet cook who loves to garden and preserve food for the winter months.