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You want to grow a vegetable garden, but it can seem like a daunting task. Where do you place your garden, how to you create it, when do you plant it, what do you plant, and how much do you plant? By taking a few simple preliminary steps before you break ground you can ensure gardening success!
First and foremost, gardening is all about trial and error. Once you accept that you will have some successes and some failures regardless of what you do you are ready to begin! Gardening is all about having fun and enjoying the fruits of your labor (when you are blessed with success), and laughing about, and learning from your mistakes.
Before you dig in and get dirty, there are a few steps you need to take.
1.) What do you want to grow?
Don't get carried away and start planting just for the sake of planting. Determine what vegetables you and your family will actually eat and enjoy, then go visit your local nursery, gardening store, or discount-mart and start looking at seed packets. Take a pen and pad of paper with you and jot down the following information:
A.) Vegetable name
B.) Yield per package
C.) Plant date
D.) Space requirements
2.) Determine how much space you have, and the best placement for your garden.
Once again, don't get carried away and bite off more than you can chew. It may sound like a great idea to plow up half the backyard for your garden, but are you sure you're ready to maintain that much space? Take into consideration close proximity to a water hose, you'll be watering a lot. You will also want your garden to be out of direct traffic. It's not a good idea to place your garden along the path to the front door! If you have dogs or other large animals wandering about you may want to take an extra step and fence off your garden to preserve your seedlings and produce from those who may trod upon them!
A.) Find a location in your yard that will have at least 6-8 hours of sun exposure. Most vegetables just love the sun!
B.) Take your tape measurer and measure out the area of your garden. A basic square or rectangle will be easiest for a beginner's garden
3.) Plan your garden on paper FIRST!
You could start planting hap hazardly, but if you go ahead and map out a plan on paper first you can save yourself a ton of time and effort!
A.) Using graph paper, or your own version of graph paper created with a ruler, draw out the shape of your garden to scale using the measurements you ascertained in step 2.
B.) Using the information about plant type and spacing you recorded in step 1, start mapping out your garden rows. Keep in mind that you will need to place taller plants in a position where they will not cast their shadow onto smaller plants. Also take into account space for plants that need supports (peas, pole beans, vining tomatoes, etc.)
C.) When planning your rows, leave 12-18 inches between rows so you will have easy access to your plants for weeding, watering, and harvesting.
D.) Save this planning map!
4.) Till up and tone up your soil.
Power tillers can be rented at equipment rental stores nation wide, or purchased. You want to till your soil at least 6 inches deep to allow roots to grow easily. Remove all rocks before you till your garden, and continue to remove large rocks as you till the soil. Once you have your garden tilled, you should add a layer of compost and till again. Compost is not necessary for plants to grow, but it will encourage strong growth by improving the nutrients in the soil and will also help the soil retain water.
5.) It's time to get planting!
Now comes the fun part, you finally get to plant your garden! Be sure to pay attention to the planting depth and seed spacing requirements recommended on the back of the seed package, or follow the directions on the info sticks placed in six packs of starter plants! Even here there are a few steps to follow though.
A.) Determine the frost dates in your gardening zone (this information can be ascertained through online garden sites, garden books, or at your local gardening center), and once the threat of frost has past you can plan for planting.
B.) Put your plant supports in place if you will be planting anything that needs them.
C.) To help you plant straight rows and keep track of where your rows are (handy for watering and keeping you from treading where you shouldn't) place a garden stake at each end of your row and run a string between them. Leave the string up for identification purposes untill your plants start to come in.
D.) Once you have your seeds and seedlings planted, mulch lightly over your rows of seeds and heavily in between to help cut back on weed growth and help to maintain water retention.
6.) Water, Weed, and Wait
This is the hardest part. Sitting and waiting for that first little seedling to sprout. The water needs of your garden vary with the temperature and rain conditions. As the heat rises, your garden will need more water. You should thoroughly soak the soil at each watering and water again before the soil looks dried out and parched.
7.) Now you just need to maintain!
Your plants will be growing like mad in no time, and then your only real job will be to maintain your garden untill harvest time.
A.) Keep your garden well watered, but don't drown your plants. If they look droopy and wilted you are not watering enough. If they start to turn brown and float away you're watering too much (yes, it really is that simple).
B.) Keep the weeds out! Weed daily. Once you let weeds go they become near impossible to deal with. You can add more mulch as your plants get larger and easier to see. Deeper layers of mulch fight weeds the best!
C.) Keep an eye out for parasites on your plants. If you notice an excessive amount of insects eating your plants I suggest a multi-purpose organic pesticide. Using strong chemical pesticides totally defeats the purpose of growing your own produce!
Enjoy your garden, and your harvest. Once the growing season is finished just till under your garden (left over plants and all) and let it rest untill next year (or your fall garden if you're in an area where you can have a spring and fall garden). Next spring till your garden again before planting and start all over again!
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