If you’re looking for a new and exciting hobby to take up, you should give gardening a try.
This post on Vegetable Gardening For Beginners will help you get started growing your own vegetables and herbs which is both rewarding and fun.
Plus, it’s not as complicated to have healthy plants as you might think.
It’s Not Complicated: Vegetable Gardening For Beginners
Imagine planting one tomato plant that can give you at least 10 pounds worth of fruits in one growing season.
The flavor and the texture of the vegetables coming from an organic garden exceed the ones you can get from the store, by far.
They are much sweeter – even if it’s just because you grew them yourself or can walk outside into mother nature and harvest one for an evening salad.
The sun and fresh air, and exercise you get from tending a garden are a plus, as well!
All you need is a few seedlings and some good soil to get started.
However, if you want to be successful in gardening in your first vegetable garden, you need to understand what it takes to keep your plants alive healthy.
Are you new to gardening and not sure where to begin? If you’re planning to give vegetable gardening a try, we have some simple guidelines to help you become successful with your new venture.
You Might Also Like: Spring Gardening: How To Get Your Garden In Shape
Knowing What To Plant
When talking about Vegetable Gardening For Beginners, the first step and one of the most, if not the most important consideration is deciding what you want to grow.
If you plan it right, you can enjoy a prosperous and beautiful garden without the need of spending hundreds of hours tending to it.
You Might Also Like: My Garden Journal
It’s best to start with a small garden for your first garden for the first year.
A lot of new gardeners or beginner vegetable gardeners can get too excited at the beginning and plant too many easy vegetables and edible plants, and they can’t manage them all.
Just because you have a large garden and the available space doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to plant al the easiest vegetables for your first very own vegetable garden.
As a beginning gardener, think about how much you and your family might need, what you like, and how much your family can eat. Fresh vegetables like peppers, tomatoes, and squash can provide a harvest throughout the season.
You might also like: Why You Should Always Grow Marigolds In The Garden
This means you may only need 1-3 for your family. You can enjoy plenty as the season goes on because you plant one seed but get a healthy plant that continues to provide vegetable after vegetable from the same plant.
Other vegetables and root vegetables like carrots, beets, and radishes only produce one vegetable per seed. So, if you plan on growing these, make sure to plant as many as you think you might need for your family and your own food.
Other different plants and popular vegetables to grow for beginners include:
- Leafy greens such as Lettuce
- Sweet Corn
- Cucumbers
- Beans
- Beets
- Zucchini
- Chard
- Marigolds
- Tomato plants
- Green beans
- Pole beans
Determining How Much Space
Once you know which vegetable plants you want to start with, you need to determine the space and garden area you need and have available for the right plants in your home garden. Remember, Vegetable Gardening For Beginners isn’t complicated, it just requires a little planning.
You don’t need a large space or huge garden to start with. You don’t even need a large piece of land to have plenty of space for your new vegetable garden.
Small spaces such as a balcony or a deck can provide you with the perfect growing conditions and plenty of garden space by starting with a container garden.
You might also like This: Kids Garden: A Beginner’s Guide To Gardening For Kids
Choosing The Location
When determining how much space you have, you also need to consider the right location to plant your fresh veggies.
Plant your easy vegetables in a garden design that’s in a sunny spot. Where you know, they’ll be exposed to hours of sunlight for a good portion of the day, especially for your sun-loving plants.
Successful gardens need at least five hours of direct sunlight and full sun. The temperature of the soil also keeps the vegetables growing. It can also help resist garden pests and diseases.
The air flow in the location is also important. Wind can damage the crops and can also dry them out. You can place your garden next to a building, a fence or a structure.
But it’s always a balance – not too much sun, water, or wind, but they need all three – so, the right amount of sun to grow but, not burn them, enough wind to gently keep them dry from any mold issues due to being overly wet, and enough water to thrive, but not so much as to drown them and kill the plant roots.
It all sounds like a lot but, you’ll soon know exactly what they need by how they act.
Improving Your Soil
Conditioning your fertile soil is also an important thing to consider. If you don’t prepare the garden soil, your garden or raised bed can have difficulty thriving and having new growth.
Clear the area of weeds, dry leaves, and debris. Before you begin, rake the surface smoothly.
If your soil doesn’t contain sufficient amounts of organic material, you need to feed it. Use compost or manure to improve the fertility, texture, and drainage of the healthy soil.
10 Quart Hoffman Organic Succulent and Cactus Soil Mix
Unco Industries Organic Fertilizer
Jobe’s Organics Compost Starter
How To Know If The Soil Needs Conditioning
You don’t need to use a soil testing kit to determine whether you need to condition the soil or not. You can manually test the soil with these three easy steps:
- Soak the soil with a hose and wait for a day. Dig up a handful of soil for soil samples to test.
- Squeeze the soil hard. If water streams out, you need to add compost to improve the drainage.
- Open your hand. If the soil hasn’t formed a ball, or if it falls apart even during your slightest touch, it means that the soil is too sandy. You can improve this by applying compost or organic matter such as grass clippings and coffee grounds.
Watering Regularly
Most vegetables are not drought-tolerant so you need to give them a drink of water, especially during dry spells.
When you’re planning your vegetable garden, the closer the garden is to your water source, the easier it will be for you.
You can also use a garden hose or soaker hoses with an adjustable nozzle. Make sure you have good drainage. The last thing you want is all your hard work and young plants to die because of poor drainage.
Feeding Your Vegetable Garden
Fertilizing the different varieties of vegetables is important to maximizing yield. A lot of professional gardeners find using high-quality compost is all that their crops need to have a successful garden.
Consider applying a vegetable organic fertilizer by following the directions on the box or bag. Don’t apply more than what is recommended as it can affect the growth of the plants.
Jobe’s Organics Granular Fertilizer
EarthPods Best Herb & Vegetable Plant Food
Osmocote Flower and Vegetable Plant Food
Maintaining It
To achieve success, it is also important to know how to maintain your veggies. This seems to be a more daunting task than it is. Water your garden and garden beds and flower garden often, at least once a week.
During heat spells, you might need to do frequent watering to have successful gardening.
Keep up the weed control and retain the moisture in your healthy garden by applying mulch such as wood chips.
You Might Like This: Container Vegetable Gardening For Beginners Indoors Or Outdoors
Vegetable gardening is not as complicated as you think! With proper knowledge and guidance, you will can have a bountiful harvest.
You can also find gardening products I use in my videos here <---
I now have an Amazon Influencer’s storefront. I put the products I use, in my posts and Youtube Gardening videos, there. Shopping there is free and the site gets a percentage of sales. Thanks!
You can go to my storefront using this secure link <----
If you need seeds, this is the company I use <--- and if you use code: farmer1 at checkout, you'll get 10% off your order!
Learn More Now:
- DIY Houseplant Bug Sprays
- 7 Herbs That Grow Well Together In Pots
- Growing Vegetables In Bags Of Soil
- How Much Soil In A Pot Is The Right Amount?
- True Low Light Houseplants Do Exist
- Best Soil Amendments For Raised Beds
- Sunburned Seedlings? Don’t Let This Happen To You
- Start Your Own Family Food Garden
- Gardening Apps For Android
- Vermiculture DIY Worm Bin
Leave a Reply