How to Decide What Vegetables You Want to Grow

So you've decided to raise your first garden. Thoughts may already be running through your mind about where to put it and how much space. Those thoughts are wonderful. When you decide how much space you have to work with you need to decide WHAT to work with. What vegetables do you want to grow? You don't want to find yourself in the seed and feed store eying the rows of starters and seed packets and have no idea what to buy!

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• measuring tape
• notepad
• computer art program such as paint

1. First you need to decide where your garden will be located, of course give consideration to lighting availability and space. When that is decided, plan about how much space you have available. You may want to mark it off at this point. Use a tape measure to get rough estimates of the dimensions of your space.
2. Now, keep in mind that most plants need at least 1 foot between rows for adequate growth. Some plants take less (such as carrots and onion) while some take more, like tomatoes and peppers...and still others take A LOT more (like pumpkins or melons). I like to divide it into sections. The closer growth plants in one area toward the front and the larger growing plants toward the back. In the front I average just one foot for each row of plants (depending on the depth of the garden) and to the back I try to average 3 feet between rows. This will give you a general idea.
3. Now that you have a basic idea of how much you can work with you should decide what. What vegetables do you find yourself most often purchasing in the grocery store? You may come up with a list like this: tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, onions, carrots and lettuce. You may also come up with things like corn and asparagus. Or your list may be completely different. Arrange the items in order of most important. If you cannot live without tomatoes, make that number one and so on. Also look at other things such as difficulty and size. Corn takes up a lot of space while growing and if you're not willing or able to devote ample space for it (Though, I would recommend planting it along a fence row) then you may want to cross it off the list. Items like asparagus (which grows annually, does better in a bed, and you will not even get a cutting off of for 2 or 3 years) I would recommend crossing off for now...at least until your gardening technique has been perfected and you can make a lovely planter of these later. If you have alloted yourself 3 small rows in the front and 4 large ones in the back then make sure that you have narrowed your vegetable selection down to this number or you'll need to readjust your plans or consider planting less of one thing. For example in one row you could plant 3 tomato plants and one green pepper plant. Or you could plant one tomato, pepper, summer squash and cucumber.
4. Once you've decided what vegetables you want, work up a plan on paper or in a program like paint and see it come to life. Don't worry if you change your plan everyday before planting, that's normal and expected and the reason for having a plan.
5. After all of this comes together...it's time to head to the store and purchase your starter plants and seeds. Good luck and have fun! Vegetable gardening is not a chore, it's a hobby!