Beginner Vegetable Gardens
Keep it simple for the first try at vegetable gardening. Once you have a successful season, you can expand. Plant the garden in the spring and start with just four to six different vegetable varieties. A vegetable garden takes effort in the beginning. Does this Spark an idea?
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Location and Conditions
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Good soil and bright sun are the first step to starting a successful vegetable garden. Plant the garden in an area that gets at least six hours of sun a day. Use a raised bed for your first garden. The plants will have adequate drainage and you can control the soil that goes into it. A raised bed 6-by-9 feet and 1 to 2 feet tall is a good size to start.
Preparing the Soil
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Fill the raised garden bed with good quality topsoil purchased from the local garden center. Mix the topsoil with a third again as much compost or seasoned manure to improve the nutrients in the soil. Buy topsoil that is formulated for planting. If you want organic vegetables, all you need is organic compost or manure and organic topsoil. Fill the planting bed up to 1 inch below the top and rake it smooth with a metal garden rake.
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Planting Seeds and Seedlings
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Wait until after the last frost date before planting vegetables. Start with easy-to-grow warm-season annual vegetables, such as tomatoes, pole beans, peppers, summer squash and salad greens. Space tomatoes, pole beans, peppers and summer squash 15 to 24 inches apart, space dwarf varieties 12 inches apart. Space lettuce and other salad greens 6 inches apart. Plant the seedlings the same depth in the soil as they were in the nursery pot. Place tomato cages around tomatoes to give the plants the necessary support for their heavy fruit. Drive a 6-foot pole into the ground 4 inches from the base of pole bean plants to give them something to climb for support.
Weeding and Care
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Weed the garden by hand during the growing season. Weeding tools, like hoes, can dig too deep and damage shallow root systems. Use a balanced 10-10-10- fertilizer once a month through the growing season as indicated on the package. Water when the top 1/2 inch of the soil in your vegetable garden begins to dry out, soak the bed at least 8 inches deep at each watering. Harvest the vegetables as they ripen on the plants. Remove a few lettuce leaves at a time from the outside of each plant throughout the season for a constant harvest. Cut the plants at the ground in late summer at the end of the growing season.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Tomatenpflanze, tomato plant image by Cornelia Pithart from Fotolia.com
