Knowing when to plant your garden, which method of planting you’ll use, and what vegetables to grow will help you figure out how to have a successful vegetable garden!
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Gardening can feel very overwhelming when you see the elaborate gardens on Instagram and Pinterest. You might wonder how they have created such a masterpiece. Or how on earth are you going to be able to do the same? Well, I am here to tell you, it does not have to be extremely fancy or elaborate. Gardening can be pretty simple. I actually recommend you keep it extremely simple if you are just starting out!
I love gardening. It is one of my greatest passions and one of the things that brings me true fulfillment. Even with that being the case, there are still days when I don’t want to pull weeds, or I don’t want to spread compost. There are even days I don’t want to spend much time in the garden because of the summer heat. If you have never grown a garden before, start small and don’t get overwhelmed!
Starting small will (hopefully) ignite a passion for gardening that makes you want to expand the following year. It will keep you from feeling overwhelmed with weed management, pruning, or even the burden of overabundance. Starting small will allow you to find out whether you actually enjoy gardening or not. It will also teach you about how things grow, what you like to grow, and what grows well in your climate so you can have the best chance at a successful vegetable garden.
What Month Should I Plant my Vegetable Garden?
The timeline for planting your garden will depend on your area. Do a quick search online for your last frost date for the city you live in. Check out my post on gardening for beginners where I discuss frost dates and which crops to plant at each time of the year. With your frost date in mind, you can begin planning.
Warm Season Crops
If you are growing warm season (or frost tender) plants, you cannot plant until the threat of frost has passed. If the low temperatures dip below freezing, your plants will die. My last frost date is May 1st. I always watch the 10-day forecast leading up to that day. We may still have a 30 degree Fahrenheit night on May 3rd, but after that, the night time lows might go the 40’s. I then plan to plant out the day after that last frost, or on May 4th.
Cool Season Crops
If you are growing cool season (or frost hardy) plants, you can plant out earlier than your last frost date. I wouldn’t push the envelope too much, however, as a really hard frost (below 20 degrees Fahrenheit) will kill off even frost hardy plants. If your temps are mild, many frost hardy crops will thrive in the upper 20’s and lower 30’s Fahrenheit. Many people have more success growing these frost hardy crops from late summer into fall because the threat of frost doesn’t come until the plant is more mature and can withstand those really cold temps. This means starting seeds around July and planting out around September. These are just an estimation. Double check your first frost dates to plan out a fall garden.
Most places in the United States have last frost dates around April and May. It is always a good idea to play it safe and wait to make sure you aren’t going to have any freezing nights that will kill those frost tender seedlings.
If you are going to start seeds, check out my post on how to read a seed packet, and how to start seeds indoors. These will give you a good jump-start into growing your own seedlings.
How to Start a Successful Vegetable Garden as a Beginner?
My first tip for having the most successful garden is to determine where your garden will be located. If you have a choice, pick an area that gets plenty of sun. I would recommend at least six hours of direct sunlight each day. Second, make sure you have a way to water the garden. Carrying buckets of water back and forth through the yard is a possible solution, but likely not going to work out or last very long. Lastly, decide what type of garden you will have: containers, raised beds, or in-ground.
Container Gardening
Containers are fairly inexpensive, if you are only going to have a few. You will also need to fill them with a growing medium, like potting soil or even dirt from your yard. Containers are great for smaller spaces like a deck or patio. Simply fill your containers with a growing medium, sow some seeds or plant a started seedling from a nursery, and keep it watered regularly. The biggest challenge I have faced with containers is feeding and watering. Soil tends to dry out quicker in containers than in the ground. Water regularly and add a layer of mulch (wood chips, straw, pine needles) on top of the soil to help retain moisture. I would also recommend fertilizing every so often to keep the soil full of nutrients for the plant to feed off of.
Raised Bed Gardening
Raised beds are a great option if you have slightly more space to work with. Amazon has several fantastic raised bed kits that are super easy to put together, like this one. You can also go to your local hardware store and pick up some wood boards and build yourself a bed. Raised beds require more growing medium to be added as the beds are about typically at least 12 inches deep and several feet wide/long. Watering still needs to happen regularly, but you can get away with more time between waterings than in containers. Fertilizing is the same story. With the extra room for plants to spread out in a raised bed, they can feed off of nutrients in the soil (because there will be more soil). Fertilizing is still best practice but is needed less often than in containers.
In-Ground Gardening
In-ground gardening is a great option if you have a way to prepare the ground. This means removing any grass or weeds you don’t want, and maybe adding in some nutrient rich compost. Tilling the ground is a good option, but it requires a tiller. If you don’t have a tiller, you can lay out either cardboard or weed fabric to eliminate grass and weeds. If your soil is good quality, you may be able to just plant directly into the ground without working it at all. However, if your soil is very dense and contains clay, you may need to loosen it up before planting. Either way, this method eliminates the need to purchase a growing medium because the ground is your growing medium. Watering and fertilizing are still necessary but you can get away with doing those tasks less often than in containers or raised beds.
What Vegetables Should be in a Garden?
Now that we’ve determined when we are going to plant and what method of planting we are going to use, it’s time to decide what we are actually growing!
My number one piece of advice is to grow what you will actually eat! Grow what you purchase regularly and already know you love to eat. This will yield the most successful vegetable garden because you will be excited and motivated to grow what you love to eat! Of course, if you have room to experiment and try new things in the garden, go for it! But, if you’ve never eaten an eggplant, don’t grow 10 plants of eggplant. Try one or two so if you don’t end up liking it, or you end up having more than you know what to do with, you can easily give away or sell the rest.
If you are looking for easy things to grow in the garden, check out my post here for my top five easiest things to grow. Otherwise, my favorite crops to grow are tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, green beans, and cucumbers. Nothing beats a fresh home grown tomato!
More Information
I hope this gives you more confidence in growing a successful vegetable garden! Gardening is such a rewarding experience and the best first step to take is to just get started! Gardening is one of those things you’ll never get good at if you don’t try. Trial and error is a part of the garden for me every year. That is part of the fun!
I highly suggest checking out the Roots & Refuge YouTube page for tons of garden inspiration, no matter where you’re at in your gardening journey! They have videos about almost anything you could think of in regards to homesteading and gardening.
I hope you enjoyed this peek into Life at Metzger Acres!
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