Plant Your First Garden

A basic 101 guide on how to plant a beautiful Prepare for Summer Gardening.

Steps

  1. Buy seeds. Seeds are very inexpensive at your local dollar market. Alternately, you can start with bedding plants (or seedlings).
  2. Find a spot in your yard or in a local community garden that gets both sun and shade. Ideally, some parts of it should get full sun (6 hours of continuous sunshine per day), and some parts should get partial sun (either dappled sun, or full sun for less than 6 hours per day). Even if parts of your garden are in total shade, there are a variety of plants (including foliage plants and even flowers) that can flourish.
  3. Prepare the soil. There are at least two ways to do this.
    1. Dig and churn up all of the packed dirt about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} down. Add compost and mix it into your dirt. This can be very exhausting work and often requires the use of power equipment. It is often ineffective, especially if you live in a new suburban area where they likely took all the good topsoil away before they started constructing the homes.
    2. Build a box and fill it with good soil.
  4. Plant seeds. Read the instructions on the back of the seed package, or on the plastic tag in your plant pot. You may have to ask experts when to plant them if it does not say on the back. Plant bedding plants when you are sure you can. Some seeds (such as tomatoes) should be started indoors, in small pots or seed trays, before the last frost, and only transplanted outdoors when the weather warms up.
  5. Water your plants every other day. Don't drown them in water.
  6. Watch your beautiful garden grow!

Tips

  • If you live near a horse farm, ask them if they have any horse manure compost to spare. This also makes great fertilizer!
  • Have fun!
  • Putting leftover, wet coffee grounds around your veggies in the garden is a natural way to keep slugs and other garden "pests" out. Plus, it adds beauty to the garden.
  • Making a compost pile is a free and Eco-friendly way to nourish your garden.
  • Perennial = comes up every year
  • Put plant food or compost it in the hole with your seed or seedling to help the plant or seed to establish itself.
  • You really don't need an enormous space to yield a good amount of plants, flowers, veggies or herbs. Many interesting gardens can be grown in a variety of containers.
  • In most locations, dark green leafy veggies will continue to grow until there's a frost.
  • Annual = needs to be planted again every year
  • Don't throw away earthworms or kill them! They help aerate the soil to make your growing more successful. Put them back into the soil as you turn it over.
  • A pick axe is a great way to break up hard ground. So is a pitchfork or a shovel.
  • It helps if you add flowers in your vegetable garden to help attract bees and other pollinators.
  • Learn how to compost and then use it as the rich soil matter it will turn into!
  • Be creative. Be classic. Make your garden you.
  • As far as planting vegetables, you don't always have to start from seed. You can plant most veggies that have started to "go bad" because they've grown roots. Or there are nurseries that sell "starts".
  • You don't have to plant flowers in rows. Intertwining patterns usually come out very nice.

Warnings

  • Don't use a lot of fertilizer.
  • Watch out for pesky animals and birds who will try to eat your garden. To avoid trouble with them, put up a fence.
  • Please have someone knowledgeable show you how to use earth turning tools to get quick results while not hurting yourself physically.
  • Use pesticides sparingly. Check what types of insects/animals feed off pests such as aphids and try to encourage them into your garden.
  • When using plant food such as Miracle-Gro, do not use too much! This will cause burns to the roots because the mixture is too strong for the plant to handle. Always read the directions in the back of the box/package to prevent this.

Things You'll Need

  • Soil
  • Some kind of digging tools, unless you want to use your hands
  • Seeds, plants or starts
  • Water (about once or twice a week)

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

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