Tips for a Basic vegetable Garden

Gardening is really fun when it works out. Having a garden that doesn’t produce is a real bummer and can be discouraging. Here’s some tips to have a productive garden. There’s a lot more to gardening then just planting your plants in the ground. There is a lot of planning that most gardeners overlook. This could have a noticeable change on your garden.

Planning Your Garden

Planning your garden before you plant it is very important and you need to do it early on. Some things you need to decide are if you are going to do seeds or starts. If your doing seeds you need to plant a lot earlier then their harvest time. If they’re harvested in summer plant in early spring. If they’re harvested in autumn plant them at the beginning of summer maybe even before (it depends on what it is.) Another thing you need to plan is where your going to plant. Are you doing raised beds or strait into the ground. I like using a square foot garden. It separates the plants evenly. It also can help if you have bad natural soil. Once you’ve decided that, you need to plan what your planting. It’s really important that you know what your planting before you go purchase seeds or starts. It’s really easy to go to the store and buy anything that looks good to you. You need to know how much sun it likes, how much water it needs and what plants it does well with. (We’ll get to that in a minute.) You also need to know how big your plants get and make sure there’s room for it where your planting. Keep in mind that you may have to change your plans a little. I usually have four different plans until the final draft. If your plants like a lot of sun make sure to make you garden bed in a spot where your plants can thrive. Another thing many gardeners overlook sometimes on accident (Including myself) is poisonous plants. If you have animals or small children you need to make sure that non of your plants are poisonous or if they are there in a spot out of reach. Animals love your plants just as much as you do and they have no problem eating them. This leads to another thing, if your animals are hurting your plants I suggest putting up a little chicken wire fence or some sort of fence or elevating your bed. Factor that in when your planning.

Planting Buddies

Most People have heard of this but if you haven’t it is a really simple concept. It is when you plant two different plants next to each other. The two plants help each other. There are many ways a plant can help other plants. Marigolds and onions are very good at keeping the bad bugs away but they attract the good ones like worms. Lots of different flowers attract pollinators which are very good for your garden. Planting herbs nearby creates good nutrients in the dirt for your plants. You can find lots of resources online that tell you what plants do good together.
​There are also plants that don’t do well together. You shouldn’t plant tomatoes with most things. They suck up lots of nutrients and don’t leave any for the others. They also like a lot of sun and a little water. They invade other plants space and make it hard for them to grow properly. I usually plant tomatoes in a pot, or you could dedicate a whole garden bed to them. It depends on how much you like tomatoes. Zucchini and other vining plants can also make it hard for other plants. They need a lot of space! If you plant them with others you need to make sure you gave them adequate space or they will kill the other plants. Some plants can harm other plants by accidentally taking a resource it needs. If you plant corn next to a tomato plant the corn will shade the tomato when the tomato needs full sun.

Setting Your Garden Up For Success 

Gardening is a long process and a lot of work, but hopefully it’s fun work. For a good productive garden you need to set it up for success. To start pick a good location everyone’s yards different but the preferred direction is facing south. the reason south is the best is that (Most the time) it get sun on it all day. This is not all ways true because of the way your yard is and the direction of each plant. Before you plant asses where the sun is on your yard. Another factor is water is there a good water access nearby. Once you have found a location you can start to build. If your doing a square foot garden or a raised bed something to try might be to lay a thin layer of cardboard or card-stock paper over the ground. This keeps weeds from coming up, and the paper decomposes and turns into compost. Cover the paper with dirt and put it a little far down so that the roots of your plants have room to grow.

Dirt, Mulch, Compost

Dirt is very important! The dirt has nutrients which plants need. Most the time using your natural dirt is not wise because dirt has lots of clay in it which makes it hard for water to drain and roots to grow. If dirt isn’t in your budget that’s okay but it does help. Compost is really easy to make if you don’t want to buy it. You take dry things like dried leaves and mix it with things like fruit peals and weeds and things with moisture still in them. You want to make sure that you put half of each into a container. If you do more wet stuff it will end up smelling bad and not work quite right. If its all dry it won’t disintegrate well. There are tons of things from your kitchen that you could use. Such as coffee grounds, apple cores, fruit peels, vegetables scraps. If your not sure about something just research it a little. dried things are a little harder to find. The best dry ingredient is dried leaves but in some places like where I live there aren’t a lot of dried leaves in the spring and summers. One solution to this is when you do get dry leaves store them up in bags and keep them in a cool dry place for the rest of the year.
Some might be wondering what mulch is and that’s a good question. I didn’t know what it was when I first started gardening. It is not a necessity but it can be helpful. Mulch can be a couple of different things. Things such as hay or acorns would work as mulch or at your local garden store they will have a variety of different mulches. The job of mulch is to prevent weeds. It helps minimize the work you have to do in the garden. Only place it after you’ve planted.

The Care

Once you’ve planted you still have work to do. You need to make sure every plant gets what it needs. If a plant is looking wilted try to figure out why. If it’s not supposed to get a lot of sun but it’s in full sun all day, maybe move it to a spot were it won’t get a lot of sun or plant a tall plant that will shade it or if it’s the other way around remove the tall plant. Make sure your garden is weed free. Soon it will be harvesting time, and with that more work. Vegetables need constant checking and their produce needs to be collected regularly. Flowers need to be harvested too. Flowers like cosmos and dahlia actually do better when they are harvested for beautiful bouquet. They come back more vibrant the ever. If a plant is an annual and it’s lived its life try replacing it with a new plant. Some plants do good in autumn or winter and once those die get spring and summer plants. One thing that is not good for your dirt is just letting it sit in the sun. If you’re not using it in the fall or winter lay mulch over the top. This preserves the nutrients in the dirt.

I’m sure your well on your way to being an expert gardener. If this seems to complicated then go ahead and make it simpler. All you need is some dirt and seeds. But there’s a lot you can do to get the best results.