Out of the Weeds

Are you jealous of all the fresh vegetables your friends have in summer? Always wanted to have a garden of your own but didn't know where to start? Well this is the year you should stop dreaming and start gardening.

This is the first year I am attempting to grow a large vegetable garden of my own. Not wanting to fail, I did a lot of research on how to properly start a garden. I thought I'd share what I found with the rest of you new gardeners, save you hours of research, and give you the confidence to get out there yourself and start growing.

Determine Which Plants to Grow
There are two things to keep in mind here. 1) What grows well in your area and 2) what do you enjoy eating. We live in Connecticut and have a decent growing season, enough for the majority of typical vegetables to do well. Being an avid cook, I also wanted to grow a large variety of vegetables to use in my kitchen. I ended up settling on several varieties of tomatoes and peppers (both hot and sweet), as well as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, several root vegetables, beans, peas, several squash plants, tomatillos, and melons.

Decide Whether to Start Seeds Yourself or Buy Plants
For some plants like tomatoes and peppers, the seeds need to be started indoors and transplanted into the garden. You can either start these plants yourself or buy them from your local nursery. I decided to start the seeds myself since I was interested in several heirloom varieties as well as several specific types of plants I thought I'd have trouble finding at the nursery. Here's a good reference for starting seeds indoors from Elements in Time if you decide to go that route.

Plan Your Garden Design
Once you know what plants you'll be growing it's time to lay out your garden. I used Inkscape to lay mine out on the computer but graph paper also works pretty well. You can find good guides to plant spacing online (Google "veggie plant spacing") or where you buy your plants. When laying out your garden, you'll also want to take into account the shade created by your plants. Be sure that your larger plants are not blocking the sun for your smaller ones or they'll struggle to produce. Normally planting the taller ones on the north side of your garden will help to stop most of the shading that can occur. Remember though that some plants like lettuce and other greens don't like the direct sun in summer, so planting them among the taller vegetables can be a great way to shade them from the intense summer sun.

Research the Timing in Your Area
One of the keys to a successful garden is planting at the proper time. Some plants such as carrots and broccoli can be planted early while others like tomatoes and peppers have to be planted after the last frost. There are many pages that show the average last frost date in your area differing by a few weeks in what they say. Since I'm starting my own seeds, I'll probably have many more plants than I actually need so I will plant a little earlier and risk a frost since I can replace them for free. However, if you're buying plants from a nursery I'd err on the side of caution and plant after the chance of frost has pretty much passed.

Learn More
Here's some links to pages that helped me figure out what I was doing, they can probably help steer you in the right direction too.
Watch Your Garden Grow: A great informational site from the University of Illinois, talks about many vegetables in detail including when to plant, what types there are, and bugs and disease.

Garden Guides.com: Has many articles about gardening in general and tips for specific veggies.

How Stuff Works.com: Detailed information about many types of veggies, as well as many nice pictures so you know what to expect.

Get Gardening!
Are you ready to get out there yet? You should now have the information and confidence you need to get started gardening. Remember that above all else, gardening should be fun. So take these techniques, do a little more research where you have questions, and go outside and get started!

What tips do you have for creating a successful garden?