5 Gardening Tips for Beginners

With the first day of Spring earlier this week, I think everyone has this spring and gardening on their mind.  I have seen many of my friends on Facebook are going to try their hand at gardening for the first time this year, so I thought I'd share a few tips that I have learned over the years for these first-timers.

Include Easy Plants - If this year is your first year to garden I would include at least one easy plant, or dare I say no-fail plants.  The first easy plant I recommend is radishes.  Radishes require no prep work and can go straight from seed to garden.  They are easy to care of too.  Make sure you give them adequate water and that you follow the instructions on the seed packet for spacing and depth.  The added plus of radishes is that they have a fast maturity, so you'll be able to enjoy the harvest of your efforts mid-summer.  The next easy plant I recommend is tomatoes.  There are many varieties of tomatoes and I have found good results with many.  My favorite are probably Roma.  Roma plants don't get as tall or heavy as other tomato plants, so they are easier to maintain.  Make sure your tomato plant gets plenty of light and regular water.  Now, tomato plants are susceptible to diseases, so if you start to see some diseased leaves, remove them after the plant is at least knee-high.  The final easy plants I recommend are pumpkins and gourds.  I swear pumpkins and gourds can grow anywhere and with no help at all, but the last time I gave that recommendation to a friend a few years ago we had a drought and that wasn't the case...  The main things that pumpkins and gourds need is space and adequate water.  If you plan on including any vine plants in your garden, consider having a separate patch for them, so you can give their vines plenty of space to spread out and grow.

Plant What You Eat - This seems easy enough, but when making your garden plan, remember to plant what you are going to enjoy eating.  If you don't like green beans, don't plant green beans.  Now at the same time, if you eat potatoes everyday, plants some potatoes.  Also consider what you are interested in canning.  For many years I have planted some form of a salsa garden with tomatoes, peppers, onions and cilantro.  My family always has a jar of salsa open and we have never had a problem eating each year's salsa.  Also, my family has homemade pizza each Friday night, so I always can pizza sauce each year.  We also really enjoy canning pickles.  If you are looking for some pickle tips, check out my friend Mary of Farm Girl Cook'n's latest post with pickle tips and a recipe!

Location, Location, Location - After you have decided what you want to plant in your garden you need to think about the amount of space you'll need for it and where to locate it.  Most vegetables need direct sunlight and a well drained soil in a level area.  Also, make sure this area is away from trees or shrubs.  You won't want them to compete for water and nutrients from your garden.  Lastly, make sure your garden can be reached by a hose.  Now you might be thinking that you're going to build muscle and endurance by using a watering can for your garden, but chances are, as the summer goes on, you're going to neglect keeping your garden watered regularly if you have to do so.  Check out my Where to put your Vegetable Garden post for more tips and details.

Weed, Weed, Weed - This might seem like a no-brainer, but in order to have a successful first go-around at gardening, you need to keep up on weeding.  Keep a regular weeding schedule for the entire spring and summer.  And if you go on a summer vacation, be prepared to weed when you get home.  For some reason, it's like weeds know when you're gone and sprout up like crazy to greet you when you get home.  If your weeds get out of hand, weeding after a rain makes them easier to pull out.  Also, to help control weeds, after plants have good growth, consider laying down a mulch or straw to help give the plants a barrier from weeds.

Protection, Protection, Protection - It is a good idea to give your plants some protection from predators throughout the growing season.  Depending on where you live, predators could be rabbits, squirrels, deer, etc.  When your plants are young, consider using milk jugs that have had the bottoms cut off (which also act as a "greenhouse" at the same time), or old clay tiles.  After they outgrow the milk jugs or tiles, you should consider investing in a fence or a dog.

I hope these basic tips help prepare all first-time gardeners for the planting season.  Most importantly I hope your garden allows you to get a little dirty, be a little creative and reduces your stress.  What tips would you add to the list for beginners?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Looking for more tips - check out my tips and others on Wayfair!

Where to put your Vegetable Garden

Today is an exciting day for me and my mother-in-law, we're going to our local FFA chapter's green house to get some vegetable plants and annual flowers!  But before I buy my plants, I better figure out where to put my garden!  See, this will be the first year of having a garden at our current acreage.  We always had one at our old acreage and it was easy to decide where to put it because we knew where my husband's grandfather had kept his.  But at our new place, we're starting from scratch.  I'm sure at one point in time the former owners had a garden but there is no evidence of a garden now.  So deciding where to place my vegetable garden was exciting and a little nerve-racking at the same time.  So after some research and personal knowledge from my past experiences, I have decided to place my garden here:

My garden's future home

Many factors played into me making my decision on where to place my vegetable garden and I thought I'd share these factors with you to help you when deciding where to place your vegetable garden:

• Place your garden in a well drained soil.  You should pick a level area to help with drainage and also to limit erosion.
• Pick an area with full sunlight.  Most vegetables need at least 6 hours of sunlight.  If you garden is going to be close to a building structure or your home, consider placing it on the south side if available or on the east or west side.
• Be sure to place your garden away from trees and shrubs.  Trees and shrubs will compete with your garden plants for water and nutrients.
• Also, make sure to think convenience when planning your garden's location.  Make sure it is near your home where you'll see or walk by it daily.  Also, it is a good idea to make sure you can reach your garden at least within two hose lengths, otherwise you'll be carrying water a long ways (which might sound like a good exercise plan at the beginning of the season, but by the end of the summer you will most likely have wished the garden was closer.)
• Now at the same time you'll need to keep your garden away from high traffic areas.  Don't place your garden where your kids like to run around and play and don't put it where vehicles (and tractors if you're like me) drive.

This year, similar to past years, I'll be planting a salsa garden.  I love canning salsa and pizza sauce, plus I think salsa garden vegetables are relatively simple to take care of.  Below is an outline of my garden this year.  I'm going to intercrop my garden between long-season vegetables (i.e. tomatoes, peppers), next to short-season vegetables (i.e. radishes, onions).  The short-season vegetables will be harvested before the height of the summer and will be removed, allowing more room for the long-season vegetables.

Do you plant a garden?  What plants are you including in your plan for this year?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

I went to the #IAblogger meet-up last week and was inspired to try setting up my own Linky Party.  So here we go!  Link up your garden posts (tips, plans, recipes, etc.) here:

An InLinkz Link-up