How to Start a Vegetable Garden
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Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
Starting a vegetable garden can be a very rewarding experience. You'll be able to produce vegetables for your family and you can significantly drop your grocery cost.
You will feel a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment as well. There's a lot you need to do to make sure that your project is a success. Here are some of the main things to consider.
Assess Your Space
One of the first things you're going to do is find the optimal location for planting—ideally an area that receives at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight everyday.
This means you have to be a detective and look around your property to find out which areas are best. It may take a little bit of investigating, but if you do it right you will find out.
Start with some of the easy to grow varieties of peppers, carrots and tomatoes. You also need to think about what your family likes and the growing season in the region where you live.
Create a Garden Plan
Plan out what you envision your garden will look like. Decide where you want each vegetable to be go. We like to draw maps marking locations for each plant so we can rotate which plants grow where each year.
It's a good idea to group vegetables that will need a similar amount of water and sunlight together. This way you can be more organized.
You won't be running around from one end of the garden to the next trying to get things in working order.
Test the Soil
You don't want to drop your vegetables in just about any soil. That is a recipe for disaster. You have to make sure that you do what modern farmers do and invest in a soil test.
See if the soil is rich enough for what you want to grow in it. You can then amend your site with organic matter to bring it up to the right pH levels.
Clear the Area
You need to make sure that you clear the area of any unwanted items. This ranges from rocks, weeds, debris and even pests. You should think about using raised beds to improve the drainage and make maintenance of your garden way easier.
Growing things with your own hands and producing jaw-dropping results for vegetables can be exhilarating. It gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment in what your hands can bring forward from the soil. This will definitely boost your confidence.
