So You Want to Start a Garden:
Taking the First Step
So you want to start a garden! You can probably just about taste that really fresh salad, imagine the bite out of your first home-grown tomato, or visualize the wall of colorful flowers. Getting started isn't difficult, especially if you begin small, and consider a few things to begin with.
As you can tell from the volumes of material out there on gardening, it can get complicated pretty quickly. Below are some of the bare essentials of gardening. When you're comfortable with this, you can start planning.
What would you like a garden for?
Oftentimes, people get excited about the idea of gardening, and before you know it, you can smell the fresh earth generated from digging. First, though, it may help for you to think about why you want to do it:
Since plants are living things, and need certain factors to grow, it helps to learn a little bit about your site. You'll need to either pick plants that do well with the site you're working with (or container, if that's the case), or makes some changes to the place you're working with to adapt it to the plants you want to grow, if necessary. Make sense?
Where are you thinking of locating the garden? Ideally, it should be:
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Taking the First Step
So you want to start a garden! You can probably just about taste that really fresh salad, imagine the bite out of your first home-grown tomato, or visualize the wall of colorful flowers. Getting started isn't difficult, especially if you begin small, and consider a few things to begin with.
As you can tell from the volumes of material out there on gardening, it can get complicated pretty quickly. Below are some of the bare essentials of gardening. When you're comfortable with this, you can start planning.
What would you like a garden for?
Oftentimes, people get excited about the idea of gardening, and before you know it, you can smell the fresh earth generated from digging. First, though, it may help for you to think about why you want to do it:
- Fresh produce: your main goal is to have good food to eat.
- Good looks: you want to spruce things up a bit.
- A place to hang out outdoors: you'd like to have a space outside that feels like an outdoor living room.
- Help the earth: maybe you'd like to feed the birds, create some green space, or teach a child to plant a tree.
- Connect to someone you care about: gardening is something you can do with friends, family or community members.
Since plants are living things, and need certain factors to grow, it helps to learn a little bit about your site. You'll need to either pick plants that do well with the site you're working with (or container, if that's the case), or makes some changes to the place you're working with to adapt it to the plants you want to grow, if necessary. Make sense?
Where are you thinking of locating the garden? Ideally, it should be:
- Sunny. Receives at least 6 hours of direct sun daily.
- Well-drained. No standing water after heavy rains.
- Relatively level. Or build beds or terraces that run across the slope.
- Away from trees. They can shade and compete with crops for water and nutrients.
- Protected from high winds. Good air circulation, however, helps prevent plant diseases.
- You want to avoid low-lying frost pockets.
- Close to a water source. You'll need water, and it's too heavy to haul.
- Locate a site, following the suggestions above. Whatever you think you can handle, size-wise, you may want to go with half that the first year. Start small, take good care of your garden, and next year, you'll be ready for a larger plot.
- Prepare your soil in the fall in anticipation of planting next spring. Consider growing vegetables in 3- to 4-foot-wide beds with paths in between instead of just creating one large area for your garden. See: Planting Design: How to Arrange Your First Garden.
- If you're still learning about soils, and are unsure about what you have to work with, you may want to contact your local Extension office for information about testing your soil's pH and nutrient levels.
- Think about what you and your family really like to eat before planning your garden. Vegetables will go to waste if what you grow doesn't match what you eat.
- Did we already mention start small? There is nothing more discouraging than planting more than you can take care of. Each year, plant more of what you didn't have enough of, and less of what was in surplus.
- Make a map of your garden plan to help you visualize what it will look like and to make the best use of space. Avoid planting tall crops where they'll shade out shorter ones.
- If you're thinking long term, you may be thinking about perennial crops, such as asparagus. For the beginner, it may be wise to wait a year or two before making this commitment. When you're ready, group perennial crops -- ones that come back every year such as rhubarb and asparagus -- together along one side of the garden so they will be out of the way.
- The fun part comes with choosing seeds. If you're ordering by mail, order seeds early. Studying seed catalogs during winter is a good way to get acquainted with the possibilities. If you forget something, you can always purchase seed later locally. Otherwise, talking with people you know who garden can be a fantastic source of information. If you're interested in vegetable varieties, see our list of varieties that perform well in New York gardens or our more-comprehensive Vegetable Varieties website.
- Vegetable Growing Basics
- Vegetable Growing Guides
- Flower Garden Design Basics
- How to grow flowers: annuals, bulbs, perennials.