How to Start a Garden

When learning how to start a garden, the most important thing to remember is the foundation, or the soil, that you’ll be using to grow your fruits and vegetables. Because most yards are not equipped with the healthiest, most fertile soil, this probably means you’re going to have to build up the area a bit before you do any planting.

How to start a garden with good, healthy soil to make sure the plants grow? You could have several cubic yards of good, quality topsoil delivered to your home. This is probably the easiest way to build a good foundation for your garden, but before you do that, I’d recommend an initial step that will add nutrients and natural fertilizer to your garden – compost!

When planting a vegetable garden it’s important to add some type of nutrients or fertilizer to the soil so that the plant roots have a healthy start at life. Personally I don’t like using any type of commercial fertilizer once the plants are in the ground. Instead, I prefer to build up the soil so that the plants have what they’ll need throughout the season.

This year, I looked at how to start a garden from scratch, in a sunny location towards the front of the house. The area was grassy, so I had to plan on getting rid of the grass, and building up the soil.

Instead of placing any type of chemical on the lawn, and then risk having that impact the vegetables in the future, I simply laid down several piles of leaves that I had left over from the winter. This material breaks down, or “composts” naturally over time, and the solid mass created by the leaves would serve to naturally get rid of the grass.

Then, also from the winter, I had several containers of kitchen waste that were going to be put on the compost pile that spring. These included coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable scraps, fruit scraps, eggshells, and anything from the kitchen that hadn’t been cooked that could safely be added to the compost pile. I laid all of that material right across the leaves, and then I ordered 2 cubic yards of topsoil, and laid that on top of everything. This gave me the nutrients that I needed to support the plant growth, and a beautiful start to my garden. See for yourself how my plants did in this setting!

The next step in how to start a garden is selecting the right plants, and the plants, in particular, that work for you and your area. See how to lay out a garden for more information on this topic.

And last, but certainly not least, make sure to place some type of fencing around your garden. It doesn’t have to be particularly tough or stable, just enough of a deterrent to keep the rabbits and squirrels at bay.

If you need some tips on which garden planting tools to use, follow the link for some recommendations. And I would also suggest that you consider adding one or more rain water barrels to your home to minimize the amount of water you’ll need to maintain your newly planted garden.

I hope these steps on how to start a garden have helped you, and have you cooking up fresh veggies in your kitchen in no time! Happy gardening!

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