5 Things New Gardeners Should Know When Starting Their First Garden: Basic Information to Make it Less Overwhelming

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5 Things New Gardeners Should Know When Starting Their First Garden:

Basic Information to Make it Less Overwhelming

Welcome to the world of vegetable gardening! It can be confusing. Leave it to us fellow gardeners to make things a bit more complicated than it needs to be.  With time, you can sort through all the information out there but when you first start, it is quite overwhelming.  So let's start with the basics that are most important for the first year garden. My new book is all about setting up the foundation of a new garden and using those principles to build your own homestead and edible landscape, at your pace.

    

Sunlight

The bottom line is, for a minimum, your garden needs 6  hours of direct sun. Direct sun is when the sunlight directly contacts the leaves of your plants. When selecting the spot for your garden, in the earth or containers, you must pick a spot where your plants will be directly contacted by the sun and not just a spot that looks bright. It does not need to be 6 continuous hours of sun. But it must total 6 hours. Pick your spot,  check on it every hour or two and total the number of hours the sun hits that spot.  The best place for your garden, if you have options, is 8-10 hours of direct sunlight.  Usually the southern side of homes is where they most sun falls.  When selecting the spot in the the spring, before leaves are on trees, you have to consider how the shade will impact your placement. 

Watering

The is no way any gardener can tell you when to water and how often to water. There are too many factors involved from temperature to the size of plants. When it is cool and plants are smaller, naturally you water less. When plants are larger and you are at the height of summer heat, you may be watering daily.  Plants do not like to sit in water that is pooled or in overly soggy soil. All containers should have drainage holes. Earth beds should be able to shed heavy rains in a few hours. Place your gardens where water doesn't pool or move to, during heavy rains. A good test is digging a hole, where you want your garden to be, and fill it with water. The hole should be about 1 foot wide and 1 foot deep. Fill it with water. If it drains in an hour, the soil drains well. You can fill it again and if it drains in an hour or two, you know you have a place that drains really well.  Drainage holes and draining soil gives you confidence you can't over water your garden.  My advice, when in doubt, water.  More damage is done by under-watering than over-watering.  Soil always dries from the top down. You can water based on that for both your container and ground gardens. If the top 1-2 inches is dry, not dark brown with moisture, water it in.

 

Organic Granular Fertilizers

This is where things can get really confusing.  Plants need nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) at higher levels and all the 'other stuff ' at much lower levels. If you are just getting started, worry about N, P, and K. Those are the numbers you see on fertilizer bags and boxes. You will want to get some organic granular fertilizer which is a slow release fertilizer. That means the granuals you toss in the soil will slowly break down over weeks and feed your plants.  Any granular is fine. They are all essentially the same. You want the numbers of  N, P and K on the bag (for granular) to be around a 5-5-5 up or down a few numbers. You will see all KINDS of number and titles on your bag. Like Tomato fertilizer 4-3-3, Garden fertilizer 5-2-4, Pepper fertilizer 3-5-5 and all kinds of vegetable names on the bags. You do NOT need separate fertilizers for different plants 99% of the time. You can use the 3-5-5 Pepper fertilizer on tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, squash and on flowers. Just get a bag that meets your budget and sits around a 5-5-5. You can learn more about fertilizers the following year. When and how you use them is another blog entry.  But you set the soil up with them at planting, and add some mid-season, to the surrounding ground surface, as a basic starter plan.

Water Soluble Fertilizer

These types of fertilizers are typically always mixed with water. Instructions vary and the level of N, P and K vary. Water soluble means the plants can use the nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium immediately, that day. It is what you really need for container gardening.  Container gardens need to be fed with the water solubles every 7-21 days based on the plant size.  Earth bed plants can be fed every 14-28 days with it, generally speaking.  I use organic fish emulsion which is a 5-1-1 N, P, and K.  Other organic fertilizers have higher numbers but they can be expensive. The chemical fertilizers, which you often hear are awful, are not, when used sensibly. You may be on a budget and that is all you can afford. They wont harm you or your plants.  They could harm soil life if used and abused on a mass scale farming level.  They are all basically the same and I would recommend using them at 1/2 strength as they have a very high nitrogen number, often 20+. Too much nitrogen grows very green plants but often excess leaves at the cost of the vegetables you want to harvest.. 

When & What Should I Plant

There are plants that like the cool weather and those that like the warm weather.  I recommend planting lettuce, spinach and peas in the spring. They like the cool weather and can even take a frost. These three varieties are perfect for new gardeners.  Once summer arrives and the heat comes, these crops get pulled out and the warm-season crops get put in the ground. I recommend 2 tomatoes plants, 2 pepper plants, a squash or zucchini plant and some cucumbers. They get put in the ground when the chance of frost is fully gone and the summer approaches.  This mix of plants are garden standards and they will produce for you.  You could also plant some herbs like cilantro, basil and even dill.  Don't overwhelm yourself the first year. Plant what you like to eat and don't over plant. The first year is about learning and figuring out how to build and plant your gardens.

 

Keep a Journal

As a bonus tip, I recommend keeping a journal of when you plant, problems that come up, success, and your first harvest dates of each variety as a way to have notes to reflect back on. It is important to write down the dates when insects, diseases and other pests arrive. This helps you build a plan for the following year. It will help you adjust planting times and figure out how to manage problems. There are many more aspects to gardening but starting here with the basics will get you started and help you establish the foundation of your garden. If you found this post to be helpful, my book details more principles to help you have a successful garden.

Good Luck in Your Gardens,

Gary (TRG)

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