Growing up, my dad always planted a garden and taught us kids the importance of being able to grow your own food. Now that we finally have a home of our own, I am so excited to put his teaching into practice and start my very own vegetable garden! As the weather has been getting warmer I have been doing tons of research on what our first garden should look like in order to yield the best results. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure there will be plenty of mistakes made. But that’s what makes it fun! (Famous last words…) I thought I would put together a little ‘game plan’ to share how we plan to set up our garden in case any of you have been itching to turn your thumb green 😉
Raised Beds
We are planning on DIYing some raised garden beds to insure good weed control, optimal drainage and to help keep pests out. The photo below is from www.nwedible.com and is a good representation of what I am envisioning for our own raised beds. (Let me know if you would like to see a tutorial on how we build our own 🙂 )
Our Starter Vegetables
The #1 piece of advice I came across while deciding which vegetables to plant was, “grow what you will eat”. Call me crazy, but this seemed extremely obvious and is exactly how we came up with the list of veggies that will be included in our first garden. Here’s what we plan to grow this year:
- Lettuce
- Cabbage
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Zucchini
- Celery
Since we are beginner gardeners we are planning on starting all of our plants out as seedlings (or veggie starts). These can be picked up at any local nursery. We are hoping that this will give us a higher chance of success as opposed to starting everything out as seeds. We will let you know how it works out!
Mulch
This is an area I know very little about, but I would like to incorporate into our garden. My favorite resource for this topic has been The Prairie Homestead Blog. Not only does she have tons of really good insight on gardening, but her authentic homestead life is something that I find extremely fascinating! (Be sure to checkout all of her amazing homemade recipes and homesteading tips, I just know you will love her as much as I do 🙂 ) Anyway, back to mulch. We do not have a specific game plan in mind yet for this subject, but I am leaning towards straw or grass clippings. Do any of you use mulch in your gardens? I’d love to know your tips!
Lavender
This is honestly one of the parts of starting a garden I am looking forward to most! I was researching plants/flowers to grow that would be good ‘companion crops’ for a vegetable garden to help with pest control, and was sold when I saw that lavender did the job. Not only is lavender gorgeous and known for its relaxing and soothing properties, but it is a great crop for beginners! It is said to repel mosquitoes, flies, fleas and moths while also attracting pollinators such as butterflies and bees. No mosquitoes paired with beautiful purple blooms? Yes please!
So that’s our plan for this year’s garden! I am anxious to get started on it and will keep you posted on how it is going! Do you have any experience with gardening? I would love any advice you are willing to offer up! Us gardeners have to stick together 😉
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