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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Abby Darlington says
April 27, 2017 at 7:22 pmThis is such a good post! And I’m so envious that you can grow your own veggies!! Do you know how long it typically takes? This is all new to me!
Also, love that you get to look at lavender out in your garden everyday. What a nice added bonus 🙂
Ashley says
April 28, 2017 at 12:28 pmIt is all new to me too! So I will have to keep you posted. Im just hoping that some of our crops make it to harvest! 😉
Erica Summers says
April 27, 2017 at 7:55 pmI love gardening. Once everything is established I love going out summer evenings and just putzing around in my yard /garden. you will learn so much your first year from just trial and error. This year I started composting and I love it. I bought a small compost pail off of Amazon to keep on the kitchen counter and I just empty it into the actual compost bin I made every two days or so. It’s cheap, gives you amazing and FREE compost for the garden, and we have cut our trash waste down to one bag a week. Also, along with lavender marigolds work wonders around tomato plants for keeping bugs outta there . Good luck!
Ashley says
April 28, 2017 at 12:30 pmOk I might be texting you when I have questions! I love the compost idea, I need to do that. What are you growing this year??
Megan says
April 27, 2017 at 8:03 pmI’m so excited for you!! We attempted our first garden last year, but the soil was in terrible shape so we got like, 3 green beans and that was it LOL! I’m interested to hear how yours goes! What a fun endeavor!
Ashley says
April 28, 2017 at 12:32 pmOh man, that is what I am afraid of! But I figure we have to start somewhere! I’m hoping the raised beds will help with the soil issue.. I will share our results, even if they are pitiful ha!
Rochelle says
April 28, 2017 at 7:30 amI hope your garden plans turns out better than mine!! A sunken tractor and a mud pit isn’t exactly what I had in mind!! ?
Good luck!
Ashley says
April 28, 2017 at 12:33 pmYeah that was seriously crazy! I am hoping God isn’t laughing too hard at all my garden plans 😉 I’d be happy with at least one tomato bloom ha! We will see
Stephanie | vimandvigor says
April 30, 2017 at 12:52 pmgreat post ashley! I am also in the infant stages of gardening and operating by a TON of trail and error. Excited to hear more about your tips along the way!
Ashley says
May 6, 2017 at 9:34 amThanks! We will have to help each other out and share what is working and what is not! 🙂
Michiella says
May 9, 2017 at 7:06 pmThis is seriously so exciting! Being able to work on and grow my own garden once we have our home has been a dream of mine. For the time being, I’m going to vicariously live it through you!
The lavender will be so lovely and I just want to add, that this post was beautiful and so well-organized!
Joyfully Growing says
May 10, 2017 at 10:53 amAwe thank you so much Michiella!! I have also dreamed of having our own garden, can’t wait for the day I get to pick my first crop! 🙂