A Beginners Guide to Starting Your Own Vegetable Garden

Growing your own vegetables come with tons of perks, such as improving your overall health, save money on groceries by reducing monthly food bill, getting outdoor exercise, just to name a few. 

So, if you wish to bloom your own food in your garden, our vegetable garden guide, which consists of everything you need to know about the basics, really comes in handy!

A Beginners Guide to Starting Your Own Vegetable Garden

There are a number of reasons and benefits to setting up your own vegetable garden:

1. It’s easy and cheap to do! All you have to do is to arrange aside a plot of land in the backyard and get your hands on some necessary gardening tools.
2. Seeds are inexpensive and finding a little spare time shouldn’t be too costly. Even some additional water and nutrients shouldn’t break the bank. In the long run, your shopping trips will become cheaper as you can cross off everything grown on your veg patch.
3. It’s great for the environment! A sustainable garden offers a lifestyle which wastes little resources and minimises negative impact on the environment.
4. Encouraging all the family to cook fresh dishes from scratch more often is essential. Especially when you have a ready supply of fresh vegetables at the bottom of your garden. Get your five-a-day in more regularly, consuming more vegetables mean meals that are lower in calories and higher in nutrition.
5. You’ll know exactly where your ingredients have come from. Homegrown vegetables mean no artificial additives, preservatives or pesticides and encourage reductions in food waste and inefficiency. You can trace their sustainable source and be sure of their organic and vegan credentials. Not only that, but picking vegetables from your own garden guarantees a level of freshness which you may not be able to get elsewhere.
6. One of the struggles of modern families is to snatch their children’s attention away from their screens. Having your own vegetable garden could be an introduction to natural entertainment. In this way, they’ll find ways to reconnect with nature. On the other hand, this can also provide adults who are not fond of technologies with a new fascinating outdoor hobby to pursue.

The limitation on what you can grow on your vegetable garden depends on how much space you have. You might as well make a plan on what crop varieties you will plant to keep your crop production to a minimum.

If you have garden beds, then you can use that as a base to grow vegetables. However, if you don’t have one, you can opt for window boxes, pots or grow bags.

To give your plants a fresh start, sow them into excellent compost. Once they have four to five leaves, you may transfer or plant them outside. Take note; vegetables will be likely to grow at their best if they’re sheltered and placed in a sunny spot. 

Listed down below are the four recommended vegetables to grow on as they can provide you with a great return even on a small scale. Not only that, but they are also bounty and stunner.

Lettuce

If your outdoor space is limited, lettuce can be grown in a window box. On the other hand, its outer leaves can also be harvested without pulling out the whole plant from the soil.

Even if you have zero experience when it comes to a vegetable garden, planting lettuce can be your best bet! Just the thought of having a living salad room on your window sill or raised bed can already fill your summer with a nutritious source of food.

How to Plant

Start by seeding off indoors then thin out the seedling when planting them outside. You may base the amount of space for each base on the size of their leaves.

Now for the whole heads of lettuce, plant, each seedling approximately a lettuce width apart. For the smaller ones, a close spacing will mean their neighbours will stunt their growth. Both work well, so how you space them is up to you.

Tomatoes

Nothing can’t beat the flavour of home-grown tomatoes! Not only a tomato is easy to grow, but it also has a vast range of tomato seeds and plants to choose.

May and June, approximately 6-8 weeks before the final frost of the winter, are the perfect months if you wish to have a seasoned crop before autumn knocks in your door.

If you’re growing your tomatoes in a greenhouse, sow them earlier. On the other hand, if you’re opting for indoor planting, you may seed planted in the late winter. Just ensure that you’re providing them with a good light source.

Alternatively, you can also purchase potted plants in May to be replanted outside in a sunny, sheltered position after the last spring frosts.

Note: As this kind of vegetables grows taller, they become unable to bear their weight, so they need to be supported. With that, they require a lot of vertical space.

Potatoes

Potatoes can be planted in the early spring as soon as the soil is ready — has reached 45 degrees F, moist, but not water-logged. Also, make sure to provide some frost protection if the late-season freeze is coming.

Our experts revealed that potatoes are best grown in crops. To start with, dig a hole that is 6-8 inches deep. Then plant each every 12-15 inches, with rows spaced 3 feet apart. However, if your space is limited, you can lessen the spacing between the plants. This also works if you want to grow baby potatoes.

To water them, ensure their vines are well watered throughout the summertime. Especially during the period when they’re flowering and immediately following the flowering process.

Tip: They do best in full sun, and they normally prefer a little acid soil with a PH of 5.0 to 7.0. Another thing to consider is keeping your potato patch weed-free for best results!

Courgettes

Now, if you have a bit of extra space in your outdoor space, courgettes can be a great addition to your vegetable garden. Initially sown indoors in pots, they usually emerge almost overnight. They are likely to produce large Gaugin-like leaves after they’ve been planted outside.

Make sure to plant them in a well-composted fertile ground, position them in full sun, and water them regularly in dry weather. As a result, you can toss this vegetable into your salad bowl, stuffed with goat’s cheese or even fried in tempura batter.

Note: Each plant has to be planted 60-70cm apart.