Ready to do this? Let our gardening for beginners post take you from zero garden to eating food you grew yourself!
What if food just appeared at your house? One day, it would just be there, waiting on your patio or in your yard for you to just bring it into your house and eat it? Something fresh and delicious and healthy, like, oh I don’t know, vegetables perhaps. And if you think about buying local, this is as local as you can get. Guess what? This is totally possible through a brand new program that I’m inventing and giving you exclusive access to…and I’m calling it “gardening.”
Ok, so I didn’t invent it. And even though you’re special, access to gardening isn’t exclusive. But chances are you’re not gardening. Unfortunately, not many people are growing food at home anymore, and lots of younger folks may have never even seen a garden in person. But no matter your situation, even if you don’t have a yard, as long as you have a window you can grow something to eat! Of course, the more space you have, the more options are available to you, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Let’s take the first steps to get you from nothing to garden! Warning – long post alert, but achieving that nothing to garden goal will be worth it when you bite into your delicious home-grown food, so stick with me!
BURY YOUR EXCUSES
Time to discuss excuses; let me take them out of your mouth and list them here: “I don’t have a green thumb.” “I don’t have time.” “I don’t know how to do it.” “I don’t want to get dirty.” *Say your excuse out loud if I didn’t list it. Go ahead, I’ll wait…..OK good. Get those out of your system, because they’re all false. Totally untrue. Baloney. No matter what your skill level, you can do some form of gardening. And I bet you may even like it, because who doesn’t like eating something that seemed to appear and grow like magic? No one, that’s who. So let’s get this gardening for beginners action started!
PICK YOUR PERFECT PLANT PALATE
So, what should you grow? Start with what you like to eat. Do you love fresh tomatoes? Are you a salad guru? Do you cook with fresh herbs? Will you crush some fresh basil pesto? What vegetables do your kids eat? For example, the first year we started gardening with planter boxes at our house, we grew a bunch of tomatoes, but then realized we didn’t really use fresh tomatoes in our cooking, and ended up giving most of them away. But on the other hand, we ate every single green bean that was available. So lesson learned: the next year, no tomatoes, but more green beans. You don’t have to be perfect or get it right on the first try.
**Some of the links found will be affiliate links, which means if you use that link to make a purchase, I get a small commission. The commission comes at no extra cost to you, and it helps support my family and our quest to be as sustainable as possible. I only recommend products based on my own experiences and/or opinions. Please only buy products you feel can be helpful to you and your family.**
SIZE DOESN’T MATTER
Let’s start small, as in maybe you’re in an apartment. As long as you have a window with at least a few hours of direct sunlight, you can at least grow some herbs. There’s some nice starter packs out there if you like the self contained open the box and go system:
Herbs are nice indoors because they’ll smell good, and are a great add in for your recipes, whether as an ingredient or a garnish. And for the most part, they’re smaller plants, so they should work well in a window.
Perhaps you don’t have a yard per say, but you have some outdoor space on a porch, deck, or patio. Awesome – you can garden! Container gardening has surged in popularity in recent years, as it’s simple and also very accessible for those who may not be able to work on the ground in a traditional garden. Practically speaking, you can grow just about anything in a container that you would in a regular garden – don’t limit your imagination! Start with what containers will fit in your space and work from there, and they can be as simple or fancy as you like.
Then, add soil and plants.
For some expert help, or if you’d like to start with live plants, make a visit to your local garden center or greenhouse.
*Note from Grant: there are SO many options when it comes to buying seeds and plants. While it’s easy to pick something online, you really may be best served by talking to an employee at a nursery or garden center. And then, don’t be overwhelmed by all the options; just pick something and try it!
Alright, so you have some yard space to work with. Start with whatever amount of space you feel comfortable with, especially if you have to remove the grass first (but just think: that’s a little bit less to mow!). Then, fine gardening for beginners readers, the sky is the limit! Make sure the soil is loose, not hard and compacted, before planting seeds or plants; this will make the roots of your plants not have to work so hard. This can be done by turning the soil (digging a scoop, and putting that soil back in the same hole upside down, then breaking up all the clumps) with a regular shovel, which is a little work, but only needs done once a year.
Then, level your garden with a hard rake, trying to make the middle slightly higher so the water drains away to the sides.
THE REAL FARMING APP: GARDENING
If you’ve been doing any composting, this is the time to add that sweet goodness to your soil and mix it in. Now, planting time!
Seeds will always be the cheapest, but not everything starts well from seed outdoors. If you’re ambitious and you want to start seeds inside, awesome. But if not (and most people are in the “not” category) check out your local garden center or retailer that’s selling plants in the spring. Some plants, like tomatoes, don’t start well when planted from seed outside, and work best (and easiest) as starter plants. Seed packets will have planting instructions on them, and for starter plants, just place them in the soil level with the top of their soil.
Good job so far – you’re gardening! Go ahead and do the mind-blown hand motion, with sound effects 🙂
WEED FREE ZONE
Weeding will help keep your garden at it’s best. Any pesky weeds that sprout up will just steal sunlight and soil nutrients from your precious plants! Simple hand pulling is fine, but if you want some extra help, this is my go-to garden tool;
great for wedding and planting alike (bonus: that badass feeling you get by using a huge knife to stab weeds!). And new little baby weeds can always be cleaned out with the classic garden hoe.
WATER: THE SWEET NECTAR OF LIFE
Water is the key to your success, but can also be the key to your failure. Once those plants or seeds are in the ground, they’ll need a drink. Water generously initially, and then “AS NEEDED” after that. Some people can get in the habit of watering every day, twice a day…and if you live in a hot climate that may be fine. But for most of us in the northern hemisphere, that’s probably not necessary. For small containers, the simplest way to check if water is needed is to grab your container and lift it up. If it’s heavy: no water needed. If it’s light: water is needed. Easy! And on watering containers, water them all the way through, allowing just a little water to run out the bottom on the container, and in that case, it means you got the entire pot wet, top to bottom. This will encourage roots to grow all the way down through the container, not just at the top.
Watering a garden in the ground is similar; make sure you aren’t watering every day just for the sake of watering every day. If it’s hot summer and the plants need it, great! But if not, hold back until the soil is noticeably dry. You can even check simply by poking your finger into the soil – if your fingertip just breaks through a little bit of dry crusty soil at the top and into moist soil, then you can wait a day or so and check again. But finding dry soil only probably means those plants need a drink.
Speaking of getting the water to them, there’s a number of ways to go about it. The old fashioned hand can does the trick, even if you have to make a few trips.
For my small planter beds, this still gets the job done. A smaller can may be best for small containers to make sure you’re just getting water where it needs to go.
A traditional garden hose with a water breaker will give you that classic “I know what I’m doing” vibe to your neighbors.
However, for most effective garden watering, look no further than soaker hoses.
These can be strung through your garden at the base of your plants, and when turned on, water slowly leaks out and into the soil. To automate even further, add a timer and you’re done!
Now obviously, if it’s rained a few days in a row, you’ll want to turn the timer off and give the soil time to dry out; excess watering in any situation means the plants essentially drown, as they’re unable to get the nutrients from the overly saturated soil, and roots can rot as well.
CONSERVE YOUR WATER – IT’S PRECIOUS
Lastly, if you can collect rainwater or use grey water for your gardening, DO IT!
We’ll dig into rainwater collection and grey water deeper in other posts, but if you live in a location where water is a premium, or just if you’re on a municipal water supply, it means you’re watering your plants for free. Something even as simple as keeping your watering can by the back door and dumping unused kid drinking water into it for your garden can really add up over a season!
GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS – THE VICTORY GARDEN
Look at you, all grown up and gardening! Thanks for following along with our gardening for beginners plan. Now, you’re winning at life: go forth, and eat! Tell me in the comments what your gardening plan is, and enter your email for more awesome Sustainable Family Home goodness!