How to Start a Garden

Gardening Basics
Taking time to get the fundamentals rights will save you money later

It is not uncommon for first time gardeners to have "beginner's luck". The soil is fresh and undepleted. Many pests, fungi, etc will not necessarily find the garden in its first year. In the first year, the gardener also does not need to worry about soil and crop rotation. Then the second year the gardener is sadly disappointed when the experience is one of plants struggling with diseases, pests and general poor production. Although this is not always the scenario, it more than often is, so take time to plan your garden correctly and enjoy years of plentiful harvests.

How to Determine Site Selection

Your garden site selection is one of the most important decisions you will make for your garden.

Select a relatively level location for most plants with the exception of crops like grapes that require significant drainage and prefer slopes.
How much sunlight per day your plants will need. Most plans need some amount of direct sunlight during the day, but in hot climates, you will also have to consider providing afternoon shade.
Consider how the angle of the sun will change throughout the spring, summer and fall growing seasons. Trees along the periphery of the garden can be helpful in extending your summer growing season but reducing heat stress and keeping soil temperatures cooler.
Is there a convenient water source to the location or a way to get one to it? This is important for irrigation systems, because even in wet climates, there are often long periods with insufficient rainfall in the growing season.
Most plants like an easterly and southern exposure with protection from the north in the winter and west in the summer.

Think about boundary plants, entrances and path ways

Raised Planting Beds

If your yields are disappointing, your garden space isn’t as productive as you’d like, or if you only have a small space to devote to gardening, building a raised bed may be your answer. Raised beds are easy to build and allow you to artificially provide substantially more topsoil, which will help plants to thrive and flourish, as well as providing improved drainage. However, raised beds can consume more water than planting directly into the earth, so use an efficient irrigation system in combination with this method.

Raised bed advantages include

Raised beds warm more quickly in spring, allowing you to work the soil and plant earlier.
Raised beds drain better.
The soil in raised beds doesn't get compacted, because they are constructed with accessibility in mind and you don't walk on your growing areas.
It's easy to tailor the soil for your raised bed to the plants you plan to grow there.
After the initial construction process, raised beds require less maintenance than conventional garden beds.

How to create a garden

If your garden will include a hot house, work this into your plans from the beginning.

1. Layout your garden for optimal usage

Many gardens are best if fenced off from domestic and wild animals, so make sure you will be able to place posts where you need them and the gate is easily accessible and convenient for you.
The most efficient raised beds are 4 feet by 4 feet and 6 inches deep. If you make them larger, you'll have problems accessing the plants. Smaller boxes will have difficulty retaining enough moisture, but if you wish to place a box alongside the wall of the garden, you may want to make the bed 3 feet wide so you can access the plants.
Look at your garden and draw out where you want your boxes and pathways. Remember access and the best use of space are key considerations to keep in mind.
Use water hoses or string to help you layout the spaces so you'll get a realistic feel for what the work space it will be like when you are finished.

2. Site preparation

Before beginning digging, you may want to snuff out the grass - if needed - by placing boards, heavy tarps on anchored newspapers on the site to help kill off the existing surface plants.
To ensure that your plant's roots have plenty of room to grow dig out the existing sod and loosen the soil with a shovel or garden fork to a depth of eight to twelve inches. This will give your plants the 6" from the board height plus an additional 8 to 12 inches so plants' roots can go deeply and firmly into the ground.

3. Building raised planting boxes

Although almost any materials that create a barrier could be used to build your boxes, rot- resistant 2"x6" wooden boards, such as cedar, are frequently used because they are inexpensive and easy to work with.
Materials such as old railroad ties are not recommended because the creosote that is applied to them will leach into the ground.
Concrete blocks and stones will also work, but they cost more and their physical size makes them less efficient relative to space usage. In the winter concrete blocks work well to keep in the heat, but in the summer, they heat up too much, so keep this in mind depending upon the climate where you will be gardening.

4. Pathways

Do not neglect the importance of pathways in your design. A minimum width of 18 inches is recommended to easily move between the boxes.
Plants like tomatoes will grow large and aren't always respectful of box boundaries, even with cages and staking.
You want to have the ability to bring a wheel barrow and/or other larger tools in and out of the garden for composting, amending soil and mulching. See how much room you think you will need and plan accordingly.

Although you will incur additional expense, moving around in the garden is much more comfortable, require less maintenance and incur less mess if you:

Dig up the areas where they pathways will be to remove weeds, grasses and larger rocks and remove the debris
Put down a weed barrier such as newspaper or weed cloth
Then lay down a heavy layer of mulch, small pebbles, or crushed granite.

5. Bed construction

Constructing:
Cut boards to the desired size, then attach them to make a simple frame. You can attach them by making a simple butt joint at each corner, pre-drilling and then screwing the corners together with galvanized screws. You can use a small piece of wood in the corner and attach each side to it.

Leveling:
After the frames are built, level them so that water does not run off from the high areas and collect in the low areas. You level frames by placing a level along the plank and ensure the boards are level. They do not have to be 100% level, but they should be as close as possible. If you have high areas in your frame, simply remove some of the soil from beneath that area of the frame.

Filling the bed:
Use the best possible soil for your beds. If you do not have any of your own home-made soil available, visit a local nursery that offers green soil products. This provides a good starter base which you can later amend with your own soil, compost and mulch to maintain and improve your beds. Add composted manure into the bottom of the bed and then layer good soil on top of the nutrient-rich compost. You can cut costs significantly by using some soil from other parts of your property, but make sure the soil you are using is productive soil. No matter how good your base is, you will still get poor results with a layer of dense clay or other poor soil on top of the compost. Plan on filling at least 1/3 of your raised bed with compost.

Make 12 inch planting squares
After the frames are constructed and in place, fill with soil. Then, measure out the boxes into 12 inch squares. Hammer nails about half ways into the board at each 12 inch mark. Then using either string or flexible wire make dividers into 12 inch squares. This will ensure that each plant is provided with adequate space to grow. If you are doing root crops like carrots, turnips, onions or potatoes, you can place more than one plant every 12 inches. For larger plants like tomatoes, consider planting these on the end of aisles or allow a neighboring square to remain empty to allow plenty of space.

6. Maintaining beds

Each spring and/or fall, top dress with fresh compost and manure.
If your bed only holds plants for part of the year, dig the compost or manure into the top several inches of soil.
As with any garden, mulching the top of the soil will help retain moisture and keep weeds down, an important element for fast draining raised beds.