How to start a garden

Gardening looks like a fun and satisfying activity, does it not? And a source of fresh and tasty ingredients? It really is, and it’s something you can enjoy for the rest of your life. You have probably seen older relatives or neighbors puttering contentedly in their gardens. That could be you someday!

If you don’t have a garden, and want to try one, how do you get started? I’m going to try to answer that question and point you to better and more complete gardening resources.

I know very little about commercial farming, but I do know about growing fruits and vegetables for fun. I grew up in a gardening family. My parents were students and hippies and our household budget was super tight for a few years. A big backyard garden was part of our subsistence plan. After a teenage hiatus, during which I lived on M&Ms, Doritos, and Mountain Dew, I returned to gardening and have been at it ever since. I even had a little container garden when we were living in Montpellier, France.

Currently, my garden is pretty small, 18 square meters (190 square feet) in 6 raised beds and a strip of soil adjacent to one of the beds. It provides all the basil, beans, cucumbers, lettuce, scallions, and zucchini that my family can eat from June to September, plus half of our annual garlic consumption, and some novelty melons and peppers.

During the growing season I spend about 30 minutes each day watering, weeding, and whatever [1]. Much of that time is pure enjoyment. I could garden more efficiently if I wanted to. Preparing the garden for planting in the spring takes a couple weekend afternoons of hauling compost and digging, but not more than that.

Let’s presume that you’re interested in gardening in soil, on the ground. It’s a practical starting point and I’m not qualified to give advice about hydroponic or container gardening. With that, your basic requirements are soil, sun, water, and seeds.

If you can, start with accessible, flat, non-compacted ground, that is mostly free of rocks and weeds, and is close to a water source. Pull and dig out the existing vegetation and mix commercial compost into the top 6 inches. A 1.5 cubic foot bag per 10 square feet is a good start. Ground that has seen a lot of foot traffic or has had cars parked on it will need a lot of treatment before plants will thrive in it. Water tends to run off sloped ground, and scattered seeds will, too. From a gardening perspective, turf grass is a weed, and a chore to remove. I installed raised soil beds in my backyard instead of removing our turf, but that’s pretty expensive and I don’t recommend starting this way. A small garden won’t need any herbicides. Just pull the weeds by hand or dig them out with a trowel.

Plant growth is powered by photosynthesis, and fruiting plants, such as cucumbers, beans, and tomatoes, enjoy full sun. Leafy greens like lettuce and spinach will tolerate partial shade. Sun might be the limiting factor in an urban or suburban environment with buildings and trees. You can’t add more sunshine, but climbing plants can get more out of limited light on the ground. In some cases you may want to filter photons. My neighbor has found that our Colorado Front Range sunshine is too strong for her favorite tropical peppers, and hangs sheets of fabric to give them a marginal amount of shade. This is an advanced gardening scenario, however.

Photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide and water into the sugar that fuels a plant’s growth. Water will be one of your most important considerations. Your garden’s water needs will be determined by soil drainage, but mostly by the growth rate of your vegetables. If plants are wilting, they are not growing. That’s the signal that I look for in my garden. It’s fine for the soil to be dry on top as long as the plants look perky. It’s hard to over-irrigate in sunny and dry climates, so I’m not very skilled at recognizing the signs of a waterlogged garden. I water by hand with a hose and a sprinkler wand attachment. This is a perfectly adequate way to start.

Choosing what to grow and when to put it in the ground is a fun puzzle. In any climate there is a good variety of plants to try. Since most will require 60-90 days of growth before harvest, there is some commitment involved. Assuming that you’re not trying to grow all your food, I suggest beginning with a limited variety at a time. It will be more rewarding to pick a bowl of green beans than to pick a handful of beans and one tomato. In a mild climate, you can easily grow one spring/summer crop and one summer/fall crop. For example, snap peas or spinach early in the year, and chard or winter squash later. And, there’s always next year to try something new.

My only recommendations on what to begin with are cherry tomatoes, basil, pole beans, cucumbers, lettuce, scallions, and summer squash. Cucumbers, beans, and squash will rapidly outgrow most weeds, thanks to their large seeds. Pole beans let you exploit conditions where light is scarce on the ground. Many Asian cucumber varieties thrive when trained vertically on a trellis. Cherry tomatoes do well in large pots or other containers and can climb if you provide structure like a wire cage. These are all great when you have limited space.

Scallions, or bunching onions, are perennial, cold-resistant, and tolerate some shade. Plant them on an edge of your garden, as they will spread when they have established, and you may never again have to buy slimy supermarket green onions. Lettuce is also good for cool weather and partial shade, and you’ll be able to pick leaves in less than 6 weeks. Sow lettuce seeds generously and thin them as they grow larger.

Fresh-picked basil speaks for itself. I like to grow both the Genovese and Thai varieties.

With the exception of the beans, lettuce, and scallions, which should be planted directly into soil, I start these seeds indoors in peat pots filled with general purpose potting mix, 6 weeks before their outdoor planting date, 3-4 per pot. Once it’s clear which is the most vigorous, behead the others with a pair of scissors, and let the favored plant take over the peat pot. After your last frost, stick the plant and its peat pot into the ground. Roots will have no trouble penetrating the pot as it breaks down.

Buying young vegetable plants in small black plastic pots from a garden store is an option to consider. They will probably be larger than plants that you would start at home in your first try. They’ll be more expensive than starting from seed, of course, and you won’t find as much variety as you will in a seed catalog. Still, you’re very likely to find good cherry tomato plants. Get some red Sweet 100 and sweet yellow plum tomatoes and plant them in 5 gallon pots.

Locate some flat, sunny ground, and add compost. Choose and start some seeds in peat pots or source some vegetable starts. Plant them after your last frost, water them regularly, and watch them for flowers and fruit. These are the basics of starting a garden. There are lots of little details, of course, but you don’t need to know all of them before you begin. A printed gardening bible, like Southern Living or Western Gardens, will fill in many of the details. I refer to Western Gardens often. Your local State University’s Ag Extension program will have tons of information about gardening in your particular climate. Colorado State’s is very good. I checked this blog post against CSU's Plant Talk as I wrote it to be sure that I was not contradicting the experts.

Lastly, here’s a brief shopping list for 2 5 x 5 foot garden beds, a nice small beginning garden.

• Short, D-handle shovel: $24.99

• Hand trowel: $8.99

• Watering wand: $19.99

• 5 bags compost at $8.99 each

• 10 pack of 3” peat pots: $4.99

• 4 quart bag of potting mix: $9.99

• Seeds of your choice: $2.99 per packet

That’s less than $130. If you harvest 30 organic cucumbers, which 4 plants can easily produce, you’ll break even. Of course, this does not include water, which might be $40 per month, or more, and your time. Don’t expect to break even. Instead, look forward to developing a different appreciation for the weather and the seasons, and to the pleasure of enjoying your own homegrown cucumber or tomato.

[1] This expression is from Farm Days, by William Wegman.