Are you thinking of starting a garden soon? There’s so much to plan. Let’s start with just the first 5 steps to starting a garden. If we break down starting a garden in easy to do steps maybe it won’t seem like such a daunting task!
The First 5 Steps For Starting a Garden
If you’re thinking about starting your herb garden with seeds instead of plants, check out this Seed Starting Class first. It’s a very affordable way to learn about growing from seeds. I took the class myself from the Online Gardening School. The instructor Rick has 18 years of gardening experience! He really knows what he’s talking about!
- Pick a few places that could be potential for a garden.
- Pick a day when you’d have time to go outside every 2 hours and note if these spots are sunny, partially shaded, or completely shady. Most things growing during the spring and summer want a lot of sun.
- Look through seed catalogs, think small and realistically. Order only what you know you would actually eat.
- Read a lot of books and even blog posts on gardening, if you’re a beginner. Especially this one I found very different from the rest but probably most helpful as far as pests go.
- Get a piece of paper and map out the garden area. Then, figure out where everything will go. Keep your records so you can remember what’s what and where. Next year you’ll want to rotate everything, to help minimize pests. An easy way to do this is to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise each year.
The next steps include getting your soil ready to sow seeds. You can talk to your local extension office to ask for a soil sample. This can tell you the Ph and other levels in your soil. Which can help you determine what kind of amendments should be added to your soil to help you grow happy healthy plants.
After your soil is all set, it’s finally time to sow your seeds. Some seeds are started indoors, and some can be sown right into the garden soil.
I also wrote a post on 40 things to read before you start a garden check it out! Another thing to think about is garden markers. Here are some, I think are cute, or you could just make your own!
There’s so much more to do, but these first five steps aren’t so bad, breaking it down into easy steps is the best way of tackling a big project.
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- Aloe Vera Turning Brown | Troubleshooting Common Issues with Aloe Vera
- How to Propagate Aloe Vera | Propagating Aloe Leaves and Pups
I’d love To Know what you think!… Leave me a comment!
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Thanks for the tips! You keep it short and simple so I didn’t have trouble reading through a lot of words! I’m only a beginner in gardening so this blog is really helpful!
I’m in a new place (lots of shade) and recently heard about the mapping idea — it was called a SUN map instead of a shade map. I love the idea of doing it on the equinox and solstice!
Oh yeah I think I heard that the almanac has information on planting by the moon phases. I’ve heard that women used to do this a long time ago and swore by it. Very interesting! If you do it let me know how it goes!
I wish I would have read this last year! It was our first year planting a garden and we didn’t plan anything except the spot. It was so disorganized in there and it wasn’t very functional. We learned our lessons though and this year will be so different!
I tell you what, I learn new things every year.I want this year to be better also, just not sure if I can afford to up my game lol!
For step number two, I have read that it it strongly recommend doing this a couple of specific times a year. Make a shade map on Spring Solstice, Summer Solstice, and Fall Soltice at 9am, 12pm, 3pm, and 6pm.
This will give you a better picture of the sun and shade patterns for your gardening area. For example you could plant cool weather plants like lettuce in an area with Spring sun, but is heavily shaded by summer.
That’s a lovely idea. I am sure that I would have to do this every couple of years or so. We are surrounded by trees. When they get taller and wider, the shady areas might grow. Thanks for the excellent add to number two on my list!