How to Plan your First Garden

My family has always had a garden. I grew up on a cattle farm, and having a garden was just what we did. Some years it was big, others it was small, but we always had one. Some of my earliest memories are of planting corn in the garden, and my sister being upset she was dirty, and me being covered in dirt from head to toe. (We were very different children) I remember all of the ladies in my family spending the weekend in the kitchen preserving corn, beans, tomatoes and anything else we had a surplus of. I remember our freezers being mini grocery stores, and my parents being more than happy to share with others. I also remember all of my friends begging my mom to make them dinner because we had the best food! Those were my childhood memories and I’m so thankful for my upbringing. But I understand that wasn’t the case for everyone. So here are my tips for starting your first garden.

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Failing to plan is planning to fail.

You can’t just wing it. I mean I guess you could, but the outcome won’t be favorable. Evaluate your space. How much room do you have for plants? How much time do you have for plants? How much do you want to spend? What kind of things will you actually eat? These are all things to think about before starting your first garden. Because if you don’t plan out your first garden, its not going to go as well as you hoped. I am going to share how to plan your first garden.

Our first garden was a hot mess! I wanted to grow everything!! I was ready for a plethora of plants and bountiful harvest. I didn’t have any kids, so these veggies became my babies! Oh how bad I was at it! We had one tiny bed, and a dozen plants growing. We would get three little green beans at a time, and hope and pray they would stay ripe long enough to get a few more! (They didn’t) We were lost, and we weren’t using our space appropriately.

If I could go back and tell my younger self a few tips, here is how I would plan out my first backyard garden: (These are tips I would use for a backyard garden. If you are looking for a bigger scale operation I have other tips I would recommend!)

• Decide if you want an eating garden/kitchen garden. Or a preserving garden. An eating garden is something you will enjoy for the season and once it’s gone, it’s gone. A preserving garden is growing for production and not necessarily for ready use, but it’s great for canning and freezing. If you have a large space you can do both, but in a backyard setting you might only be able to really accomplish one or the other!
• After you decide what kind of garden you want to have. Decide 1 thing you like to cook or eat often (kitchen garden) or something you want to try to replace (preserving garden). And buy your seeds based off of that. If you LOVE BLT sandwiches grow lettuce and slicing tomatoes. Or if you love a crunchy cucumber greek salad grow bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and slicing cucumbers. But if you want to replace your store bought salsa grow paste tomatoes, jalapeños, garlic, onions, and cilantro! Or if you want to replace all of your pickles for the year grow some pickling cucumbers! But figure out one (maybe 2) things you want to use your garden for and focus there. Anything else is a blessing!

• Plan out your space. Your plants need space in a garden, and as much as I love companion planting, it’s an art and not always a great place to start for new growers. So look at your space and the containers you are planting in and try to figure out what you can fit in the space. I love a 3×5 raised bed in the backyard. Its a great size and can fit about 6 tomato plants comfortably! If you can fit two 3×5 beds in your yard, and maybe a pot with herbs you can actually accomplish a lot! Here is how I would lay it out!

• Then figure out your other goals. Are you going fully organic? Semi organic? Not organic at all? This will dictate the soil and fertilizer you will buy to to help your plants grow. Filling raised beds can be really expensive, but ultimately it’s a cost you won’t have to do every year. Do you want to start your own seeds? Or purchase them? There are a lot of low cost options for starting seeds at home! But purchasing plants is also a really great option. Its totally up to you!
• Then you plant your little babies and hope for the best! Fertilize and water regularly and troubleshoot as you go. You will run into problems, but it’s part of the process. You will learn something new every year, and improve as you go. Your first harvest will be so rewarding and you will be hooked!

Something else I think is really important! Look for resources in your community! You can get seeds from your Extension office or your local library! You can rent garden plots from your community. There are master gardeners you can contact to help problem solve with you. There are so many resources online! Reach out to someone who is gardening and ask for help! They probably love gardening and would love to help you with yours! (Its me! I would love to help!)

We don’t buy pasta sauce, pizza sauce, salsa, pickles, relish, pickled peppers, or corn anymore. We have goals to not buy jelly, beans, or winter squash from the store. There are so many opportunities to turn a garden into something that can make sure you are eating really well all year long! But you have to start somewhere. Two garden beds in a sunny spot in the yard is a perfect spot!

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