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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
I want to start a vegetable garden. Help!
I posted this on the green living board, too because I'm not sure if this is the type of gardening you gals do so here you go:
I might be on the wrong board since I just noticed there's a gardening and landscaping board, too, but I'll ask anyway.
I would really like to plant a vegetable garden this year. It'd be great if I didn't have to buy tomatoes, peppers, carrots and sting beans, cucumbers, etc. this summer. It might be a little ambitious for a first timer but my grandmother was an awesome gardener so I must have some kind of gardening gene right?
So anyway, where do I start? I have no idea if I need special soil, what kind of seeds or bulbs, or really anything about this. I just know I want to give it try.
TIA!
Re: I want to start a vegetable garden. Help!
First things to consider: where are you? what's the light situation (how many hours & AM or PM)? What's your soil like (clay? sand? in between?)?
All of what you listed need full sun...like more than 6 hours of sun per day (preferably afternoon). As far as soil goes, if you've got an "in-between" soil you probably just need to work in a bit of compost & it'd be fine. If you've completely sandy or completely clay soil, you may want to consider raised beds (I'd really recommend reading Square Food Gardening)
You'll need to grow multiple plants of each vegetable to have enough for all summer as well.
I'm in MI so I'm not sure when the best time is to get started either. Our house faces west and the garden will be in the backyard so it will pretty much only have AM light. There just isn't the space for a garden in our front yard. :-( I'm really bummed that I might not get to do the veggies I wanted.
Our ground has a little clay in it but it's mostly just...dirt. I'm not even sure what compost really is so I think I better buy and read the book before I start asking questions. lol
Just in case anyone else is looking for info like me, here's a pretty good link I found:
http://www.gardenguides.com/599-starting-first-vegetable-garden.html
My garden gets mostly AM sun and barely 6 hours. I can still grow tomatoes & peppers & such but the yield is lower since the situation isn't ideal. So, there's hope!
The key is to plant smaller fruiting varieties, IMO.
Compost is basically decayed organic matter (kitchen scraps, leaves, grass, etc). You could start a compost bin if you want (remarkably easy), but to get started you'll need a good amount to work into the store. Home Depot and grocery stores will start selling it in a few weeks. Try to get a variety (ie not all Mushroom compost), so that you have different nutrients worked into the soil. The SFG will explain it and give detailed directions on what to buy for a raised bed.
I'd get some tomato plants and pepper plants, but the others you can start from seed and directly sow.
Peppers and tomatoes need good sun, but the others will be ok. I'd get some tomato plants and see how it goes anyway. Tomatoes are about the best thing you can get out of your garden. Amazing taste difference.
We're in midwest zone 5a, so pretty close to you in MI. I just planted seeds in burpee trays yesterday, figuring in the 6-8 weeks, they'll be ready to go outside. Any chance you'd have a side yard that could get more sun? we have to plant almost directly in the middle of our yard to get max sunlight, since a big tree is centered in the backyard and is going to shade a lot of it.
The burpee trays were good because they already came with the "dirt" stuff that expands with water, so i didn't have to mess with compost yet. I still need to find that book everyone's talking about. Hopefully we'll get something to grow!
Izzy and Baby A ~ Adorable Punks