Successful Vegetable Gardening for Beginners

By Seth Mullins

Gardens can transform otherwise barren parts of our yards into places of beauty and repose. Vegetable gardens do even more, providing us with fresh and nourishing food - often enough to share with our neighbors and friends. In a world where much of nature has become endangered, gardening can make us feel like we’re doing our own small part to usher in new life.

An abundant vegetable garden begins with fertile soil. Composts can provide all the nutrients that plants require in order to thrive, but composted materials do take considerable time to break down to the consistency of soil. A quicker remedy for your garden plot could be the composted manure available from any garden store. If you live near a livestock farm, you may even be able to acquire some well-aged manure for free.

This will provide much of the same plant-sustaining foods, like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, as fertilizers do. The ideal fertilizers for vegetable gardens will contain an equal balance of these three. Bags from the store will be labeled for easy reference. Lawn fertilizers, for example, contain a high percentage of nitrogen and should be avoided.

Take your garden hoe in hand, break up the ground of your intended planting area, and create some evenly spaced rows with about three feet of space in between them. Mix your compost, manure and/or fertilizer in thoroughly with the dirt that comprises the mounds. You might want to cover the in-between spaces with a layer of lawn clippings. This covering will help conserve water as well as deter the growth of weeds by denying them sunlight.

Now you're ready to plant. Some vegetables that are easier for beginners to grow include greens (like lettuce and spinach), acorn squash, carrots, radishes and corn. After selecting your seed packets, follow the directions on the back of each one carefully, especially when spacing the seeds out in the ground. A garden that's free of weeds will still have a hard time if its plants start choking each other, and transplanted shoots usually don't survive unless their roots are specially treated against shock. So give everything ample room to grow.

Those directions will also give you estimates as to when you can expect to start seeing those first green shoots peeking up from the ground. Before and after this time, that fledgling life will need sun, water, and love! If you live in a hot climate, you might consider watering at night or early in the morning so that the ground will have time to absorb the moisture before the sunlight evaporates it. You’ll also have to battle the inevitable weeds. But you may be surprised and relieved to see how well Mother Nature takes care of the rest of the growing processes.

What "work" is involved for us actually provides a welcome escape from the mad scrambling of our on-the-run society. And the satisfaction gained in return is something every successful gardener knows well. We are participating in the wonder of creation, and at times it can feel like all of nature is lending a hand.

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