As spring approaches, the citizens of the rural, southwest town I call home prepare empty plots of dirt for gardening. That includes my own home. My mother is a gardening fiend. She plots out her garden months in advance, orders the fertilizer, and preps the tiller, all before the snow has even had a chance to melt.
We’ve grown everything, from simple squash plants to more complex green bean poles. I have many fond, and not so fond, learning experiences in the gardens of my past. (What are you doing! Don’t pull that up! That’s the cucumber plant, not a weed!) For those who wish to plant a garden for the first time, here are a few tips that will help you get started.
Author’s note: All times I’m listing are for the southwest desert regions of the United States. If you live in another area, get the proper planting times from a local gardener.
1. Get to know the proper planting times
In Utah, my state, most vegetables can be planted toward the end of May. You can plant earlier, but extra care will need to be given. Most plants must be placed in walls of water to keep plants from freezing if planted prior to June. Wall of water conserve the heat, keeping the plant safe from temperature below 32 degrees.
2. Fertilize the garden prior to planting
Fertilizers can be commercial chemicals or simple animal manure. Whatever you choose is fine, but manure tends to be cheaper and more easily obtained. Fertilizer adds nutrients to the soil, ensuring that vegetables will have adequate nutrition. If you aren’t going organic, I highly recommend pesticides as well. Many bugs and viruses will invade your garden if you don’t. The last time we forgot to pesticide my home garden, all the tomato plants wilted away from a virus. Get the fertilizer on the gardening plot a couple of weeks before you plant.
3. Till the ground
This loosens up the soil, helping the roots of the vegetables you’re going to plant establish themselves. It’s also a way to get the manure into the ground, helping cover up the smell and allowing the fertilizers to decompose.
4. Start from saplings, if possible
Saplings have already been cultivated and begun to grow. Although they are a bit more of a pain to plant, saplings have a couple of advantages. First, they are already a couple of weeks along, meaning you’ll get vegetables a couple of weeks earlier than if you started with seeds. Second, saplings are more likely to flourish. Seeds sometimes have a habit of not growing. I highly recommend starting tomatoes as saplings.
5. Get a soaker hose system set up
This is assuming it doesn’t rain enough in your area to properly give your plants enough water. Since I live in a desert, I have discovered that a soaker hose system, as opposed to sprinklers, make plants grow a bit better. The one exception to the soaker hose advantage are potatoes. If potato plants are watered with soaker hoses, the potatoes only grow near the plant base. Opt for a rain-bird sprinkler on the potatoes.
6. For the life of you, get to know the difference between a sapling and a weed!
I’m the voice of experience. I’ve been grounded for accidentally extracting a cucumber plant instead of a weed. Momma wasn’t too happy. Personally, I thought the punishment was a little harsh, but I’m not the gardening Nazi, I just learned from the Nazi.
So now that you know how to get started, what vegetable do you want to plant? Some plants are more difficult than others. The following vegetable are easy to plant and maintain. For a first time gardener, I would recommend trying out these.
*Corn
*Cucumbers
*Squash
*Pumpkins
*Peas
*Peppers
These plants require little maintenance. Plant them, water them, keep the weeds away, and watch them grow! Little care needed. When a vegetable appears ready to pick, just pull, wash, and enjoy! As you gain experience, other more difficult vegetable plants can be attempted. I hope you enjoy this new hobby! I’ve spent many glorious summer days in vegetable gardens. Really, gardens are beautiful visuals of your hard work come late summertime.
