Whether you are looking for cost savings as prices rise in the supermarket and we are barraged with information on the benefits of eating vegetables, or you want produce that is fresher and better tasting, starting your own vegetable garden is the answer. It is important, however, to assess your situation before you begin. Know that gardening will take a lot of time, knowledge and tools. If you aren’t prepared for this, you may be better off just going to your local farmers’ market. For many of us, though, the gardening itself is as much of a reward as the harvest it yields.

Your local Agricultural extension office can give you information on what grows best in your area, when to plant, and other helpful tips. Give them a soil sample and they will analyze its PH and tell you what to do to improve it. It may be as simple as sprinkling a little lime on it.

If you have trees around your yard, take note of which areas get the most sun. Pick the area with the most sun to get the best harvest from your garden. No matter how good the soil, what type of fertilizer is applied or how diligently the garden is watered, sunlight is still the crucial factor for your garden. Photosynthesis rules.

Your choices for fertilizer may depend on how much time you have to spend. Organic and home-made is preferable, but commercial fertilizers can also work well. It takes time to make your own compost. Fertilizers made from fish or kelp are good and are easily applied and effective. A compost needs to be worked into the soil before you plant.

The beginning gardener often plants more than they can maintain. By the end of the summer, after many days of weeding and watering, they may decide to plant a smaller garden next year. It is good to start with a manageable size. You can always increase it as your skills are honed.

If you only have a small sunny space available for gardening, you may want to consider using a raised bed. This requires a lot of work at first and some investment in timbers to hold the soil in place. But the raised bed maintains a warmer temperature and can be more intensively planted. It can give you a better harvest in a small space.

Your seed packets, or those little plastic markers in the seedlings from the nursery, will tell you when to plant and how closely. Ideally, you want early, middle and late harvested vegetables. Spinach and snow peas can grow in the cool temperatures of early Spring. Corn and tomatoes won’t ripen until sometime in July. Okra won’t reach its peak until August but may then produce abundantly into September. Each plant is different, so you will want to take this into account when you plan your garden. Good planning can give you fresh vegetables from Spring through early Fall.

Planting your home garden can be a challenge, but it also offers rewards both in the planting and tending as you see your seedlings grow and in the harvesting of an abundance of fresh vegetables.

The beginning gardener may go out and spend a lot of money buying products to enrich the soil in their garden. But this is not necessary. You can save a lot by making your own compost or finding a free or low cost source. Nature recycles decayed plant and animal material to enrich new plant growth. You can do the same.

What can go into your homemade compost? Almost any organic material. You can put in kitchen scraps and leftovers, the leaves you raked and the grass clippings left from mowing the lawn. You can build your own compost pile. You can also purchase a composting barrel from the store, which makes it easier to turn the compost. When the compost is matured, it is a fine black soil that will work wonders for your garden.

You can obtain a bale or two of straw for a few dollars, and this can help you mulch your vegetable garden. Mulch keeps the weeds down. Those garden rows may seem easy for the first month or so. But if the weeds get started, you can have a time-consuming job keeping them under control. Mulch can save you from this. It also helps keep moisture in the soil. Don’t use hay, though, as a mulch, because it has too many seeds in it and will only add to your weed problems.

Many cities and towns compost the leaves and grass trimmings they pick up. Most will make this composted material available to you at little or no cost. You just need to go and pick it up. Some localities provide mulch as well.

You can use some of the techniques farmers use to keep soil nutrient levels high. For instance, planting a crop of red clover will fix a good supply of nitrogen into the soil, as well as providing good feed for livestock. This may not be feasible unless you are gardening on a large scale. If you have a large field to use, you may find you can rotate crops this way to good advantage.

You can also follow the lead of farmers in using cow, sheep or horse manure to fertilize your garden. These are especially rich fertilizers but must decay long enough to be usable. Check with your local farmer as to how old any manure is that you get from him. It needs at least a year or two to mature.

You will also want to pay attention to the PH of your soil. A soil sample at the beginning of your gardening venture will tell you what you have to work with. If it is too acidic, apply some lime. If it is unbalanced in the other direction, apply an acidic substance. Sawdust and pine needles are acidic. It is a good idea to check the soil PH each year or two before you plant. Also, some plants like one PH and some another, so you may want to adjust for it. Tomatoes, for instance, tend to like a more acidic soil The right PH can help produce a bountiful crop.

This article can help you get started with enriching your garden soil. A little effort can result in a richer crop of vegetables.

What does the beginning gardener need to know first? What tools do they need? This article will give some answers to these questions and help the beginning gardener on their way.

Some people are motivated by the desire to grow their own food. This allows you to know exactly what has been done to your vegetable and fruits, whether pesticides or herbicides were used and so on. There is nothing more satisfying than to go out in your yard and pick some ears of corn and put them right away into a pot of boiling water. This is the ultimate in taste and freshness. Other gardeners are looking for the satisfactions that come from growing beautiful flowers, and gathering big bouquets to grace your living room or give to others. Whichever motivates the reader, their goal can be achieved only with some good knowledge and hard work.

When you sit down to draw up a plan for your vegetable garden, you will want to take into account the height of different plants. If the sun comes in from a southern angle, you will want to plant tall crops such as corn or okra on the northern side, so they won’t shade out the shorter plants.

To find out the composition of your soil, the smartest thing to do is to take a sample to the nearest agricultural co-op extension office. They will analyze your soil and give you advice on what you should add to improve the PH balance. Lime, for instance, will reduce acidity. This service is usually free or at very low cost. Tell them what plants you are planning to grow, as this will affect their advice. Humus from composted leaves is always a help to enrich the soil.

You have to begin with the soil, clay or sand, which you already have. From there you can make improvements, but cannot alter the basic components. This may affect which plants will grow well in your yard. Again, it is best to ask the experts for advice. You can get lots of information from the Internet, but your local agricultural office will know your area best.

Making your own compost is the preferred way to go. But even if you compost your table scraps and your autumn leaves, you may not have as much compost as you need to fertilize your garden. Some towns put out piles of composted leaves every spring for local residents to take, so check to see if that is an option. There is always the alternative of buying composted manure from a local farm. This provides a particularly rich fertilizer. But be sure the manure has aged for a year or more. Otherwise it may “burn” your plants.

This is just a bare beginning guide to get you on your way. But knowing your soil and the kind of crops it will produce best is the first step, and then plan your garden accordingly. Whether you want to grow vegetables or flowers or both, your knowledge and hard work will be well rewarded.

We hear so much these days from nutritionists about the importance to our health of eating a variety of fresh vegetables. We learn that they contain not only the nutrients we already knew about, but micro-nutrients as well that are essential to our health. Meanwhile, the cost of vegetables goes up at the store. Add to this the advantages of organically grown vegetables, and you have plenty of reasons to start your own vegetable garden.

Here are some preliminary steps to take before you turn over any ground with a shovel. Study up on the facts about your climate zone, planting times and optimal crops. You may not be able to grow all the vegetables you are fond of, but you will probably be able to grow most of them. To assure success, find out the soil needs of the ones you want to plant, how to nurture them, and what pests and diseases to look out for. This information is available from your library, the Internet, or your local agricultural extension office.

Sit down with your family and let them put in their choices of which vegetables to grow. However nutritious, there is no point in growing spinach if no one wants to eat it. On the other, you may want to add a new vegetable to your garden each year, even if it is not a favorite. Homegrown vegetables have so much more flavor than ones bought at the supermarket that your family may decide they like spinach after all.

Having a soil sample analyzed before you start is essential. If the PH balance needs adjusting, you want to till in an additive at the beginning, before you plant. This is not a big expense. A 50 pound bag of lime costs less than $5. Tilling the right amount into an acidic soil will bring it into balance.

The soil in most peoples’ backyards needs some enriching. The first year you will probably need to buy compost, unless you can pick it up from you local town for free. Many towns compost the leaves and grass clippings they accumulate. After a couple of years these make a rich compost full of humus. Once you start your garden, you will probably want to make your own compost, and till it into the garden soil each year. This will keep your garden producing abundantly.

Mulch can be good, but it can also be overdone. The trick is to use enough and not too much. Too much mulch early on can overwhelm your plants. It can also encourage mold if it retains too much moisture. The right amount of mulch, though, can help the plant roots retain needed moisture through hot summer days. Above all, it can keep the weeds down, which saves you a lot of tiresome work. Keeping up with the weeding in July and August is where most gardeners fail at some time.

Once you have planned your garden and are ready to take on working at it throughout the summer, you are ready to put those first seeds and seedlings into the ground. Seeing them grow and produce a harvest will amply reward your efforts.