Ideas on How to Start Your 1st Spring Vegetable Garden

Spring is almost here and after a snowy, icy winter it's time to welcome the sunshine and each new morning as the days grow longer. For those of us who love to garden this is a busy, happy time with lots of planning and much to do. This article will hopefully encourage you to start your own vegetable garden this Spring.

Spring zucchini, tomatoes & squash (& portable pollinator pots)

Spring is Coming - 1. Start a Vegetable Garden

Pick a sunny, at least 6 hours per day, well-drained area in your back (or front) yard
Build or buy a frame for your space then dig up your dirt or lawn (or remove if needed). A small raised bed is a great beginning. Here are some ideas for your own raised beds
Add 50% compost and 50% organic soil
Plant your transplants or seeds after the last frost-free date for your area

Scarlet runner beans produce well in a part shady area — Great Spring starter. Scarlet runner beans produce well in a part shady garden

Ideas for planting:

If you are a beginner start with transplants suitable for your area:

4 or 6 - Tomato transplants depending on size of garden patch Check out 15 reasons to Grow tomatoes
2 - Zucchini transplants although these are so easy to grow from seed direct or inside on the kitchen window
Scarlet runner beans - best if you can trellis at the end of the bed to save space.
Inter-crop with lettuce, green onions & greens
Only grow vegetables you and your family enjoy!

Begin with one bed (4 x 4 or 4 x 8), go at your own pace and enjoy your achievements.

Coffee filters added to composts — Coffee filters added to compost

Recycled wood Pallets - great compost idea

2. Recycle & Make Compost

Compost enriches your soil without additives and is a great mulch:

Pick an area for your bin which has some sunshine as this will speed up decomposition
Decide on a container. I use rodent proof (from moles, squirrels, etc), lidded black bins
Ensure the compost is accessible both to fill and empty - for example wheelbarrow access is perfect
I mix or more correctly layer household food scraps with soil, organic chicken manure, hay, coffee grounds and filters, lawn clippings

Ideas for composting:

Recycle your food wastes into compost and cut methane gas

~ Compost is great using 50 / 50 with organic soil in containers or as a mulch around transplants

~ Coffee grounds are an asset in compost and as a mulch

~ Refrain from compositing diseased plants especially tomato or zucchini

~ Check out the many good ideas for making your own compost bins

~ There just never seems to be enough compost

"Composting food and garden waste results in less emission
than would be produced by the same items in landfill."
~"Climate Change" by P. Holper & S. Torok

How Does your Garden Grow

If you have the time and space, once your new garden is flourishing, add a second raised bed. Try growing a few kale plants or greens. As these grow quickly they are easy to start from seed. There is much to learn about gardening but the important thing is to start and secondly not to be overwhelmed. I have gardened all my life and learn something new all the time. Have fun with your garden and spend time looking at what other people are doing and visiting local nurseries. Very best wishes for a great summer in the garden.

Sunny Days Ahead:
Daylight Savings begins Sunday, March 12, 2017
Spring Equinox, the 1st day of Spring begins Monday, March 20, 2017

Links & References:

It's Springtime in the Garden (2012)
Portable Pollinator Pots
Here's where it all began in 2009 Beginning Gardening 101

Free "recycled" 10 minute gardens

Three-levels raised bed garden = new vegetable garden

Raspberry canes in raised bed, Fall - Skimmerhorn Winery, Creston, B.C.

Surplus bricks = raised bed garden

Australian style raised bed garden

Local school project

Beds with poly tubing & automated deer repellant sprinkler system

Simple raised bed grows plentiful vegetables

Recycled corrugated plastic panelling

Original raised bed gardens 2008