How do I start a small vegetable garden?

Question

How much would it cost? What kind of stuff should I buy? What should I be cautious of? How much time out of my schedule might it take?

Answer 1

First you need to work the soil. Rent or find some neighbor who has a tiller. You can also shovel the soil under by hand. Once you have removed or turned under the top soil residue let it set 3 days then till again to kill any weed seeds that have sprouted. Apply a small amount of fertilizer and peat moss.
Rake over with hoe to smooth out and level off. Be sure its in a sunny location and not a low wet area. Plant bush type plants and use the hoe to keep the weeds removed.
Small gardens do not require long hours to tend. Check on them like you would the dog. Simple organic sprays will keep any damaging insects at bay.
Cost of hoe, rent of tiller and seeds or plants less than 120$. A shovel and a hoe, fertilizer and peat moss would be the working way. Tillers cost 30$ per hr to rent. Rake not required but helps break up soil.
Do not work the ground wet or clods will form.
Make sure you recognize difference between the plants and the weeds. Look at local garden centers to identify small plants if you have never done this before.
Suggestions: One tomato bush type, Bush type Cucumber seed or plant. In a 4 x8 area you can also plant 2 pepper plants, beets and carrots with cabbage. Radishes do well mixed in with them. Make it a time to get away from stress. Gardening can be an enjoyable hobby.

Answer 2

Clear out an area of grass and weeds and put some kind of border around it to keep the grass out. Get a gardening fork and turn the soil to loosen it up and get some organic fertilizer, manure at the hardware store or the nursery. After you have worked this into the ground go pick up some plants.
I would suggest maybe tomato and bell pepper. Depending on the size of your garden you might want to plant cucumbers also.

You will need to water it regularly, maybe once a day or every other day, keep the weeds out and watch it for bugs. It may take about 4 or 5 hours per week.

Answer 3

well how big do you want it my dad a small vegie garden is 80x 80 feet
if you want a 10 by 10 what is a nice size garden here are some things that would be good to get for your garden

a garden hoe
a shovel
8 ..10 foot wood fence posts
a saw
16 10 inch nails
5 bags of cow manuer
10 bags of soil
6 tomato plants
6 pepper plants
10 plants of corn
an what ever else you might like
also for every tomato plant an possably for each pepper plant you will need a steak for the ground about 1-2 dollars

just to get started you can see it adds up 200.00 or so
you will need 3 hrs a week to weed an water
and you might get out 50 dollars worth of produce

basicly the wood is for borders for the garden also clear out all the growth currently there.
also you might need to get some type of grower for the water plant food that is costly at times

Answer 4

usual thing is to dig up the grass, dig the earth and add some compost (bought as you won't have any yet) then plant potatoes as they are supposed to be good for clearing the ground, not sure why, tho! You can always put in some lettuce and beans and tomatoes are easy ones too.
You can put as much or a little time as you want, but less time is likely to yield less results - same as any project really!
Good luck