How do I start a garden?

Question

I've never planted a garden, but I'd like to grow some veggies next year. Is there some way to get that going now in the fall? I live in NY. Any ideas on what a first-timer should grow?

Answer 1

You bet. You can begin by preparing your garden bed. Find a sunny location and decide how big you want it and what you want to put in it. This is important because some veggies do not grow well together. I will give you a veggie companion chart to help you with what to grow with what. Okay, once you've decided where and how big then the hard part starts. You will need to turn the soil and remove the grass from the bed. Make sure you keep all the soil and that would include the soil around the roots of the grass. I usually use a shovel and break the ground into small clumps and then I knock the dirt off the grass and put the soil back into the bed. After that you can rent a tiller to work the soil into a fine texture. You can just use a shovel to work the soil but if you have the means then renting or buying a tiller is well worth it. While you have the tiller start adding things like dried grass clippings, leaf litter, composted manure, compost, top soil, peat, and sand to ammend the soil. After you've added the ammendments then till the bed again and water well. Add a thick layer of straw as mulch and just wait until Spring. When you are ready to begin planting seed or seedlings just remove the straw or work it into the soil and you will be ready to garden.

In spring, probably March for you, you can grow things like peas, sugar snap peas, lettuce, kale, spinach, all the cool weather plants. Later you can grow tomatoes, cucumbers, radish, broccoli, califlower, pretty much anything you like.

Here is that companion chart:
http://www.tinkersgardens.com/vegetables/companionplanting.asp

Good Luck and have fun...it's addicting.

Answer 2

Do everything 'spitfyr' just said with one caveat, start small !! Too many newbies get in over their heads the first time they garden and give up. Start with things you like and those veggies not common or of low quality in the supermarket. For a small garden you can't beat 'raised beds', they produce a lot of food in a small space. A very underused asset is your County Agent, well spent tax dollars at work. RScott