I am so happy to say that Spring is officially here!   I have already started planting and look forward to my much needed vitamin D and dirt therapy.  Some friends asked me if their garden was ruined because they have not started doing anything yet.  The answer is NO! It is never to early or too late to start planting something. Where do you start, well lets talk about it…

Some people might argue with me, but I believe the most important thing that you need when you want to start a garden is the desire to start a garden.  If you don’t like dirt, you don’t like a little sweat and time in the sun; gardening is not for you. Check out your local farmers market.  So the first step is that you want to garden.

Next you need to define what a garden looks like to you.  Not everyone needs to dig up all their grass and turn their whole property into a garden.  A garden can be as simple as a small container in a sunny window or it can be a couple of feet in your backyard.  The pallet garden beds that I wrote about in a previous post make a wonderful small kitchen garden.

Now, we have established that you like dirt, know the size of your garden area, next you have to think about what you want to plant.  Please, I beg you do not plant veggies that you have never tried before, or worse is veggies that you don’t  like.  Do not plant cucumbers if you do not like cucumbers.  Last year I planted 8 cucumber seeds and I got 110 cucumbers… if my family did not like cucumbers we would have had a problem. Lettuce, cucumbers, squash, peas,  and beans are all wonderful low maintenance crops.   For your first garden, keep it simple and don’t try to do every veggie known to man. Seeds can be bought at the grocery stores, hardware stores, gardening centers, or even Walmart.  If you were to ask me which seeds I would choose I would say Seed Saver Seeds, but I started out with Blurpee seeds just like everyone else and they worked great.

All of the crops that I mentioned, lettuce, cucumbers, squash, peas, and beans… the seeds can just go right into the ground.  Don’t worry about getting an early start.  It does not matter if the soil is perfect. A sunny spot with some dirt is all you need.  Compost, soil pH, and mulching are all things we can talk about later. In most growing locations you can plant your seeds after the weather starts to turn warm.  It is fun to plant and just watch Mother Nature take over.  Provide sun, water and some dirt and you will be amazed at what can come out of that little seed. The cool thing is most of the time the seed packet tells you what to do and how to plant the seed.

Keep it simple and have fun. Let me know how it turns out.