5 Easy Steps to Your First Garden

Do plants tend to die when you are around?  Some people claim they have a “black thumb” instead of the proverbial “green thumb” of their gardening friends.  Gardening sometimes seems complicated if you’ve never tried it, and there are lots of books and courses out there with different (sometimes conflicting) methods and advice.  But, let’s be real – plants grow everywhere, all over the world, most of them without any help from people at all.  Keep reading for 5 Easy Steps to Your First Garden.

What is a Garden?

The difference between a weed and a garden plant is whether or not you want that plant to be growing where it is.  People spend money, time, and effort trying to get grass to grow in their yard, and sometimes more money, time and effort trying to get rid of grass in their garden beds.  Anywhere a weed can grow, a garden plant can grow.  There are some general rules to follow, but anyone can learn to garden and your garden can be anywhere from a shelf or windowsill in an apartment to multiple acres on a rural property.  It is usually easier to start with a small garden (even one plant) and then expand as you get more experience at gardening.  I’ve put together five easy steps to take you from zero to eating food grown in your own garden.

5 Easy Steps to your First Garden

1.  Plants need light, water, and nutrients.  These basic needs can be supplied in a lot of ways, but the cheapest, easiest, and quickest way is to get some dirt, put it in a container with a couple of drain holes in the bottom of it, water it, and put it in the sun.  Stick your thumb into the dirt.  It should be wet enough to leave a thumb print and stick to your thumb a little, but not soaking wet mud.  If it’s too wet, let it sit and drain a little bit, if it’s too dry, add a little more water.  Look at your thumb – see how a “black thumb” can be a good thing in your garden?
   
   
2. Once you have your place to plant ready, you need some seeds.  You can buy seeds (in stores, online, even at the grocery store), or save them from foods you eat (peppers, tomatoes, squash, fruit, lots of food has seeds you could plant).  Seeds you purchase will usually be more reliable in sprouting and growing the exact plant you picked.  Saved seeds are basically free, but can provide less predictable results.  You can also plant live plants (which is called transplanting).  Different plants take up different amounts of space before they are ready to harvest.  Consider your growing space when you decide what to plant.  If you are gardening for food, choose plants that you like to eat.  But, also consider how long it will take before the food is ready to pick.  Things like “microgreens” (which are really just sprouts), some herbs, and salad greens can be picked when they are only a few weeks old.  They will be ready sooner than a plant where you eat the fruit or root.
   
   
3. Once you’ve planted, you need to take care of your plants.  They need to stay healthy while you wait for the food part of the plant to get ripe.  Keep watering (use the “black thumb” test) to make sure the soil stays wet enough.  Different seeds take different amounts of time to sprout.  Once your sprouts are up and growing, you may need to move (transplant) the plant to a larger container.  If you chose a plant that takes a couple of months to grow before its ready to eat, you may want to add some nutrients to the dirt.  This will keep the plant growing well (old coffee grounds make excellent fertilizer).
   
   
4. When the food part of your plant is ripe, it’s time to harvest, or pick, the food.  The type of plant and how you harvest can make a big difference on if the plant can re-grow for a future harvest, or if you only get one harvest.  There are many types of “cut and come again” plants that can give you a whole season of harvests.  If you need to, research how to tell if your food is ripe.  Generally plants have learned to change color or texture to signal they are ready to eat.  But, it just depends on what you choose to grow in your garden.
   
   
5. After harvesting, you can eat your home-grown food fresh.  You can cook it into a wonderful garden-fresh recipe.  Or you can preserve it for eating later.  The possibilities are almost endless.  You made it!  Step 5 and you’re eating food you grew yourself!

There is a lot of variation in how your garden might grow.  It could depend on the amount of space you have and what types of plants you want to eat.  I hope you see from these 5 Easy Steps to Your First Garden, that you can go from zero to eating home-grown food in no time at all.  

So get going!  Find some dirt and seeds and start working on that “black thumb”!

Get your kids to eat those veggies you’re growing in your garden.  Check out “Seven Smart Swaps for Kid-Friendly, Healthy Eating!“

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