How do you start a garden for beginners?
Are you Starting a backyard vegetable garden and need a few ideas for your hobby farm? Starting a backyard garden will be the most rewarding thing you ever do. After I started my first garden I found it peaceful and rewarding to spend time gardening and taking care of it. When everything begins to ripen then preparing meals with food you have grown yourself is a wonderful feeling.
Below are 7 types of gardens you can use to start your vegetable garden in your own backyard providing your family with healthy nutritive rich fresh vegetables strait from your own back yard.
7 Small Backyard vegetable garden ideas
- Standard Till ground level garden
- No dig ground level garden
- Square foot gardening
- Raised bed garden
- Container gardens
- Vertical gardens
- Hydroponic gardens
Space saving vegetable garden ideas
- Raised bed garden
- Square foot gardening
- Container gardens
- Vertical gardens
- Hydroponic gardens
How to Start a Backyard Garden
What is a good size for a vegetable garden?
how big should my vegetable garden size be? A 10×10 garden provides 100 square feet or growing area. 100 square feet for each per is a good rule of thumb to go by when growing food to feeding a family. Some vegetables growing sizes take up more space, these variables may change this size of the garden for your specific situation.
Standard Till ground level garden
Vegetable garden layout for a traditional vegetable garden. This method is after finding a suitable location for your garden is tilling the ground with a tiller or by hand that will loosens the soil. The grass or weed on top can be removed or tilled under to decompose. Compost or other materials can be added in while tilling to adjust the texture of the soil. If you have a heavy clay soil, compost with a little sand will help the soil from clumping together and help in draining excess water.
No dig gardening
I really enjoy using the no dig gardening method here on my hobby farm. What is the no dig gardening method? No dig gardening is a faster way to start a garden with out tilling and disturbing the ground. When you till you bring up a lot of seeds that will soon begin to come to life adding grass and weeds to your garden. When you no–dig – you cover the grass with wet cardboard then applying a layer of compost on top then allowing the soil food web to do the rest. Plant your seeds or pre started plants into the compost, water and you have your garden under way. Over time, the no–dig beds will have fewer weed issue, mildew problems and slug damage than in the traditional “dig or till” beds.
Benefits of no-dig gardening
No–dig gardening, no-till farming’s offers many benefits as a method growing your vegetables at home.
Pros using No-dig gardening
- No tiller required
- No damage done to soil life
- Less weeds
- Reduced soil compaction
- Soil aeration
- Absorbs rainfall better
How to do no dig gardening
Is it safe to use cardboard in vegetable garden?
Yes, using cardboard in a vegetable garden. Only use cardboard that is free from heavy printing, unwaxed, remove shipping labels, staples and boxing tap. Using these methods you should have no issues.
Is cardboard good for soil?
Cardboard is basically carbon and after decomposing is great for the soil. Some people even use cardboard as the brown material in their compost piles along with grass clippings. The worm come up under the garden and eat the cardboard and in the process they leave worm casting behind which in turn is the best food for plants you can find. So by covering the grass with cardboard you will create some amazing side effects. Less waste for land fields, Kill the grass, feed the worms the worms will aerate the soil and leave 100% free organic fertilizer behind for the garden.
How long does it take for cardboard to decompose in a garden?
The worms should take care of the cardboard in three months or so in the average garden conditions. Soak the cardboard in water to help speed up the decomposing process.
Will cardboard kill grass?
The cardboard will cut of sun light to the grass effectively killing it from the process of photosynthesis. The worms will do the rest. Placing a good top soil and compost on top you can start your garden with less intensive work instead of tilling under the sod or spraying harmful chemicals, you can use cardboard method to kill the weeds and grass, with less effort.
Square foot garden
How do I plan a square foot gardening layout?
- Build a Raised Bed, Typically 4 feet by 4 feet, 4 feet by 6, 4 feet by 8 feet, keeping the width to 4 feet allows you to reach to the middle from either side of the bed. Lattice or string can be used to make one foot squares on top to visually separate each of the crops growing in each individual 1 foot square.
- Using a mix of Soil Mix: One third compost, peat moss and vermiculite
- Check spacing requirement on each vegetable you plan on planting. Bigger crops like broccoli, cabbage and tomatoes will take up one square to them selves. Smaller crops will grow more evenly spaced in each one foot planting space.
How deep does a square foot garden need to be?
Square food garden bed should be between six to 12 inches deep for best growing conditions. Some plants like leafy greens, beats, peas would grow fine in six inches of soil due to shallow roots, but plants like Tomatoes, carrots or potatoes would require 12 inches of soil to grow..
Raised vegetable garden ideas
What Are Raised Vegetable Gardens? Raised vegetable gardens are wood, brick, cement, stones or metal box gardens field with soil. The raised vegetable garden provides lose soil where the plants roots can grow with less constrain than they would growing in compacted clay soil. Raised beds allow for water to pernitrate the beds easier and keeps weeds and grass from creeping into the garden.
Galvanized metal Raised vegetable gardens provide a great place to start and care for your vegetable garden. The high walls will help prevent weeds from entering into your garden beds.
Raised vegetable gardens provide lose aerated soil for your plants to grow much easier than compacted earth. The lose soil also allows the rain or daily watering to reach deeper to the plants root systems.
Elevated Wood Planter Box provides easier care of the garden so you don’t have to bend down to care or harvest your vegetables.
Container gardening ideas
Vegetable container gardening for beginners
Starting a vegetable container garden for beginners is easy to do. Premade container garden boxes can be purchased and delivered to you for on line. I will leave some links below for you to view. If you are handy with tools, building your own container garden boxes are easy to construct. After you build your container box follow the no dig method by covering the grass with card board before filling the box with soil.
Raised vegetable gardens boxes come in many stiles to meet your needs or likes. Garden boxes can also be made from scarp lumber to give your garden the rustic look.
Vertical vegetable garden
Growing vegetables vertically provides many advantages for some plants. Growing vegetable plants vertical saves on growing space in the garden. Helps prevent mildew issues on the plant leaves and root from the fruit laying on wet grown and makes it possible to harvest crops standing up. I use vertical gardening to save space when I grow cucumbers, tomatoes and squash. I never thought about growing squash vertical. What a space saver that is for me.
What vegetables grow well in a vertical garden?
- Beans
- Cucumbers
- vine spinach
- melons
- tomatoes
- Squash
Hydroponic gardens
If you don’t have land or soil to grow in Growing Plants Without Soil is possible by using a hydroponic system that can grow plants and vegetables faster using a water solution instead of growing outdoors in soil. When using a hydroponic systems growing food year round is possible. In the winter months the system can be moved indoors and with the use of a artificial lighting system you can continue growing all winter long. Higher growth yields can be made when growing hydroponically, this system require less space, and use less water than with conventional gardening in soil.
What are the benefits of hydroponic vegetables?
- Grow year round
- Crops Grow Faster
- Maximizes Space. Hydroponics requires less space
- Use less Water
- Less Labor intensive
- Higher growing Yields
- No soil needed
- Higher Quality Food
- Less pest issues
Composting for beginners Blog post
Please have a look at my blog on composting for beginners
- Edible fresh flowers from your garden
- intercropping examples
- How to store vegetables long-term without refrigeration
- Best Crops For A Beginner SMALL Farmer- Least Effort
- Wild edible plants all around you
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Hobby Farm Basics 