When to start garden
Gardening 101: How To Start A Garden
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all right so you're looking to start a
garden well what do you need to do where
do you start
I was out just getting our garden all
set up this year and I thought I would
kind of walk through some of the steps
if you're just getting into gardening or
it's been a long time since you've had a
garden and you want to get started
whether you're in a country setting a
suburban setting an apartment where ever
you are and you'd like to just learn to
start and there's so many ways to to
garden whether you have smaller large
spaces for those container gardening
raised bed gardening or traditional
gardening and I have a combination of
those all here so where do you start so
the first thing you need to figure out
when you're looking to start a new
garden is where are you going to put it
you need to pay attention to your yard
and especially pay attention to where
you get the most amount of sunlight
generally most of your crops that you're
going to grow are going to do well in
full Sun some crops like leafy greens
and other things are going to do ok and
part shade also but generally everything
will do pretty good in full Sun with
very few exceptions so there are
actually a few different apps that you
can get for Android or iPhone that you
can use to track the Sun path during
different times of the year so even if
you're planning your garden out in the
winter time you can use the app to set
it to let's say July and figure out
exactly where the path of Sun is gonna
be in your yard
you want to use that to figure out where
you're gonna get the best amount of
sunlight once you have a place picked
out in your yard and you're you're ready
to get started you need to figure out
what you're gonna grow now generally
people especially new gardeners you want
to go to the seed store and you look at
all these great seeds on the rack or
whatever at Home Depot or Ace Hardware
or whatever it is that you go and you're
gonna want to just pick out a whole
bunch of stuff oh that looks good oh
that was good I want to try that I want
to try that there's nothing wrong with
trying new things but I would encourage
you to stay focused on things that you
eat things that you eat the most and
also things that you can preserve so pay
attention to what your family is using
the most of if you guys have salads
every day you want to grow a lot of
salad greens if you guys eat a lot of
tomato or tomato products you want to
grow a lot of tomatoes you it's always
great to try and experiment with new
things but you also just want to make
sure the core of what you're growing is
things that you're going to use there's
nothing worse than planting a garden
weeding it taking care of it awesome
and then not really wanting to eat half
the stuff you grew when it comes to
August or September so once you have
some things picked out it's time to look
at seeds now the best thing to do is buy
your seeds earlier in the year so even
during the wintertime months especially
if you're in the northern climates you
can get better deals on seeds usually
then and I would recommend getting stuff
online a little bit early if you can
I'll put a link in the description to
where I get almost all of my seeds for
our home our kitchen garden here and
that's mi gardener my gardener has a
youtube channel also here on YouTube and
he has a great seed store they're very
inexpensive seeds they come with a great
amount for small gardens in each packet
and it's very affordable you get a 10
cent discount on each packet they're
only 99 cents apiece already and they're
only 89 cents after if you use the link
in the description so check out my
gardener seed store he's got just about
everything that you could that you could
want there so once you have your seeds
it's time to figure out which things you
need to start inside and which things
that you can direct sow in the ground
now this it really the varies on where
you live here in the northern climates
where we're going to want to start some
things inside any of your hot weather
crops peppers tomatoes melons any of the
things that on the seed packet it says
the harvest is longer than 90 days you
want to make sure that you get those
things started inside and it'll tell you
on the seed packet if they're a 120 day
harvest then you want to make sure that
stuff has started inside there's lots of
different videos that I've done and all
those have done on how to start seeds
inside I would have you check the the
eye up in the corner there for some of
those videos if you're interested you
want to make sure that you start those
things early in the northern climates if
you don't start your tomatoes and
peppers early you're probably not going
to get a very good harvest now if you're
in the warmer climates down south you
don't have to worry too much about that
you can probably start a lot of your
seeds right in the ground in March or
April so now it's time to prepare your
garden space there's so many different
ways to do this you need to make a
decision are you gonna do raised bed
gardens or are you gonna do a
traditional garden now there's lots of
benefits to both traditional gardening
is easy easy to get started you can tow
up a small spot of land with a shovel or
rake you know whatever you want to do if
you have a hint of motorized tiller you
can you can start till up a patch
land and you can start gardening you can
amend the soil a little bit maybe with
some compost or some other things where
you're planting and you're ready to go
raise my gardening has a lot of great
benefits but you do have to purchase
wood and build the raised beds or buy
the raised beds and then you have to
fill them with soil even though they are
a great way to go if you're just getting
started don't be discouraged and pumping
a bunch of money into your garden it's
easy to start with traditional gardening
if you've got the extra money in time
and you want to get those raised beds
set up there a little bit better
long-term investment and they're a
little easier as far as weeding and
caring for the garden throughout the
year now we talk about soil amendments
what kind of soil do you can you just
throw stuff right in the ground do we
need to do anything with the soil I
would definitely encourage you to do
some type of amendment to your soil
whether you're gonna do a soil mix in a
raised bed or just traditional gardening
with tilling in some manures and other
organic matters you don't need to get as
scientific as having your soil test and
all that kind of stuff but generally the
more organic matter you have the better
if you have a local farm and you can get
a load pack up truckload of compost or
something like that and mix it in with
your soil that would be great way to
start if you want a better soil mix I
did a whole video on the best soil mix
that we have found here and it includes
sand peat moss and manure compost if you
want to just go small and be real basic
go to your Home Depot or Lowe's or
whatever your home improvement store is
Ace Hardware and pick up a bag a place
and a bag of peat moss and two bags of
manure compost mix it together and
you're gonna have a great soil mix so
that's just a real easy kind of bagged
way to go and you can use that to amend
soil or even fill a raised bed we talked
about gardening and we talked about soil
amendments we can't talk about that
without talking about compost if you
haven't already started a compost pile
start one right now it's one of the
easiest and cheapest way is to get
yourself some really good soil every
single year for your garden kitchen
scraps yard waste tree clippings leaves
whatever you have around you can use
that in a very simple composting method
without any fancy bins or barrels or
anything like that take a section in
your corner of your yard somewhere and
make a pile that's all you need to do
make a pile turn it once or twice a year
with a pitchfork or shovel and you've
got yourself some good compost in one
year's time
nothing fancy about it very easy to get
started and it doesn't require any
special bins and plans or anything like
that if you've already started a compost
pile great
get out your compost from last year mix
it in with your soil whether it's
locally right around each plant or
tilling it into your whole traditional
garden section or whether mixing it in
with a raised bed that fresh compost is
a great way to get nutrients to your
plants all right so you're ready to get
started planting there's lots of
different ways to plant various kinds of
vegetables I'm not going to go through
how to plant everything generally the
best thing to do is to look at the back
of your seed packets if you're buying
from my gardener there's a very good
instructions detailed description on
what the seeds are gonna grow for you
what they're used for what the
vegetables are used for and how to plant
them follow that and you'll be in good
shape
one thing you want to pay attention to
when you're planting is your sunlight if
you're gonna grow a bunch of very tall
things like corn or sunflowers or other
tall vegetables or trellising things you
don't want to have that on the south
side of your garden where it's going to
be shading the rest of your crops so on
the north side of all your garden
patches where you're going to want to
have all of your tallest stuff the
shortest thing that should go on the
south side that's going to make sure
that as the Sun is tracing across the
sky that you don't get anything shaded
in your garden for longer than just to
maybe a half an hour or so the shade the
the shadows will move through your
garden very quickly and they'll be very
short and then you won't have trouble
with things not getting sunlight caring
for your garden is extremely important
once you have things in the ground
you're not done the biggest mistake that
gardeners make especially first-year
gardeners is letting weeds get away from
you you have to stay out there as soon
as you've planted but not more than one
week should go by before you get back
out into your garden and make sure
you've picked all the little weeds that
are gonna start coming up especially if
you're using a fresh yard or manure
compost you're gonna have lots of little
grass seeds and things like that that
are gonna be coming up get on that stuff
right away and you won't have trouble
with weeds your plants are gonna grow
better and you're gonna feel a lot
better about what you've done another
thing you can do to control weeds is
what I've done in our whole garden here
and use woodchips
woodchips are a free resource in our
area anyway almost every city that I've
been to has some type
a collection point for all of their tree
waste they go into trim trees throughout
the year if piles are the stuff you can
go take it for free if your city doesn't
have that check your neighboring cities
you probably will find something
somewhere comp this this wood chip mulch
is an excellent way to keep weeds down
between plants we cover our entire
gardens with it every year around all of
our plants it works very very well
water water water water is very
important especially for a young garden
roots are very fragile things are very
small seeds need to be you know while
they're germinating they have to stay
wet it's great to get yourself a fan
sprinkler sans sprinklers I have found
to be the absolute best way to water a
garden unless you're going to use some
type of a permanent irrigation system
with drip irrigation or something like
that fan sprinklers are easy to move
they are very gentle on your garden they
cover a very large space that are great
for seedlings as well as adult plants
get yourself a good fan sprinkler I'll
put a link in the description to one on
Amazon that's not cheap it's a metal one
this one I got from Ace Hardware it's
all metal as well don't buy cheap fan
sprinklers they're junk they will break
they will leak the little gears won't
work in them and and just buy a good
sprinkler if you don't have a good
sprinkler you're not going to water your
garden enough and your gear just things
are not going to go well you're not
going to have time to hand water
everything once your plants are
established they're nice and tall they
don't need to be watered quite as much
it's not gonna hurt to water them every
other day but you probably could get
away with going on a vacation for a few
days as long as it's not too hot and dry
and not watering your garden but if you
are going on vacation for more than a
week or even a week make sure that you
have somebody stop by and turn your
sprinkler on at least one of those days
especially if it's hot and dry we've
made the mistake before of not watering
come back to a dead garden so you want
to make sure that everything stays nice
and nice and moist and watered keep
those weeds down and you're going to end
up having a great great harvest when it
comes time in July August and September
harvesting time is the the reward of all
the work and all the time and all the
waiting it's a great time be prepared
for what you're going to harvest make
sure that you have canning supplies
ready and
sure that you have ways to preserve the
things that you have if you're going to
do vacuum-sealed and freezers or you're
gonna do canning or you're gonna make
things into jellies or jams or spaghetti
sauces or whatever plan ahead weeks
ahead of your harvest time if you're up
in the northern hemisphere like we are
you're not going to start getting
Tomatoes probably until August at the
earliest and August and September even
into October sometimes be prepared to
you're gonna have a whole lot of stuff
coming in at once and you want to be
ready to preserve that stuff there's
nothing worse than growing a big healthy
garden all year long and then wasting so
much food because you didn't have time
to preserve it think of the easy ways
freezing and vacuum sealing is one of
the best ways to go I'll put a link in
the description again to a great vacuum
sealer on Amazon they're an inexpensive
investment and it's very very easy you
can dice things up throw them in there
vacuum seal it throw it in the freezer
and you're done
now of course depending on what you drew
there's lots of thing lots of ways to
utilize your garden all throughout the
year especially by staggering your
planting so if you really want to make
the most of your time and your harvest
throughout the year plant your quick
growing things like your radishes and
your leafy greens and things like that
is staggered planting so plant some at
the beginning of the year that maybe two
or three weeks later plant another roll
or another section of like lettuces and
things like that and then do the same
thing in three weeks later that gives
you a good staggered harvest for those
kinds of things because lettuces and all
your other leafy greens once they grow
to mature they're not good anymore they
generally will go to seed they get
bitter you want the youngest leaves off
the lettuces and things like that
even for kales and spinach is and a lot
of those things so staggering your
planting is a great way to go to make
the most of your harvest season for
those types of plants alright so you've
got all your vegetables you've harvested
your garden but you're not quite done
yet cover that ground the best thing to
do to prepare your garden for the next
year is to cover that ground whether you
use a cover crop like a winter weed or
something else that's going to grow into
November and even to December you it's
good to keep root to the ground and
things growing the other thing you can
do is use your leaf compost and other
things from around the house leaf mulch
Azure straw woodchips cover that garden
keeps it wet keeps it moist keeps the
worms and bacterias and other things in
your garden it doesn't dry out it
doesn't blow away you've got you prepare
and hold that the nutrients and moisture
that you have in that garden space for
the next year so make sure that you
cover the space leave all your your
plants and all that stuff that tomato
stocks uns and sunflower stocks that
have died off leave that stuff all on
the ground you can take that out next
year whatever hasn't broken down but all
that stuff the nutrients in those stocks
is going to go right back into the soil
and get you ready for your next year so
for those of you out there looking to
start a garden hopefully you found some
good information here all you
professional gardeners out there have
something to add
throw it down below in the comments that
way everybody can see it and learn from
it as well so hopefully you guys found
this informational tap that thumbs up
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you want to follow along and as always
thanks for watching
have a good one
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