How to Garden, How to Plant a Vegetable Garden, How to Start a Garden at Home

How to Start a Garden

Learn how to garden with our free garden planning worksheets, vegetable garden planner, and vegetable gardening videos. Plan a vegetable garden using our free garden planting guide!

Learning how to garden at home can be a fun and rewarding task.

Design Your Own Vegetable Garden Layout Using our Free "Vegetable Garden Planner" Software!

You will need a few simple tools, gardening gloves, and some ideas of what you most want to grow!

Depending on where you live and how much space you have available, you can start a garden in your backyard, or in containers on your deck, patio, porch, windowsill or countertop.

Choosing a sunny location with access to a source of water is key to your vegetable gardening success!

Download Free Garden Planning Worksheets, Garden Diary, Zone Chart, Or Planting Guide

How to Garden

Just like everything else in life, good planning and follow-through are essential to having a successful garden!

When learning how to garden, it is a good idea to plan carefully, and start small so you won't get overwhelmed or discouraged.

Just having a small container garden can be a good starting point, as it is a lot of fun, and can provide a good amount of fresh vegetables, and be very easy to prepare and care for.

How to Plant a Vegetable Garden

Planting a new garden in-ground requires the most effort in the beginning...but it can be worth it!

Choose a sunny location, away from other large plants that will rob water and nutrients from your garden.

Plan on running your garden rows from north (taller plants) to south (shorter plants) for best results.

Add plenty of compost, leaf mulch, and/or well-rotted manure and mix it well with the soil in your garden.

All your efforts at this point will pay huge rewards in the success of your garden later!

Raised Bed Garden

Consider making a raised bed garden in your yard or on your patio. There are several advantages to this type of garden. Again, there is more preparation and effort in the beginning, but many rewards to come!

Raised bed gardens are easy to plant and tend.

You can fill the raised bed with an ideal mixture of garden soil, mulch and compost.

You can also grow more vegetables in a smaller area, as you do not need to leave room for walking between the rows of plants.

Raised bed gardens should be about 48" across, so that you can reach into the center of the bed from either side.

Very Little Space? How About a Container Garden?

Container gardens are quite easy to plan, and take very little effort to start and maintain.

You can purchase decorative containers, or recycle containers you have on hand.

If you want to add color or interest to your container vegetable garden, add a few pots of colorful flowers, or mix a flower or two in with your vegetable plants.

You can grow lettuce, radishes, peppers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, and much more, successfully in containers.

It is important to check your container garden frequently during hot weather, as the soil in pots can dry out quickly in warm or windy weather, and cause your plants to suffer.

Container gardens can be located either indoors on a sunny windowsill or countertop, or outdoors on a porch, deck, or patio.

Computer Aid

You can also learn how to garden if you have garden designing software which can be obtained from the web for free. These programs can be used to better visualize your design for better planning.

* Or if you prefer a pencil and paper, download our free garden planning worksheets and vegetable garden planner, zone chart, and planting guide from this website! You can plan a vegetable garden using our free garden planting guide show below.

Download our vegetable garden planting guide.

After you developed your ideas, don’t leave the computer just yet and search online for the best prices of materials that you need for the type of garden you are planning. The internet is a great place to look for ideas and resources.

If you are lucky you can get all the gardening resources that you need straight from your home without going anywhere. Many of the best deals can be found online saving you a lot of money and time.

Plan a Visit to Your Local Garden Center!

A visit to your local garden center can provide you with a wealth of information on how to garden.

You will find information on your climate "zone," which helps you know when to begin planting an outdoor garden.

You will discover the types or varieties of vegetables that will do best in your location.

Potting soil, tools, fertilizers, compost, containers, and everything else you need for gardening are all available for purchase!

Now is a good time to learn how to garden. Not only can you grow some of your own fresh vegetables or fruit, but you can enjoy tending your plants and watching them develop. Nothing tastes better than your own freshly picked produce from your garden, and you can save some money at the same time.