How to Grow a Garden

How to grow garden the best

I have a step-by-step process on how to grow the best garden big or small depending on how large an area you want to dedicate for gardening.  If you are starting out for the first time start small and for those that have lots of experience in, gardening try something new with a portion of your garden.

Best Location for your garden

Find the sunniest place in your yard if you are going to dedicate the area to a garden.  This can be an entire area or it can be a shared area with other plants and flowers.  It can also be a raised bed you build or a basket or pot that you can place in the ideal location.

How to  share flower beds for gardening

You can plant vegetable plants right with other plants in your garden if you do not have a designated area you want to have for your vegetable plants.  This tomato plant fits right in with the other flowers and as you can see it produced many tomatoes.  The other flowers were great to attract pollinators to pollinate the tomatoes.

Shared garden plot

Best Raised bed garden boxes

Using a raised bed is a great way to designate an area for a garden.  There are many ways to create garden boxes.  You can purchase premade garden boxes, purchase wood to make your own box (Always use untreated wood such as cedar, or redwood), or you can use galvanized metal tubs or sheets to make your own.

When building a garden box do not use treated wood, even though it will last longer the chemicals to treat the wood will leach into the soil and contaminate the ground which will ultimately be drawn into the plant and the vegetables you are growing.

You can buy premade boxes or kits if you do not want to design and build your own garden boxes.

Best Pots and baskets for your vegetable plants

Pots and baskets are a great way to grow vegetables in small places on apartment patios and porches or for your home patios.  It is also easy to plant flowers and vegetables together in companion planting to provide vegetables for you and your family.

When considering the size of the planter you need to first determine what vegetable plants you are going to grow in them to determine the size of the planter needed to allow the roots to grow well and support the plants and the vegetables.

Plants with smaller root systems are best such as patio tomatoes, herbs, lettuce, spinach, and some cucumbers.

Preparing the soil for planting

Garden plot

Test your soil to know what you need to do to amend the soil for the best growing conditions for the vegetables.  Once you have tested amend the soil with proper organic materials.

See my recipe for COF (complete organic fertilizer) this is great to add to the soil for you to have the best garden soil. Recipe COF

If you have a local soil and forest products company seek them out for a soil amendment that they sell that is organic for vegetables.

Shared flower bed

Test your soil to know what you need to do to amend the soil for the best growing conditions for the vegetables.  Since you are sharing the space with vegetables and flowers you need to know what the PH is for both flowers and vegetables, it is also good to know what plants are good companions with the vegetable plants.

Raised bed

You will build up the soil with organic materials to provide you with the best soil conditions possible, thus eliminating the PH testing of the soil.  Fill the raised bed with the amended soil so that the roots have lots of room to grow.  Ideally, you want the soil light and deep for the roots to grow deep to support the plants and the fruit or vegetables they will grow.

Mulching plants

This is one of the most critical pieces in growing the best garden.  To hold the moisture in the soil which provides water to your plants you need to cover the top of the soil with a mulch that will allow the moisture to not be evaporated and to keep the plants from drying out in the hot summer days, and to keep the plants roots cool.

Some mulches add to the soil to fertilize the plants and others just protect the plants.  Mulches are also great to keep the weeds from growing which reduces the amount of weeding you will need to do, allowing you more time to enjoy your garden.

There are many types of mulch, such as leaves, grass clippings, wood chips, coir, straw, filbert shells, cocoa shells, and even gravel or larger flat rocks.

Flower pots or baskets

This is best done by purchasing the highest quality organic potting mix to fill your containers.  Make sure there are drain holes in the bottom of the container.  Start with filler materials in the bottom to reduce the amount of soil needed and to keep the pots and baskets lite, you can use plastic bottles, packing materials, or any other product to fill the bottom of the container.  Place organic mix over filler material, add some organic fertilizer to feed the plants, and next add the plants and finally the remainder of the planting mix to fill the basket.  You will need to feed these plants more often to keep them healthy and produce an abundance of vegetables.

Let’s recap how to grow the best garden

  • Find the sunniest place in your yard or on your patio
  • Share space with other flowers and plants to grow your garden
  • Use pots and planters to grow a garden
  • Build a raised bed for your garden
  • Build or purchase garden box for your garden
  • Build up soil for a garden bed

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