Welcome to the wonderful world of growing your own veg! :D Don’t worry too much about “getting serious”, just let yourself learn organically.

I’d start off figuring out what specifically you’d like go grow, based on what you like to eat. It’s not tough to start growing all sorts of stuff because it sounds good, and then discover that it isn’t to your taste. The next thing is, get yourself some seeds, and read the packets. They usually will have just enough info to get you started (how much light they need, maybe what kind of soil they like, etc).

Then read…lots! I’ve recently read a good book called “Grocery Gardening” that is a handy reference, and the two books by Gayla Trail (You Grow Girl, and Grow Great Grub) are pretty awesome too. You can probably get them from the library (I’d recommend borrowing books before buying them – there are so many books out there, you need to “try them on” before shelling out, IMO).

I’d also recommend keeping a journal or blog of some sort. Keep track of what you see in your garden, and what works/doesn’t work.

Don’t be afraid to experiment! Sometimes it’ll work very well, and sometimes it’ll crash & burn, but you’ll always find out something cool. For example, last year I tried growing tomatoes in a relatively low-light spot, just to see how they would do (FYI, they did pretty badly, but that might’ve also been old-fashioned negelct LOL).

Hi Klowney,

In addition to the great advice above…

1. Look on-line to find your last frost date. This is the most critical date you can have. Use it and the back of your seed envelopes to know when to start your plants.

2. Be certain to space you plants correctly.

3. Build some sort of small barrier to keep out animals who love fresh veggies as much as you do. It can be something as simple as old pie pans hung on strings around your garden.

The rest is a combination of intuition, experience and learning, but that’s the fun of it all.

Good luck.

Not that money or cost should be a potivating factor but I typically don’t grow potatoes anymore. I live a few minutes from a potato farm and can buy 50 pound bags for $6-$10, depending on variety. This year I’m trying some hanging tomato plant devices so they’ll grow downrather than up. I’m doing the same thing with strawberries. This year I’m getting a lot more serious with keeping a garden journal – recording what’s working, what isn’t, things I observe, etc.

here here JosephsGarden!
I feel the same, this is only my second year of gardening and for the first while, in the first year, it was great – because it was sunny – then the rain, wind and everything else set in and I was like…..‘what? do I really need to go out there in that?’ I eventually decided to don the wellies, rainproof jacket and my bucket and go for it. I have never looked back since!! It was great getting out there in the elements and getting a wee bit muddy and all the while knowing you are looking after your garden!

P.S. – I am a bit of a label queen and also have a slight green welly phobia lol! So, I managed to talk my boyfriend into buying me a pair of pillar box red, Hunter wellies for the garden using the excuse that my little plants needed me no matter what the weather and I couldn’t possibly go outside with green wellies!! lol

Minxy;)

Holy moly that is a lot of great advice. Welcome to the wonderful world of growing your own eats Klowney16. I give a hearty “Amen” to all of the suggestions.

Two things I thought of that I don’t THINK were mentioned are that your seeds will likely mostly all germinate, if a good temperature is maintained. If you are planning to start any ahead of the season, such as tomatoes, you want good sterile plant medium. I like the Miracle Gro potting soil, but I don’t know what you all have up there, and I am sure that someone will have some good suggestions for that. Keep your soil moist, but not sopping wet. Don’t allow the soil to dry out at any stage of your seed/seedlings growth. If you do, it does harm to the plant, and seeds don’t germinate very well if you forget to water.

The other thing is Carrots Love Tomatoes I am not certain where you can purchase this book up there, but it is an awesome companion planting book. It tells you what plants benefit each other for growth and health, and what plants despise each other. Some seeds will not germinate if planted in the same area as Fennel for instance. It also has a section on pests and what to plant to aid with keeping your garden free of certain types of pests.

I hope this helps you and I look forward to watching your garden grow this year!