When you love the taste of fresh vegetables, you probably wish you knew how to start a vegetable garden and grow your own. It can be quite a simple, yet physical task but the rewards of fresh vegetables and knowing you had a hand in them is well worth the effort. In addition, when you involve your children in the planting and cultivating process, they are more likely to eat what they have raised, meaning better nutrition for them.

The First Steps

The first step in the "how to start a vegetable garden" process is choosing a sunny location for your tasty bounty as they need sunlight for optimal growth. Whether it is a bare patch of ground or you have to create a raised bed using landscape timbers, you want to ensure the area gets plenty of sunlight as well as have proper drainage. Don't become ambitious and create a huge garden as it may become unmanageable but instead choose a smaller plot, no more than 80 square feet, to get your newbie gardening toes dirty.

Secondly for your quest on how to start a vegetable garden is the selection of the type of vegetables you wish to grow. You will want to choose seeds and plants that are grow well in your particular region but if you are willing to protect plants with covers and such as needed during inclement weather, then you can broaden your choices. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, beans, squash, cucumbers and carrots are all great starter vegetables to try as they are easy to grow and tolerant of inexperienced gardeners.

Furthering the Agenda

Next on the "how to start a vegetable garden" process is preparing the ground for planting which includes tilling the ground to break it up. Depending on the ground soil's condition, you may have to add top soil, humus or even compost until the soil is the proper consistency for planting. Sometimes, the seed packages or the plant pots dictate the type of soil needed while other times you may have to ask the garden center's advice.

Following preparation of the soil, the next activity in the process of how to start a vegetable garden is planting your seeds and/or plants. Tomatoes and peppers are best started from small starter plants while other vegetables do quite well starting from seed such as the cucumbers and beans. You will want to properly delineate each row with a sign so you know what has been planted.

Watering is the final step in how to start a vegetable garden and you should do so once the seeds and plants are in the ground and covered. Continue to water every other day or as needed and pull weeds as they will choke out your vegetable plants. Eventually, you will have a bumper crop of vegetables just waiting for you to pick, wash and consume as you wish.