The first step in any successful vegetable garden is knowing what you want to plant. Once you have an idea of the type of crops you want to grow, you then need to analyze the planting area and determine exactly how much space you have to plant in. Some plants, like watermelon, pumpkin, cantaloupe, and cucumbers just to name a few, need plenty of space to stretch out there vines. Tomato plants, peppers, broccoli, and cabbage also need ample growing room. So calculate out how much spacing is needed, by looking at the information on the seed packet. Then determine how much space each plant will require so that you can know exactly how many plants you can grow.

In addition to planning out your space and crops, you need to plan out your time. How much time do you have to maintain your garden? Vegetable gardens don’t grow well when they are choked with weeds. Do you have time in the day, either early morning or late afternoon to police the weeds? Weeding is a lot less of a chore if you don’t get behind on it, so if time might be an issue, it’s best to start small.

You want to give yourself 6-8 weeks of lead time before transplanting your plants into the ground. Most plants take 2 weeks to germinate and then another 4 to 6 weeks to mature enough that they can be moved outside. So even when it’s cold in the middle of January, you need to start thinking about getting your seeds started. Look up your area’s weather history in a Farmer’s Almanac so you can plan the perfect date to transplant your plants. Plants like tomatoes, peppers and quite a few others are very succeptable to frost damage so you want to avoid this. The Farmer’s Almanac can help you with this planning. There’s a reason farmers use them, and their accuracy is second to none.

If you are growing a larger garden, you may want to consider staggering your planting. Let’s say you love broccoli, and you want to plant 40 of them. If you plant them all at the same time, they will probably mature at the same time. So what will you do with 60lbs of brocolli? Sometimes it’s good practice to plant a batch of say 20, and then 2 or 3 weeks later plant another batch. That way you have them coming in incrementally instead of all at once.

Of course the most important thing to keep in mind when you are planting your new garden is to HAVE FUN! This should be an enjoyable experience. The rewards are better than you can imagine. Even if you have never grown anything in your life, just give it a try. Start off small, make mistakes, kill some plants, and learn from those mistakes. Nothing beats experience. Once you ge the hang of it, and you pull a fresh head of lettuce, and you make an amazing salad with all of your own home grown ingredients, you will be hooked for life. For more information about growing your own vegetable, visit http://www.homegrownfarming.com

Home Grown Farming .com is an information source for vegetable gardening and farming.

Article Marketing Robot Rules!