If you haven’t started planning your vegetable garden it’s not too late!

The best time for planning your vegetable garden would be in late winter. But it’s not too late to plan it now. If this is your first vegetable garden, start small and simple. Start with a few of your favorite vegetables than expand later as you gain more skill and confidence.

Click on the pictures to find out more information about growing these delicious vegetables…yes you can grow these and more!

Here are 4 Simple Steps to Start Your Vegetable Garden:

1. Choosing your location

Look for an open area that will receive six to eight hours of full sun each day. (most vegetables love sun. Leafy vegetables will tolerate part to light shade.)

Your location should be near a water source. Since watering is a key factor in a successful crop you may want your garden close to an outside faucet or have a garden hose long enough to reach all the areas of your garden.

Choose a location close to your house. In this way, you can watch your garden grow, watch for unwanted critters and have easy access to all those fresh vegetables you will be growing.

If you don’t have a yard or a good spot in your yard, many vegetables can grow just fine in containers. We recommend getting large, deep pots for this purpose. Or, you can build a raised bed structure on a porch or patio using timbers or bricks, or buy a weather-proof pre-made raised vegetable garden.”

2. Setting up your garden

You have many different options to how you would like to set up your garden.

You can set up rows of crops separated by two to three foot wide paths between the rows. This is one of the easiest layouts for your first vegetable garden.

Plant your vegetables close together in beds which is called intensive gardening. If you have limited garden space you will harvest the most produce possible by intensive gardening.

Plant vegetables in a raised bed. A raised bed is an enclosed area made of wood boards, cinder blocks, bricks or landscape timbers. Raised beds sit on top of the ground and are filled with soil and organic matter. They are usually six to twelve inches deep and are narrow enough so you don’t have to step into the bed in order to reach your plants.

You may want to draw a map of your garden size and shape and sketch out where each vegetable will be planted.

3. Choosing your vegetables

If you are a beginner gardener choose vegetables that you like to eat and are easy to grow. Some vegetables that are easy to grow are tomatos, beans, cucumbers, peas, summer squash, and radish.

Choose vegetables to fit the space that you have available in your garden. Some vegetables require little space and others need a lot of room. You can find this information on the tab on the container of the seedlings you purchase or on the packet of seeds.

4. How much of each vegetable to plant

If you are planting seedlings check the tab on the container to determine the average yield for each plant. This will help you in purchasing the right amount of vegetable plants for your garden.

If you’re starting with greenhouse saplings, a good rule of thumb is to give each little plant 2-3 inches of space all around. Again, some vegetables will require more room, so ask when you buy your plants or check the label.

Here are some popular tomato varieties, Click on the pictures to learn more about them: