So I was thinking of giving gardening a try for the first time this summer. It'd be a vegetable garden, and I'm thinking things like carrots, green beans, corn, etc.
Anyone know of any resources that'll be good for a beginner to read? Or vegetables that are easier for a newbie gardener to grow?
Thanks! God bless.
My wife has the green thumb. That being said, we usually grow these vegetables:
lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers and sometimes other vine stuff for decorations, e.g. pumpkin and gourd.
She also has strawberries.
Basically, my wife buys the plants already sprouted for transplanting from your home improvement or other such place that sells plants. After we rototill and add in some fertilizer, we simply plant these little guys and just water them to grow. We never start from a seed. Each plant should come with instructions as to what to do and how to plant it.
To keep the weeds down, we have somewhat success with laying newspaper with grass clippings over it between the rows, but weeds are always a problem and you will have them unless you have a lot of time to spare weeding (which we don't).
Generally tomatoes and the vine plants do best. Peppers moderately well as with the others generally grow moderately well.
Our soil has a lot of clay and iron in so it has to be balanced for PH and nutrients that each plant needs, but we have relatively good success without being overly crazy about it.
Most importantly, fence it off from pests such as groundhogs. We use about 100' of snow fencing to fence off a square area. Also, we have outdoor cats that help keep the little bunnies down that might try to squeeze between the fence.
