4 Step Process to Starting a New Garden or Expanding/Organizing an Existing Garden

This is my 4 step process for starting a new gardening and/or building upon an existing garden. 

Find all of this info in video form on my YouTube channel. 

Part 1 - Building the Garden

Part 2 - Planning, Starting Seeds, & Transplanting

  Step #1 - Building

• Review the space you have to install a garden. Pick a site that gets a lot of direct sun (+* preferred). Most vegetable crops require full sun.
• Also, make sure you pick an area that doesn't get flooded because this will cause root rot to your plants. 
• Decide if your going to plant directly into your native soil, or perhaps build some raised garden beds, or plant in containers/grow bags/5 gallon buckets etc.... get creative. You can find items dumped on the side of the road or at yard sales. 
• Clear out the garden area of shrubs, branches, and lawn. I prefer to solarize the ground for a few months because this will kill the plants and seeds beneath it. It will last a long time.
• If you don't have time to wait, you can start a garden by putting 2-3 layers of cardboard on the ground and cover with a few inches of compost. I use a small garden shovel to poke a hole down into the cardboard and transplant your seedlings. Your will attract a lot of earthworms into the garden because they love paper products. This option wont last too long, especially if you have crab grass. But it will work for a few seasons with some manual weeding required. 
• Use weed blocking material if you don't want to weed anything. I highly recommend Dewitt brand weed blocking material which can be found on Amazon here. I use a blow torch to burn holes into the material.
• Get wood chips if you can. This is a free resource that is invaluable to my garden. I use the mulch to create pathways, and to mulch under crops and fruit trees. Over the years, the wood chips has composted down and created rich soil for gardening. This was a game changer for me. Use ChipDrop to get connected with tree companies that need to dispose of their wood chips. Just be warned, they come randomly and you might get a huge load. 
• Decide if you will need to build garden structures. Perhaps you want to build a few trellises for vertical gardening. My favorite trellis is made with 2  T-posts, some mesh vinyl trellis, PVC T fittings, and a 3/4inch diameter electrical conduit pipe. I show this system in several of my YouTube videos. You can see the supplies I use by following this list to Amazon here.  
• Decide how your going to water your plants. Hand watering is easy for smaller gardens. However, if you go on vacation or forget to water, you will kill your plants. I use flat drip tape which is easy to install and doesn't require any tools. I attach the drip tape to a Melnor automatic water timer. You can find the drip tape and water timer that I use here.

Step #2 - Planning

• Make a list of the crops you want  to grown. Browsing seed websites is a great way to get ideas on what types of things you want to grow.
• Calculate how many plants you need to make sure your growing enough food per person in your household. Find my plants per person chart here.
• Create a garden map on graphing paper so you can visualize where to plant everything. The squares also help to fit plants according to square foot gardening guidelines. Find how many of each crop you can fit per 12 inch x 12 inch square foot here. 
• Start a garden journal to track when you fertilize plants, when you notice an increase in a particular type of pest in the garden, dates seeds were started, when each cold front comes thru and which plants were actually affected etc... This was essential to me learning my own garden's unique micro climate. I like the yearly planners with space for each day of the year so I can write detailed notes.

Step #3 - Starting Seeds & Gathering Supplies

• Purchase seeds and supplies as soon as possible. Often times if you wait until spring has arrived, seeds and supplies are sold out. Spring is the most busiest time for gardening. 
• Supplies might include fertilizer, seed starting trays, grow lights (or 5000K shop lights), and soils.
• The method for starting seeds varies depending on the crop/flower/herb. Check out my YouTube video growing guides specific to each crop.
• Learn how to start seeds like a pro with my YouTube video: How to Sow Seeds Like a Pro
• When do you need to start seeds? In general, most directions will say something like "start seeds 6-8 weeks before your first frost date (first cold front of your winter season) or after your last frost date (last frost usually occurring in spring time). If you do not know your average first and last frost dates you can find it on this website: www.plantmaps.com
• Plan out your whole year of seed sowing by labeling a bag with the date seeds need to be started. For example, January 1st is a huge seed sowing day for me. I start seeds for corn, zucchini, herbs, flowers, and much more. I have a bag labeled "January 1st" and I put all of the seed packets that need to be started on that day, in the bag. I make a bag for other dates throughout the year so all of the planning is done for me. This is extremely helpful so I don't forget to start seeds. 

Step #4 - Transplanting

• You might be direct sowing seeds or transplanting your own seedlings. A general guideline for direct sowing is to sow the seeds after your last average frost date has passed in spring. But there are exceptions and you might decide to start seeds in doors to get an early start on the season.
• The method for transplanting varies depending on the crops. In general, most plants like to be transplanted at ground level. An exception are tomatoes - they do much better if you burry 8-12inches of their stem into the planting hole. Roots will grow out of the stems wherever it touches soil. This helps a tomato plant grow a bigger root system. Again, refer to my YouTube channel for growing guides specific to each crop to see how they are transplanted. 
• Make sure you add some type of fertilizer into the planting hole to give that seedling a boost. 
• Layout the transplants over the garden space before planting them. This is just to double check that you like the setup and make any changes.
• Be ready for pests and diseases before they arrive! Have the supplies and garden treatments in stock at home. They will come so be prepared. Treating early means you knock out the population or reduce pathogens that cause disease quickly before they spread around your garden (and require more treatments).