Creating a vegetable garden from scratch can be a daunting prospect. The more research you do into the topic, the sooner you realise just how much there is to know and consider when it comes to creating the ultimate thriving veggie patch at your place. 

However, starting your own garden doesn’t have to be hard. It’s mostly a learning process that takes time and careful observation, but there are some tips and tricks that make it easier to get started. 

Site Selection

Probably the most important part of creating and maintaining a healthy veggie patch is the site selection. The key to this is picking a place to put your vegetable patch that will get a good amount of sunlight. 

Depending on what you are trying to grow, sunlight needs may vary. Some shade during the brightest part of the day might be nice for some varieties, while others may thrive on as much sun as possible. 

The site also needs some thought in terms of how much work it will be to prepare. Some existing soils aren’t the best for growing vegetables, so think about whether you’d prefer to dig out and replace the soil or potentially build a raised bed. 

Raised Beds

Raised beds do offer some other advantages to ground vegetable patches. They offer more ability to control the exact substrate materials (what the soil is made out of) and this gives finer control over how the water moves through the soil, nutrient cycling, and overall plant life-cycles. 

Raised beds offer the ability to customise your garden to the specific type of plant you are trying to grow. For instance, if you are primarily trying to grow vegetables, you might go for a veggie mix soil, which includes sand and mushroom compost, to give the right composition of nutrients and fine particles for water retention. 

Proper Watering

Watering is another extremely important part of growing a healthy crop of vegetables, and there are lots of different ways to go about it. Some people like to build drip irrigation systems into their garden beds, which allows collected water, or water turned on at a tap to slowly drip out and water the whole garden at once. 

Others prefer watering the garden by hand. Both techniques have their advantages. Watering by hand means you have the opportunity for some light weed and pest control management in your daily routine, whereas drip irrigation means you have to make time for this in a separate step. 

However, in a large garden, watering by hand can be quite inefficient. In this case, having a built in drip irrigation system is a great way to cut down on your daily time-consuming tasks, and you can put aside blocks of dedicated time for weed control and pest management when you have the ability to do so. 

Whichever way you decide to water your garden, regular maintenance is essential for the best results! 

Planting Techniques

The way you plant your garden has an effect on more than just how it looks. It can be really nice to plan out how your garden will look in full bloom or think about how you’ll have blocks of one plant next to another. 

In reality some plants are best planted with companions. Companion planting means planting with another plant that has the ability to help your plant thrive. In some cases, the companion can help with nutrient cycling, or with water retention. In other cases, it can help with pollination. Planting alongside another plant can help to get better yields from your wanted vegetables than if you planted them alone. 

If you are gardening in part for the aesthetic, don’t worry! There are still lots of fun parts of gardening where you can express your personality. For instance, if you have lots of raised beds, consider laying red mulch between them for a pop of bright colour, or even colour coordinating your buckets and trowels. 

Another important consideration when planning your planting is spacing. Different plants will have different requirements for how much space they need to grow, and that will change as they go through different stages of growth. Prepare for each stage, and you may need to include some apparatus like a climbing trellis.

Gembrook Garden Supplies

Whichever way you decide to take your garden, know that you can always find expert help and opinions at Gembrook Garden Supplies. Not only is it a garden centre with all the expertise you could ever need, but it also has all the products and gear, including a variety of different soils, substrates, and mulches to choose from.  

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