Planting a Vegetable Garden:

Recently I have read several articles about growing a vegetable garden. One was in the Wall Street Journal and the other in our local paper The Oregonian. My wife and I planted a vegetable garden about 2 years ago and I wanted to share our experience and what you can expect if you decide to grow a vegetable garden in your yard. It does take a little planning but not that much. You need a section of your yard that gets plenty of sunshine during the summer months. Set aside a small plot of land in your backyard (or frontyard) and make a design on paper as to the dimensions and then figure out what type of vegetables you want to grow. If you are a beginner at gardening, we suggest do the basics like carrots, peas, beans, spinach, lettuce, and tomatoes. Once you master those you can move on to peppers, onions, artichokes, beets, and more. To grow a successful vegetable garden is not rocket science but it does take some daily care and watering to make it work.

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Ok, once you have the vegetable garden plans all drawn up, you need to then determine if you want to do your vegetable garden in the ground or in a raised garden bed. The soil will be a big part of your decision as places like Portland and Chicago have clay soil which is tougher to garden with so a raised bed may be the solution. Nevertheless, you still need basic tools like a shovel or trowel, a hoe, some gardening gloves, and some stakes and mesh netting if you want to grow snap peas or stringbeans. You need to work the soil a bit with compost and top soil, but that isn't that difficult. Buying seeds is easy, just go down to your local nursery or into the gardening department at Home Depot or Lowes. If you want tomatoes or peppers you need to buy the plants (you can't just grow them from seeds). We usually start our garden preparation and planning in early April. The first year was the toughest as we had to set everything up but each subsequent year as been easier to manage the plots. We originally did one raised bed at our house and another down at my parents place since they get way more sunshine. With success in our yard the first year we decided to add another 10 x 6 foot raised vegetable bed this year to add to our harvest. Once the seeds or vegetable plants are planted into the soil, you need to water them daily (just a bit) and if you have a sprinkler system that could eliminate having to remember. I prefer to hand water our vegetables so that I make sure they are doing ok. It's great satisfaction to see the seedlings growing and the vegetables start to appear. Our kids (8 and 4 years old) have really gotten excited this year and are already begging us to help. That's a good sign that they want to be involved. They can help water, plant the seeds, and hopefully eat the vegetable. We have had the best success with lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, and stringbeans. My wifes crop of tomatoes last year was amazing and we shared many of them with neighbors. We literally had 100's of tomatoes from just 3 plants. We live in an enclosed yard so we have no worries of animals coming to eat our vegetables before we can pick them. If you do live in a neighborhood or more rural area with no fences, consider putting up netting or a cheap wire fence to keep deer and other animals away. So far we are pleased with the results of our vegetable garden and will continue to plant more and more each year as long as they grow. We get months of tomatoes, about 6 weeks of lettuce (fresh picked from the garden each day is delicious), plenty of carrots, and beans. This year we are expanding our garden to include spinach, artichokes, beets, and we are going to try broccoli.

Vegetable Garden Cost:

One question we get all the time from friends and family is - How much does it cost to start a vegetable garden? The upfront costs can be minimal if you only want to plant seeds for carrots or maybe even do a few lettuce bushels. Even if you have to invest in raised beds (see below), the cost spread out over a few years is still well worth it. If you are going to just put your vegetable garden into the ground expect to spend maybe $40. That includes some good top soil, compost, seeds, plants, and a little fertilizer if you want. My wife prefers organic vegetables so we do without fertilizers and use raised beds. Our raised beds cost about $80 each (they are 10' x 6') and the soil and compost to fill them up is at least another $25. We currently have 2 vegetable beds in our yard and I must say the amount of vegetables far exceeds our initial investment. We read that $1 spent on green bean seeds will produce up to $75 worth of crops and even $1 spent on potatoes will generate $5 of crop. Our tomatoes and lettuce are the real winners as we harvest $100 or more in each vegetable yearly. The real question is - Will you eat all those vegetable that you grow? We have found that somedays we are picking 15 to 20 tomatoes and we are overwhelmed so that is when they go to the neighbors. We are cutting back on tomato plants this year and getting a better variety so we can make salads and other dishes. For sustainability purposes, all households should consider a basic vegetable garden to see what they can produce. You may surprise yourself.

Raised Vegetable Garden Bed:

Our soil in our small town outside or Portland, Oregon has tough, heavy clay soil that isn't easy to build a vegetable garden with. The solution was to do raised vegetable garden beds but that does mean you have to spend a little more money. We went to Home Depot to get the pressure treated wood and the fasteners to keep the raised bed frame together. You will need a good cordless drill to get the wood and fasteners together, it took me about 10 minutes to get everything together and secure. The raised bed only needs to be about 8 to 10 inches off the ground to be successful and then you need to fill up the garden bed with good soil and plenty of compost. The raised bed also should eliminate some of the ground slugs or snails, but still put our bait for them or pick them from the garden when you see them. If not, snails can really ruin your lettuce and leafy plants. Make sure you are happy with the placement of the raised vegetable bed because once the soil has been added you won't be able to move it very easily and start over. I would say that creating a raised vegetable garden bed is a "beginner" project for those wanting to grow their own vegetable garden.

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