How to Start a Garden

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segment we are going to talk about how to start a garden. So we have bought our first house or we have moved out of the apartment and we finally have a place to grow a garden and you are so excited and you really don't need a large area to grow a garden. You can even grow a small garden on your patio. So when you are starting a garden first of all you want to examine and figure out how much space you really have. Are you going to use raised beds or are you going to put it right into the ground? In my philosophy too it is better to add compost and potting soil above whatever you have instead of working into the soil you have because it is just so much more work to do that and growing above is always going to give good drainage and everything is going to grow really well. Your next decision is what are you going to grow? Are you going to concentrate on vegetables? Are you going to concentrate on flowers or do you want a combination of those items? Do you want to keep them separated? Do you want to have them all mixed up? Do you want to have a real formal English garden or do you just want to have a real wild garden where everything is blended and to do that my philosophy too is to select plants and vegetables that you like and enjoy in your life right now. If it reminds you of your grandma then get Lily of the Valley. If you love Brussels Sprouts then grow Brussels Sprouts but if you hate spinach don't grow it. So only grow the plants that you like and do your research and make sure if you have a large plot not to have large large plants that are going to take over and it is much better to have a lot of small plants intermixed and that way they all showcase and you can see each one separately because you don't want to overwhelm it and always remember when you are starting a garden that you are thinking of the future, 20, 30, 40 years from now. You never want to plant a 40 foot tree right up to the house. You want to have it at least 10 to 20 feet away from the house. So when you are planting any plants do your research and make sure that it is not a plant that is going to become a nuisance or get into the neighbor's yard eventually like bamboo is wonderful but the running bamboo will take over so you want to keep it contained so when you start a garden there are many different factors and the best way to start a garden is to make a graph and just put into different areas the plants that you want to grow and make a plan and then that way you can follow the plan and you can always move plants out in the future because remember gardening is about change and your garden will change with the seasons and it will change as you grow older and it will be something that will be with you for many years.