Planting Your First Garden

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Nathalie Lussier

Nathalie Lussier is known as the Raw Foods Witch & helps people live an enchanted life by eating more raw food. I spook the fears of raw food away so you can enjoy the magick!

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Whether you just bought a house with some property or you want to start gardening on your existing lot, you need to learn the basics of gardening. Gardening is great for people of all ages: from the newlyweds just establishing themselves, to the busy baby boomers, to the retired, to the stressed out teenagers and even to the youngest toddlers. After all, when we return to the garden we are in essence returning to our roots. We remember what it was like to spend days in our gardens on our land, our hands covered in dirt, our skins a golden yellow from the sun's beams and our muscles sore from a hard day's work. There is no reason to leave all of that behind, in fact there has never been a better time to start gardening than right now with the price of food going up and the price of fuel pushing us to buy more locally.

Instead of buying globally or locally, why not grow your own? You will be surprised at how amazing your first home grown salad will taste. So how exactly do you get started planting your first garden? Well if you don't yet know what you would like to plant, why not make a trip to your local hardware store or gardening depot. The store will likely have many already planted varieties for you to buy, and you can also browse through their assortment of seeds and bulbs. Once you know which ones you are interested in, double check to ensure that you can grow these varieties in your local climate. Chances are you might be fine if you buy them from a local store.

Once you have picked out the seeds or plants and brought them home, decide where your garden will be. If you don't have a lot of space on your land, or you live in an apartment building you should consider planting in pots. You can keep the pots by the window sills and ensure your plants get as much sunshine as they need. If the weather is still not warm enough and if there are still chances of frost you should start your seeds inside in pots until you can transplant them to the outside area. Some people grow entire plant varieties inside in pots and only bring them out in the summer months: this works well with small herb gardens in a pot.

If you decide to dedicate a space for your garden outside you may need to do some tilling. Some people opt for a mechanic rota-tiller that will till the earth and remove any other plants that had been growing there. You might want to add some fertilizer to the soil to facilitate the planting. Once you transplant your plants or decide to put your seeds in the soil be sure to water the soil a lot. Newly planted seeds or plants need a lot of water to help them take heart to their new environment and grow better. After that all you really need to do is just watch them grow, remove any weeds you see creeping up and water the ground if it is excessively dry.

I hope this quick guide to planting your first garden has helped you to see that you don't need a green thumb to start your very own garden right now. Don't be afraid, it can take up to a week or more before you see signs of your seeds taking on life - but you will be amazed to see those sprouts come out of the ground and flourish into amazing plants!