Starting my first garden...

[Dropkick Greenthumb]

I am just steaking the area out in my backyard. I have been reading all the info here for awhile now and for this year I think I am just going to till the ground, have it tested at the extension office, and plant my seeds...well, except for tomatos, which I am going to start with small plants.

I am going to start with a 12 x 12 garden and see how it goes. I think eventually I will do the raised bed thing, but I am a bit short on cash and I didnt plan far enough ahead to have nice compost ready.

Here is the area I have staked out...nothing much to look...I just want to have some before and after pics

Any advice, suggestions, or comments are welcome!

[Kalli007]

Hello! I don't have any advice for ya' - I just started my first garden as well. What area are you in?

[Dropkick Greenthumb]

Hello! I don't have any advice for ya' - I just started my first garden as well. What area are you in?

I'm in lower-central Michigan. What did you end up doing for your first? Size? Raised beds?

[Kalli007]

Not raised per se, but we did have 3 yards of veg mix brought in - so we have well formed, high rows. In the future I would like to do raised but am no good at building or anything so had to do it this way. It actually looks pretty good - but we'll see how it produces!

[rainbowgardener]

I love my raised beds, but if you don't do that, at least be sure you have walking paths through the beds, so you can have areas you walk on to get to things and areas you never walk on. Cover the walking paths with burlap, newspaper, etc to keep weeds down and keep it from getting too muddy (one time I used carpet samples cause I got them free). Browse around the existing posts re ideas for beds. Cynthia has posted some things about getting free materials from FreeCycle. If you have access to any sites where they are tearing buildings down, used bricks or lumber works. My raised beds are made of stacked 4X4 fence posts. Not free, but pretty cheap. Their construction is not hard and is described elswhere in this forum.

[smokensqueal]

Dropkick: It sounds like you have a good grasp on what it's going to take to start. If you are not set on doing rows you may want to look at doing a square foot gardening method. I'll be trying it this year and after reading up on it I really like a lot of the ideas they have. I do a raised garden but that's because I like the lines between the lawn and the garden.