5 Questions to ask when planning a new veggie garden

Planning a new veggie garden is very exciting but to succeed, you need proper planning. In this post, I cover five questions to get you started.

I numbered the questions in the order that makes more sense to me. You are free to tackle them in whichever order you prefer.

1-  Where to plant

2-  What to plant

3-  Why to plant

4-  When to plant

5-  How to plant

Planning a new veggie garden

1 – Where to plant

When starting planning a veggie garden, one might think that what to plant is the most important. However, based on my recent experience, before you decide what to plant you must know what available places you have and are willing to dedicate to your new veggie garden.

Hence, there are two parts to this question: one relates to space available and the other to the specific location.

First, let’s look at space availability.

Do you live in an apartment with a balcony, or no balcony?

If you live in a house, how much garden do you have and how much of it are you willing to dedicate to growing your own veggies?

These considerations are important for the next step, which is deciding what to plant.

The second aspect of where to plant has to do with solar exposure – a crucial factor for any plant. Too much or too little sunlight may result in failure. Some vegetables are sun-hungry (as I am!), others need partial sun exposure and some don’t like the direct sun at all.

As you can see, understanding where you will be planting your veggies is fundamental.

2 – What to plant

Once you have decided where to plant and how much sun exposure there is in each spot, the fun part begins! In other words, selecting which vegetables to plant.

While researching for planning our new veggies garden, I came across Huw Richards, an experienced celebrity gardener from Wales.

One of the valuable tips he gives in his book “Veg in one bed”, is to choose easy-growing vegetables.

That being said, the next step is to find out which vegetables will grow well under the conditions you have to offer. Also keep in mind time of the year, as many vegetables are seasonal.

This is how I went about it:

1 – Made a list of all the vegetables and herbs we usually buy for our daily consumption.

2 – Then, I organized my list by priority and quantity of use.

3 – Lastly, I researched one-by-one to find out how to grow the veggies we like and consume the most. I did this for growing both in a veggie bed and vases/pots, so I could experiment with both. Things like radishes, carrots, lettuce and herbs I tried both on veggie beds and vases. 

An important thing to consider, especially when planting in vases is the root system of each plant. Some will spread sideways; others will grow deep. These details will influence the development of the plant.

NOTE: Beware that some vegetables are annuals and others are perennials. Annuals germinate, grow, blossom and die within one growing season, while perennials live longer.

3 – Why to plant

If you are planning a new veggie garden, I am assuming you are into safe food, homemade nutrition and fun. Lot’s of fun!

Asking the question “Why to plant” a specific vegetable or herb, stems from my concern for health and nutrition. This question is my take on homemade supplementation.

What I mean is, look at your specific nutritional requirements, and those of your family, to decide to plant vegetables that can provide, at least partially, those nutrients.

For example, in my case, being vegan means that I need to watch my calcium intake. Hence, I made it a priority to grow broccoli and kale on our veggie garden.

4 – How to plant

Now that you have decided the location (or locations) of your new veggie garden and chose what to plant, the next question is: how to plant it.

Here things can get complicated.

Growing veggies is not just about putting some soil in a recipient, putting in the seed and voilá, by magic out it comes! (It is magical, but it is not so easy.)

There are various methods for growing veggies. These include the type of soil, which added nutrients and watering system. You can even choose to go down the hydroponic road and grow your veggies purely on water, no soil involved. 

 In future posts, I will further discuss these subjects but for the moment I will leave you to do the research. I do, however, recommend going for the most organic way possible.

5 – When to plant

Last, but not least important when planning a new veggie garden, is when to plant. Meaning, on what time of the year. Again, this depends on what are the specific climatic conditions where you want to plant your veggies.

In the northern hemisphere, many vegetables will start germinating only after the coldest part of the winter. In the southern hemisphere, on the other hand, the warm weather facilitates germination due to higher temperature and sunlight exposure.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Planning a new veggies garden is an exciting exercise, but to get it right, or as good as possible, you do need to consider these six questions. 

In future posts, I will be exploring the above question for different vegetables from a practical, but also nutritional perspective.

I will also be including easy, healthy and nutritious recipes for each veggie I will discuss, so if you haven’t done so, do subscribe to my newsletter not to miss the new posts. 

Thank you for being here!

May The Bliss be with you,

Luciana