Spring is the perfect time to start a new vegetable garden and start growing some of your own tasty product. Here are our top tips for veggie gardening newbies.
- See where the sun shines -
It’s important for most vegetables gardens to receive at least 6 hours of good sun per day. Review your garden site where you’re thinking about setting up a new garden, and watch how the sun moves throughout the day.
- Super Important Soil -
If you’re building a new garden bed, make sure you fill it up with good soil and compost from the get go. This will be a benefit as the growing seasons go on. If you’ve already got an existing garden bed, top it up and dig through good amounts of fresh organic matter like ActivGrow Soil Improver and Cow Manure Plus.
- Simple is Best -
We know the idea of growing your own vegetables is exciting, but keep it simple while you’re getting start. Choose easy growing varieties in the first instance, and then move into more difficult varieties as the season continues. Lettuce, Bok Choy, Radish and Silverbeet are all ideal for beginners.
- Planning, Planning, Planning -
Always pre-plan what vegetables you want to grow and get to know about them first. Check out how big each plant will grow so you know how much space to allocate in your garden. You don’t want to overplant and suffocate out smaller varieties because one plant grew 5x larger than you thought it would.
- Starting from Seed or Seedling -
If you want to start your new vegetables from seed, consider direct sowing by creating channels in your garden bed and filling with Seed & Cutting Mix to sow your vegetable seed. If you’re starting with store-bought seedlings, make sure you pick the strongest, best looking ones at the store (with no visible signs of fungal or insect damage).
- Succession Planting -
Consider if succession planting will work for you. If you plant 10 lettuce plants, you’re going to end up with a lot of lettuce all at the same time and possible wasted harvest. If you plant a couple of plants every week or two, you’ll end up with a staggered harvest.
