Thinking of starting your first homestead garden? Overwhelmed with all the different tips you’re seeing? Don’t worry, you’re in the right place!
Here, I’m going to break down 5 easy things to avoid to start your first homestead garden. (Don’t worry, one day you’ll be able to make great, elaborate gardens! But starting simple is the way to go.)
This is how my first garden went…keep reading to learn how to avoid this during your first time homestead gardening summer!
Homestead Garden Tips
Tip #1 - Learn which plants are friends and which plants are not
It’s so easy to want to plant every kind of vegetable and flower you love when you get into the gardening ideas. Believe me, I get it. And who wouldn’t want to?
Here’s the problem: it quickly becomes a headache trying to plan which plants to put together and which ones to separate.
Each plant likes specific other plants. For example, lettuce, onions, and radishes are great to grow by carrots but dill and potatoes are not. This is more of a learning curve, maybe some trial and error, but the more you include in your garden, the more lay out algebra you need to do.
This can make the planning process overwhelming and take the fun and excitement out of it. If you find yourself in that boat, knock out a couple plants and start with a smaller harvest. Then you can increase it the more comfortable you feel and the more you understand.
Tip #2 - Your vegetables need more room than you think
Your garden always looks GREAT when you first get everything planted, especially when you have some plantlets in there. All the vegetables and flowers are laid out perfectly and they look like they have plenty of room. Give it a month and a half and you’ll find that they actually have no room anymore. This is the number one mistake made when people start gardening.
Zucchinis and tomatoes take over the space. Carrots get squashed out by the big leaves. Flowers get too much shade and can’t enjoy the sunshine. It can be a violent power struggle in there.
So, with that in mind, do research on how much space your plants need to thrive. Make sure they can spread out, get enough sunshine and water, and reap a harvest for you.
Tip #3 - Know when to plant your garden
A lot of vegetables you can plant anywhere from mid April to mid August. There are definitely ones you can go later on, but not all. Looking into first frost is an important part of garden planning.
The back of seed packets typically have a chart showing when to plant that seed based on where you are in America. Think about how different the temperatures are. The planting time for carrots here in Minnesota is almost polar opposite months when you compare it to Florida. It makes sense, but has a little bit more thought to it than you might think.
Another reason this is important is for you! When do you want certain veggies? When do you want to can or freeze them? When will you have time to take in the biggest harvest? All of these things can play a factor in when you plant your veggies.
Tip #4 - Stay on top of the new full grown veggies
Your veggies grow slow at the beginning. You’ll check every day and wonder why they’re taking so long to show up. Then one day, one will pop up. Awesome! Then another, so fun! Then it gets crazy.
Being prepared to have 35 zucchini’s is a real thing. You might be tired of zucchini bread and muffins by the end of the fall. Make sure you have plenty of recipes and/or friends and family that want some. This can also be great planning for farmers markets if you’re into that!
The worst part about being bombarded with all these veggies is the waste that can very easily happen. If you aren’t checking on a fairly regular basis, you can miss some of the ones hiding deeper in the bushes that then become a snack for the bugs and slugs. While it’s okay to feed a few of them, losing out on pounds of fresh veggies can be really discouraging! Stay on top of your garden’s harvest.
Tip #5 - Keep your garden clear of bugs and slugs
Bugs and slugs will be your worst enemy if you aren’t careful. The amount of tomatoes I lost my first garden try was depressing.
There are lots of different tricks to keeping those pests away. For starters, tomatoes get heavy and they flop. Making sure you have a strong and sturdy trellis can help them stay upright and away from the ground where the bugs and slugs feast.
Another things to try is adding sawdust to the top of your soil. Slugs have soft bellies and are much less likely to slim across the rough sawdust to your plants.
Your first homestead garden won't be your best.
But think about how exciting that is? you can only get better. There are so many new tricks to try, new vegetables to plant, new fresh recipes to try. The options are endless and the more you try and experiment the better you’ll get.
To get there faster, consider these 5 homestead gardening tips and put them into practice. They might not seem like that big of a deal, but they can change the outcome of your whole garden.
Wishing you a big harvest this year!