Starting a vegetable garden is a wonderful experience.
In this day and age where who knows what goes into your food, a vegetable garden gives you some control over what you are eating.
It also provides great exercise.
Whether you live in the country or even in the middle of a busy city you can start a vegetable garden.
You just have to know the basics.
I personally enjoy growing a vegetable garden more than flowers because they are much easier to get to grow.
They are not as delicate as flowers, and don't die as easily when there are changes in the weather.
In fact, 2 inches of ice fell on my veggies this year and they are still going strong.
Vegetable gardens can take up a lot of space, but growers have now come out with many dwarf varieties that will grow in containers just as well.
There are a few ways you can plant your vegetable garden, it really depends on what you like and the space you have available.
The traditional way takes a lot of room.
You plant your plants or seeds in rows, evenly spaced.
This can quickly ruin your soil because you are actually walking in the garden to weed and harvest.
After we tried the traditional planting style and didn't have a lot of luck with it we went looking for some other options.
We soon found raised bed gardening.
You create a bed that is raised above ground, ours are 12 inches tall.
You keep the bed 3 or 4 feet across so you can easily reach the middle from either side.
Doing this allows great drainage, I don't have to mess with the Bermuda grass, and the weeding is minimal.
If you love having flowers, but don't want an entire flower bed you can easily add some flowers to your vegetable bed.
In fact, some flowers are edible and it's nice to add them.
Some flowers also help repel insects so that is a great natural way to keep the bugs out of your vegetables.
Even if you don't have room for raised beds, or traditional gardening never fear.
Even those the most crunched for space can grow a vegetable garden.
Most types of vegetables now have at least one dwarf version that can be grown in a pot in front of a window or on a patio.
There are even upside down planters you can grow many things in as well.
All they require is a good sturdy hook, sun and water.
It doesn't really matter how much space you have available.
If you've got the vegetable garden bug you can make it happen.
If you have minimal space you may have to choose one or two veggies to grow, so make sure they're your favorites.
If you have lots of room, you can grow more, but remember as a beginner to keep the garden small.
It may end up being more work than you realized when you were dreaming your garden into existence.