What not to do

Like most people who grocery shop for their homes, I thought about starting a garden this year to save some money.

Little did I know the amount of anxiety and stress I would be soon getting into. Because I am someone who likes to plan, however, this was very hasty and decidedly impulsive.

So I will be a shining example of what not to do when you are trying to start a garden. So here are a few quick tips. To save yourself a headache.

Too many varieties

One of my best tips is to stick with one variety of vegetable so that you are not getting overwhelmed.

I have four varieties of radish. I did not need that many.

However, I did need to use up the seeds and see if they would even sprout. I discovered that, even though they were expired by a year or two. All of my seeds from those packets germinated.

So, now I have an excessive amount of these radish starts that I need to get into the ground fairly quickly. On top of everything else that is starting to sprout.

I also have a space constraint, so finding spots for all of these vegetables are going to be hard, and I am going to have to be a little creative to find places for everything. Which leads me to another common mistake.

Not planning space ahead of time

Even though I live in a rural area and technically have a lot of space, I still have a need to properly prepare planting beds in suitable areas for my vegetables.

I had planned to make some raised beds for some of my vegetables. However, life got in the way and other projects needed doing before I could get to them.

So here I am, with hundreds of radishes, and I need to get them in the ground in the next week.

It is not the most ideal situation. But it could’ve been avoided had I already had established raised beds, or other areas to accommodate my massive amount of vegetables.

Needless to say, I will need to magically find a time to build the beds and fill them with dirt and compost and get my plants planted before they start dying from being overcrowded.

No time!

After losing my job recently, I have been very busy trying to renovate my house. And do enough side work through various ways so that I can survive and do normal things like make my car payment.

So with renovation and working for money, I have been surprisingly busy. And I did not account for the time that my garden project would eat up.

So, making raised beds, filling them with dirt, and transplanting seedlings. Well, that sounds like a lot of time that I did not account for.

So, in itself, these things do not take days. But they do eat up your precious hours throughout the week. And when you are juggling multiple projects and jobs, a couple hours of extra work can be a little daunting.

The side component to time is energy. So if you are already pretty booked in your days, adding extra chores, such as watering or building, raised beds, or transplanting seedlings, can be unhelpful.

Start off better than me

If I were to do it again. Or for the first time like you may be wanting to do. I would have planned a lot differently. And a lot smaller.

I would have only one or two varieties of one kind of plant. A good example would be a beefsteak tomato and a grape tomato. If I was super interested in making tomato sauce to can, maybe a type of Roma tomato.

I don’t think I will ever be purchasing four varieties of radish ever again

Oh, I would definitely have my space either built or purchased and prepared before it was last minute and I needed to get plants in the ground.

If I planned it well, and kept it small and reasonable, I would not have an issue with the time and energy component to starting a garden.

I will probably be doing a follow up article when things actually start growing and I’m getting overwhelmed with too many vegetables. Wish me luck, and plan better than I did.

Good luck, happy gardening, and have a happy!