So you want to be a gardener? You want to go out into your own yard, pick a beautiful red tomato and bite into it knowing that there are no harmful pesticides or chemical lurking on its skin? Then you've come to the right place to get started.
First, you need a place to garden. There are as many variations in location as there are people on earth. You can be successful almost anywhere if you have good soil, lots of sunlight, warmth, and water. Some of these can be natural or you can "import" them from other sources. For you vegetables to be organic, your soil must be chemical free for 3 years. This is a bit arbitrary as far as numbers go. Some places might not need 3 years for all traces of chemicals to be worked out of the soil, in some places 30 years wouldn't be enough.
Here's what I would do if I were starting a new garden. Go to your local cooperative extension office and buy their inexpensive soil testing kit. It comes with instructions. Follow the instructions and wait for the results. They will tell you what nutients your soil needs or doesn't need. If you suspect your soil contains something bad, ask the people at the cooperative extension and they can probably recommend further testing.
Once you've tested your site (with container gardening you don't have to worry), you need a plan. Make a list of the vegetables you want. Ask yourself if you want a garden for just immediate eating or if you want extra veggies to store. Now that you have a list, look at the space requirements for each vegetable.
Here's a great chart to help you do that.
Time to order your seeds or go to a local store to buy seeds. Obviously if you want organic veggies, it's best to use organic seeds and starter plants. Seeds aren't that expensive but plants might be. If you can't find or afford organic seeds, you can usually buy regular seed. The exception to this is corn. I would always buy organic corn seed these days with all the genetically modified stuff out there.
Keep it simple. Draw out your garden on paper with 1 foot equaling 1 inch. I'd recommend you take a look at interplanting species and companion planting. Planting a variety of plants keeps the numbers of insects down and helps curb the spread of disease. Some plants don't like each other so you do have to be careful there. Traditionally, we've planted vegetables in rows to make cultivation and harvest easier. But go ahead and think out of the box, this is your garden.
Now, you have to cultivate. That's a fancy word for dig. You can dig your garden by hand like this, or you can buy or rent a rotatiller and dig your garden with that. There are other cultivators, again use what is convenient in your area. If the garden is small I like to hand dig because it is better for the soil. You might need to add things to make your soil healthier. I would recommend using organic supplements for your soil.
If you have your own goats, horses, or chickens you can add their manure to your garden and you can compost your kitchen vegetable scraps for added nutrients.
To learn about composting go to this great video here.
Once your garden is dug, raked, and has any big clumps of grass and weeds removed, you are ready to lay out your plan. I use string and sticks to lay out my garden. I also made myself a planting board for the most common measurements I needed. It looks like this. I just made mine less complicated by using a Permanent marker. You could also use a plastic quilters cutting mat.
Plant your seeds and plants according to the directions on the packages. Ask someone who gardens if you have questions about planting. Seasoned gardners always seem to like to share their expertise. They usually know a lot so take time to listen to their stories. Make sure you water in all your seeds and plants right away. Use a gentle watering method so you don't wash away the seeds.
Now comes the waiting. There is a thrill of satisfaction that comes from seeing your seeds come up. As they grow, thin them so they are the proper distance apart. I alway hate doing this, but you really need to so the plants have room to grow and don't compete with one another. I have learned that many of those little thinned seedlings taste very good, so as you thin you can have some nibbles from your garden.
Learn to tell a good insect from a bad insect here. You will want to encourage good insects and use some natural form of control for the destructive ones.
Finally as your vegetables ripen, harvest and eat them. If you have extras you can learn to preserve them. Learn about food preservation on this page.
Additional resources and links : (coming soon)