by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: May 26, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2012

Vegetable gardening for beginners need not be a chore if the first start is  small and not much is expected. It shsould be approached as a learning experience, not at all unlike entering the first day of school.  Depending on the type of soil in the pots on a patio, in  a small backyard plot only big enough for easy managing.  When this is finished, plant a second crop. Enlarge the garden as the future gardener grows in body  and in gardening  interest. Age has little to do with the size of gardens. A small four foot patch can yield a fair amount of vegetables for one person.

Get information from the library, ask the gardener next door, or ask whomever you know will be more than glad to help, and start out expecting only that the fresh air and the exercise will be your best gains, at first. Don't spread your effort too thin at first, but concentrate on growing your favorite vegetables; then each season expand as your knowledge and understanding of the plant world opens up to you.

While it is exciting to send for and read seed catalogs during the long winter months, it is best to buy seeds from local suppliers since they will be acclimated to the soil and season in your area. Yet, subscribing to a good gardening magazine, such as Organic Gardening by Rodale Publishing can work wonders. It can make you an expert gardener in only a few years; and in the meantime will teach you valuable lessons on pesticides and such. There is not better way to while away cold winter months than reading all the beautiful and hopeful seed catalogs. Think twice or three times, though, before ordering exotic plants that more than likely will fizzle in your climate.

Gardeners are the most generous people on earth. So don't forget to supply your family and friends, and especially those that helped you get started, with plenty of tomatoes and kale, and turnips, onions, and squash. Believe it or not, if you are serious about gardening and learn the right way, in a few years your biggest problem, second only to an aching back, will be what to do with your bountiful crop.

An excellent way to go green is to grow your garden the organic way. There is an excellent magazine, 'Organic Gardening' put out by the (Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pennsylvania,)that will teach you how to become an effective gardener if you are a serious learner. The writers of this magazine are great gardeners and will have answers to all your problems and are quite innovative.

No matter what excuse you have, your thumb is not green, you do not have the time, you don't have the space, these are all just excuses. If you sincerely want to garden you will find a way. Gardeners are persistent people, much more persistent than the bugs that steal from them, and they will find a way of growing what they need to grow. If cucumbers take up too much of their precious growing soil, then innovation will force them to train the vines to climb the fence; apartment dwellers will grow veggies in pots on the roofs, and wherever. Gardeners are limited only by their imagination. They probably coined the phrase, 'where there's a will, there's a way'.

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