I just received word that I get to garden in a community garden plot this summer! This is good news because I really need to improve my green thumb before we move to the land. I have picked a few things to grow and put in a few seed orders. Here are the guiding principles I used to plan my garden - which I thought might be helpful to other new gardeners.
1. Stick to one seed company. Seed catalogues are so fun to receive and look through but actually choosing and ordering seeds from all those companies can get overwhelming and expensive. I chose to order from Heritage Harvest because I like their business practices, they are a Canadian company, and their print catalogue had choices without being overwhelming.
2. Grow what you want to eat. For some reason gardeners are obsessed with tomatoes but I really don't enjoy eating tomatoes so I avoided that category. I did however choose two types of beets and multiple herbs for my little garden.
3. Food experiments. I choose some plants with the intention of experimenting with the harvest. For example, nasturtiums will be made into capers and I really want to dry chamomile flowers to be used in teas. As a foodie, goals of this type are important as these experiments will help ensure long term interest in the garden.
4. Keep it simple. Once you start browsing seed catalogues and pinterest for gardening ideas there will be more ideas than you can accomplish in any one growing season. This is true of all gardeners but its beneficial for newbies to keep the garden plan simple.
5. Define success before you start. This year my definition of success is 'if one plant grew in my plot then I had a successful gardening year'. I don't have to harvest anything. I don't have to eat a single meal made of homegrown vegetables. If my raised bed has one green plant that I intentionally planted in it at any point in the season then my gardening year was a success.
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