Where to Start
So, You're Looking to Start a Garden?
Congratulations! You've taken the first step in producing your own fresh food and beautiful flowers. When you grow your own food, you get to choose what fertilizers and pesticides go into growing the produce you eat, and unlike mass-produced food, this often means more nutritious and better tasting foods.
So, let's get to it! What type of garden are you going to start?
The Container Garden
The container garden exists above ground in a contained and isolated bit of soil. This can mean the cute pots and planters they sell in the garden stores or a set of five-gallon buckets from the home improvement store of your choice. This is often the most versatile and space-efficent style of garden for those living in an apartment or on a budget. It's also a great choice for those whose in-ground soil is dense or poor quality.
Container gardens allow you to make the most of the high-quality soil you can purchase in stores. Generally, there is less weeding involved, and plants can be easily relocated, if growing conditions are not ideal. The main downsides to this method are a limitation on what crops your are able to grow and a requirement for more frequent watering due to the soil drying out faster. For instance, a crop like corn needs to be planted in blocks that are approximately 4ft by 4ft in size, and grow 5-6 ft in height or more, which is not ideal for most container garden spaces. Likewise, it is possible to grow a tomato plant in a one gallon pot, but it is going to limit how big the plant will grow, and it will need frequent, careful fertilizer feedings to produce any fruit.
Also, please note, while you can get creative with what you grow plants in, you should always make certain that the containers are food safe if you intend to be growing crops you intend to eat!
The Raised BED Garden
The raised bed garden is an excellent option if you have a little more space to dedicate to your garden. The raised bed walls typically have an open bottom. This allows plants to reach down into the native soil below to access additional nutrients when necessary, which greatly increases your plant's overall resiliance when the weather changes
This is also an excellent option for your back health in the long run. Though the initial costs may be higher, may companies offer raised beds that come up to your waist and reduce how much bending over you need to do to maintain your garden. If everyone had the resources for a raised bed garden, this would be my recommendation almost every time. If set up correctly, a raised bed garden can last years, only requiring you to add in organic material once or twice a year to revamp up the soil for planting. It allows you to take the most advantage of top-quality soil and your native soil, and there's almost no limit to what you can grow in a raised bed.
So, what are the downsides? The big one is the start-up cost. Handmade, wooden raised beds are often the cheapest option for the outside of the bed, but wood will degrade over time, forcing you to rebuild the bed every two to three years. Corrugated metal, on the other hand, is more expensive, but will often last over a decade or more before rusting and needing to be replaced. The amount of soil needed can quickly get expensive. A 4ft by 4ft raised bed that is only 1ft tall will require 16 cu ft of materials to fill to the top. Don't get overwhelmed though! There are options for larger beds that don't require you to purchase expensive soils for the entire bed.
The In-Ground Garden
This is as traditional as a garden gets. For centuries, humans have been farming the land for food. In-ground farming and gardening is one of the primary method of food production across the world, and there's good reason for why. The start-up cost is often lower than raised beds, and the only limitation for how much food you can grow is space.
Oftentimes, this is a great option for the cheapest of gardens. All you need is a shovel or hoe and plants or seeds, but there are potential drawbacks for this method as well. The first thing you need to consider for this method is your space and your soil. You'll need to decide how much space you're willing to dedicate to a garden, and if fencing will be necessary to keep out pets and potential pests. You'l also need to take the time to clear then space of other plants and weeds, break up any dense soil by tilling, and test the quality of the soil. You should be also aware that tilling the soil may activate dormant weed seeds in the ground and lead to more weeding in the long run.
The bright side is that the first year is often the most work. In-ground gardens require the most weeding, but the work of clearing the area, loosening the soil, and intalling fences is often over, and all you need to do to start is add organic material like compost to boost the soil for the next season. Also, it's worth noting that plants native to your area are likely to do well in an in-ground garden with native soil and require little work once they've established a root system!