I'm thinking of starting a garden, tips?

[Alagirl]

I have "evolved" my gardening to raised hügelkultur beds.

that is a great thing to build in the fall when one cleans the yard up.

 

[gtaus]

that [hügelkultur raised beds] is a great thing to build in the fall when one cleans the yard up.

Yes. Throwing all that yard clean up material into a hügelkultur bed is a good use of wood and leaves. But I have wood and yard clean up stuff year-round. I built my most recent hügelkultur raised beds this spring right before planting and they are working out great.

My hügelkultur beds drop an inch or two in volume over winter, so in the spring, you might have to top off the raised bed with some fresh compost and/or topsoil. But that's a good thing. In the Square Foot Gardening method, you are supposed to work in new compost every time you plant. So, it works out fine for me.

 

[Alagirl]

hügelkultur lets you get a little advantage in colder climates as the decomposing matter inside heats up the soil nicely for more tender plants.

 

[Alagirl]

Thank you for telling me this! I just happen to be going to a 4H event tomorrow, so I’ll ask the agent.

so how did your event go?

 

[esturtz27]

Truly you could probably feed your family and many families near by with a full acre garden.
Raised beds are a great way to use space and have a good bit of control when it comes to the soil.
Definitely get into some books though make sure you are reading for your zone. I've had a veggie garden in a few different zones and they all act different when it comes to veggies (I have a specific battle with tomatoes no matter where I live). Also, you can always start in pots. My herb garden lives on my porch and in my dining room (in winter).

This is probably not true for everyone but for me gardening has become a slowly expanding process. The first year ever( umm 22 years ago lol) I started out just growing Spicy peppers for hot sauce which was insanity but fun.
I don't have bunny issues just one that comes to dinner lol! My raised bed are safe and I don't really mind a couple leaves going missing. If it was more than that though I would do netting or a small hoop cover(depending on what it is). I don't have a watering system just go out each day and water.

 

[Dpenny]

When we first started out, we built a small growing tent using greenhouse materials. That way we could do more vertical growing in a smaller space. Just a simple shelving structure wrapped in UV plastic with some good sized pots got us a small but goof harvest early on. We got our supplies here is you are interested
https://jigglygreenhouse.com/store/