Beginner Gardening with Garden Beds
This coming season is going to be a new one for us! We’re living off the land (lol) and I am sharing beginner gardening with garden beds so you can come along for the whole ride! These are tips, tips and best practices from a pro!
The whole family is super excited for this project. We can’t wait to be able to go right outside and grab home grown produce to make fresh food right from home. We are going to be planting a lot of herbs and vegetables, so it will be very diverse and a fun new experience for us.
I had my friend Sara @gather.growdesign came out to help me get everything planned out. She is a master in the garden and knows so much about how to make the most of garden beds. Sara taught me so much about how to get this thing prepped so we are ready!
We built two separate garden beds, a larger L-shaped one that frames a smaller, square bed. Our L-shaped will be primarily vegetables. We will have Nasturtium plants framing the corners, but the smaller box will be all flowers! We’re so excited to see the blossoms from areas of the house.
To have the most diverse garden that fits with our usual eating habits, we decided on vegetables like onions, reliance and himrod grapes, sugar snap peas, peppers, Brandywine, Sungold, and Pineapple Tomatoes. Our herbs will be Cilantro, Thyme, Dill, Parsley, Sage, and Basil. As for all of our florals, we are planting Nasturtium, Ranunculus, Cosmos, Gomphrena, Zinnia, and Dahlias! It’s going to be gorgeous.
This whole process is new to me, but Sara has made sure I’m set up for success. Here is the schedule I’m going to be following this summer:
Phase 1- We’ve completed this already!
- Build the fence
- Add the trellis
- Place drip lines
- Amend soil – We used Nutri-Mulch x 1, Oakdell Compost x 2, Hardcore Compost x 2, Hi-Yield Fertilizer, and Vermiculite x 2.
Phase 2 – and this is where we are now!
Planting Cold Crops is next. With everything mapped out, I got the peas & onions planted (these are good for cold weather planting) and the ranunculuses & listhianthis (yay fresh blooms!). The Onions were planted as bulbs, not seeds, and those went straight into the garden beds. Pea seeds were soaked overnight, and then from there, I just followed the specific instructions on the packet!
Then, May will be a big stage for our garden beds!
Phase 3 – Plant warm weather crops!
Once it starts to warm up – about mid may – I can get all my vegetables in! I’ll use three different variations of tomato: Sungold (or SunSugar), Brandywine, and Pineapple. I can’t WAIT to cook with these.
For my Herbs, I’ll plant Cilantro, Thyme, Parsley, Sage, Basil, and Ammi (White Dill)! I’m also doing three types of pepper – Anaheim, Jalapeño, and Banana peppers.
For flowers, we’ll be planting Dahlias, Cosmos, Gomphrenas, Zinnias, and Nasturtium. And finally! For Perennials, I’ll plant Green Grapes (Himrod), and Pink Grapes (Reliance), and Rhubarb!
The main places I’ll be buying my seeds and blooms from this spring will be Smiths, Sunriver gardens (a local favorite), Cooks Farm and Greenhouse, and Snuck Farms!
And last but not least…
Phase 4 – This is just a little touch up. In late June – once the Ranunculus – are done for the season, I will swap that area out for Sunflower seeds. Then, we can enjoy another season with some beautiful fall color!
I’m super excited about this project, but since it is my first time, I definitely have a lot to learn. Where I live in Utah, there are a TON of deer. Everyone is always talking about how to keep deer away from their gardens. As for my deer prep, the number one thing I’m doing is placing a completely enclosed fence around my garden beds.
There will be a latched fence so I can still easily get in and out. But, it will be much harder for deer to walk right up and get a quick lunch! The fence is made from 4×4 cedar posts and 2×4 horizontal boards. We added sheep fencing all around and it stands 6ft tall. My neighbor has the exact same fence (I copied hers) and she has assured me that no deer has ever jumped in. I used the same paint on the fence posts that I used for my pergola and the outside of my home, so everything flows seamlessly.
I’m also spraying THIS formula around all my roses and hydrangeas not in my garden. This will help keep critters away from my pretty flowers too!
A few other tips I’ve heard for beginner gardening with garden beds:
- Sprinkle dried blood all over your plants (you can get this at Walmart, Ace Hardware, and Home Depot, apparently it’s pretty common!)
- Spread Hair clippings in the soil- human smell should keep them away! And Geraniums are similar to Peonies in that deer dislike the taste of them. They won’t eat them down to the stub. I’ve never tried these methods but apparently they work! We shall see!
Last piece of garden prep: we are adding this gate to the fence and a trellis above the entry. Please, stay out deer!
Can’t wait to share more with you during this process, it’s going to be a great learning process but so fun. Share all your favorite gardening tips below!
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