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By Adam Formella, NC Cooperative Extension

Starting a home garden can be a daunting task. The thought of buying materials and seeds, spending hours preparing and planting. just to have all of your hard work be for naught if your plants die can discourage anyone. Yet the reward of having fresh vegetables and the sense of accomplishment from growing a plant from seed to harvest is well worth the heartache.

The N.C. Cooperative Extension, Currituck County Center’s Beginners Guide to Gardening aims to take the stress out of gardening. A short summary of the article can be found below, with the complete article found at the Currituck County Extension web page  https://currituck.ces.ncsu.edu/. Once you’re through with this article you will have all of the knowledge necessary to start your very own vegetable garden.

Picking a location is the first step when starting a home vegetable garden. Planting should be done north to south to allow for even amounts of sunlight for each row. Traditional row gardens, raised beds, container and intensive interplanted gardens are a few garden techniques, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Regardless of the garden technique, soil should be sampled prior to planting to ensure proper soil fertility. Knowing the right time to plant vegetables is another challenge. Using a planting table is a good place to start. The planting table below shows when to plant a few vegetables in Eastern N.C.

For more gardening techniques, sign up for N.C. Cooperative Extension Master Gardener^SM Volunteer’s Speaker’s Bureau Series at http://go.ncsu.edu/mgspeakersbureau. This free monthly series aims to help you improve and enjoy your garden.  For questions about the Master Gardener^SM program contact Chris Blaha at chris_blaha@ncsu.edu. More information on vegetable gardening can be found on the N.C. State Extension web page https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/ titled: Vegetable Gardening and Vegetable Gardening: A Beginner’s Guide. For additional gardening help or for help with soil samples, contact Adam Formella by email or phone at adam_formella@ncsu.edu or 252-232-2262.

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