Want to Try Gardening? Start Here.

Before you start getting willy-nilly with all those seed packets and pots, the most important thing you should do as a gardener is plan.

Planning may not sound like the sexiest thing on earth, but it’s a crucial first step in ensuring that your garden is primed for success. You’ll want to think about and answer the following questions:

Space for a garden is something that greatly varies and can be tailored to fit your needs. For example, if you rent an apartment, your garden space might be limited to an outdoor balcony. When I moved to Kansas, my first garden was exactly that–I had a balcony shelf filled with herbs, a Kimberly fern and a tomato plant. That was it, but it worked! As long as your space offers a light source and you have access to water, a garden can grow.

If you have a house or access to a community garden plot, you can consider things like larger raised beds or dug-in ground beds. Raised beds are great because they offer a contained way to keep weeds and pests away from your plants. You can even invest in taller raised beds on stilts so that you don’t have to bend over much to do your gardening. Ground beds generally require more maintenance, including mulching and regular weeding, but they are a good way to put in more plants.

No matter the amount of space you have, you’ll also want to consider how many plants you can realistically handle with all your other life responsibilities. As I said before, gardening takes daily watering and tending, and you’d be surprised how long it can take to water a big garden!

Although time spent in the garden can vary greatly from person to person, consider the following time obligation estimations:

A tiny garden, like a balcony container garden or backyard with several pots, will likely require around 15 minutes of daily care, which amounts to under two hours a week.
A small garden under 1000 square feet will require around 30-45 minutes average of daily care, which amounts to 3.5-5 hours a week.
A large garden over 1000 square feet will need at least 1-2 hours of daily care, which amounts to 7-14 hours a week!

For reference, our yard includes a small fenced vegetable garden, a terraced flower garden, a native wildflower garden and several shrubs that need at least weekly regular watering. On an average day, I spend about 30 minutes taking care of everything. This obviously decreases a lot in the winter, but in the heat of summer, watering and weeding sometimes takes me more than an hour.

In addition to time constraints, you’ll also want to consider how much you’re willing to spend on your garden. I’ve always been a sucker for home improvement stores but some days, I balk at the amount of money I’ve forked over to them. To help you get an idea of how much gardening costs, consider this list of common gardening items that you will most likely have to invest in:

One-time purchases:

Gardening tools such as trowels, shovels, rakes, etc.
Gloves and sun protection
Fencing and ties
Seed trays
Various pots for seedlings/transplanting
Hose, sprinkler and soakers
Plant labels
Pruners, shears, loppers
Wheelbarrows and buckets

Regular/on-going purchases:

Potting soil
Mulch
Seed
Fertilizer
Pest protection

Some of these items can be borrowed from friends or you can find ways to go without. For example, if you grow mostly small plants, you probably won’t need loppers or a sprinkler system. It’s mostly the ongoing items that will take up the majority of your gardening budget. I personally spend most of my budget on soil because I own large raised beds and every year they require new top soil.

Overall, it’s important to take a hard and honest look at your finances and gardening goals together. My best advice is that you can’t go wrong starting small. That way, you get a good idea of what you can handle on a daily basis and if things are going well, you can always add more.