How To Grow A Veggie Garden (For The Girls Who Kill Everything)

Let’s talk “green thumbs”. Most people think you either have one, or you don’t. Are you the girl who knows the doomed destiny of that beautiful new house plant you were gifted? Or can you bring your friend’s house plant back to life? Maybe you WISH you had a green thumb, but you don’t have a great track record so you gave up a long time ago. I want to give you hope and encourage you to start your very own veggie garden. That’s right, you CAN grow your own vegetables, even if you don’t have a great track record.

So here we have it: How to grow a veggie garden (for the girl who kills everything).

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My love for having a garden came from my grandmother.

My grandma always had butter beans, corn, green beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers in her garden. We loved going to her house and seeing the ziplock bags of frozen veggies she grew in her garden. I still have dreams about how delicious her butter beans were. I haven’t had any like hers! I knew when I had a home of my own, I would want to grow my own fruits and veggies.

Fast forward to our college days at Appalachian, Demetrius had a summer job working at a farm so he could pay his bills over the summer. He learned a lot about growing plants and flowers and became fascinated with the process.

We like to call his farm job his best kept secret. He’s a football player that just happens to know how to take care of plants… I’m guessing a lot of his teammates can’t say the same!

Now, our veggie garden is another hobby that we get to do together.

I love slipping on my garden shoes and heading out to see what has grown, what new vegetables are coming in, and what weeds I can pluck. Demetrius is always right out there with me, checking things out and helping me shove the tomato cages in the ground so the plants don’t fall over. I especially love when I go out to water the garden and find that he’s already done it! Even when it’s only five minutes, I love when he comes to help me and look around at what we did together. It’s another part of the day we get to connect on something we both enjoy.

This was a win win situation for me- a man that knows how to grow a veggie garden and enjoys doing it.

When we moved to Jacksonville, we knew we had a perfect location to grow a veggie garden. Even when we rented homes, we just used containers for our plants so we didn’t ruin the homeowners shrubbery. I love posting my the garden progress on Instagram and pictures of my harvest.

Now, everyone asks me what my secrets are on how to grow a veggie garden. Really, it’s not hard! You just need to have a plan and stick to it.

Here are some of my best tips on how to grow a veggie garden for beginners:

• Believe you can & commit

  • Ok, maybe this sounds kinda lame, but seriously… Kindergarteners can plant a tiny seed, place it in the window, water it, and watch it grow. You are an adult, you CAN do this. You need to commit to maintaining the garden regularly. If you miss a whole week of watering (assuming it hasn’t rained), you’re writing a death sentence for your garden.

• Location, location, location

  • Plants need sun. Certain plants need LOTS of sun and others not as much. In my experience, my veggies (with the exception of most lettuce varieties) LOVE sun. Even in Florida, they THRIVE. So, wherever you decide to put your garden, make sure there’s PLENTY of sunshine. Plants that like full sun means 6-8 hours of sun everyday.

• In ground or containers?

  • If you rent, I suggest trying containers to start your garden. This way you don’t have to worry about fixing the landscape back once you move. Demetrius and I did this successfully every year but we definitely yielded more veggies when we had a larger, in-ground garden.

• • We now have cedar raised beds that we absolutely love. First, we placed black weed killing sheets at the bottom (because we placed it on top of our grass so we wanted it to die first) and added top soil into the containers. We mixed in a good fertilizer with the soil and we think that made a huge difference in our plants.

• Plan & plant what you’ll grow

  • Hate tomatoes? I’m guessing you’ll want to skip the tomatoes in your garden. We have tons of tomatoes (cherry & “Better Boy”), cucumbers, all types of peppers, corn, strawberries, lettuce, and tons of herbs. I use companion planting principles to plan out what veggies I place together in a bed. I draw the beds on a piece of paper, figure out what I want to put together, and then make it happen.

• • Once you pick what you’ll grow, check (Google) WHEN the best month is to grow the veggie or fruit. For example, broccoli and spinach enjoy cooler weather, so we obviously don’t grow that here in the Florida summer. Check out what zone you’re in and plan from there.
  • We always buy small plants instead of seeds, for the most part . They’re easier to me but there are some things that we have started from seeds. Keep in mind, some plants need EXTRA space. The plants start really small but they grow to be seriously huge. My tomato plant is taller than I am at the moment! Give ’em space to let their roots grow.

• •  Fun fact- Cam was playing with the corn seeds this year, ended up planting them, and now we have 20 HUGE corn stalks in the garden! We call it “Cam’s Corn”.

• Water ’em

  • Immediately after planting, give them a good water (mucho water). I always water them more at the start to make sure they get rooted well. ALWAYS WATER IN THE EVENING! Or if you have to, super early in the morning. If you water in the middle of the day, the leaves will “burn” and turn brown.

• There *will* be critters

  • Depending where you live, you may have lots of animals that think you just opened a buffet just for them. Got squirrels or deer? These are he worst pests and that means you’ll probably have to get some netting and cover up your garden to deter them. I’ve never (knock on wood) had major issues with bugs or infestation. I’ve found companion planting with marigolds and other herbs that have a strong scent (lemon balm, spearmint, basil, thyme, lavender, rosemary) keep the bugs out of your garden because they don’t like the way they smell. News flash: Google is a great resource for what to do if you have specific concerns.

• Pick your veggies!

  • You know the whole breast feeding thing that’s like supply & demand.. the more your baby eats, the more your body will make? Plants (strangely) do the same thing! Don’t forget to pick your veggies because once you do, it signals the plant to make more!

• It’s okay to screw up!

  • My first tomato plant that tragically died because I forgot to put holes in the bottom of the container. Even now that I know how to grow a veggie garden, I still have things that don’t go right, and that’s ok. I had some basil this year that ended up getting a disease so I pulled it out and haven’t bought a new one yet. I also planted some green bean seeds that never came up (guessing I should have started them inside instead of in the ground) and okra that ended up dying from an over crowded garden.  But I still have TONS of veggies that are THRIVING and that makes me happy!

And there you have it friends, veggie gardens for the girls who kill everything. Use these simple steps to get started. Do you have any specific questions? Leave me a comment or shoot me a message on Instagram @Poms2Moms. I LOVE talking how to grow a veggie garden!