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My friend Dominque sent me a message a few weeks ago - she was looking for help building and planning a vegetable garden. Since last summer was the third summer in a row that I (along with my partner in crime, the talented Matt) had built a garden from scratch, I was much obliged!

Dom lives in Colorado, so we have been communicating via the virtual world. I've emailed her several times - nice long nerdy emails about soil, sun, plants - she sent me pictures of where she dreams of garden plot living.

Here are the first 3 steps I told Dom to take; thought I'd take you along for the ride. Do you mind?

The First recommendation I gave Dom was to build a raised bed to house her garden. While this is initially a more expensive approach, it allows you to dig right in and enjoy the fruits of your labors. Trust me, when we started garden #1 we thought it would be super clever to just till up a huge garden area of about 20x60 feet and plant directly into the soil. Mind you we are not farmers. I do maintain a brown thumb for the summer, but was not able to tend to our garden daily. By the end of the summer Field Bind Weed (also known as Morning Glory) as most of the way up our 6 foot corn stalks and we were over whelmed.

Building raised beds will allow you to start your garden out with “weed less” soil (more about this in another post). Plus it can be nice to not have to break your back bending over - and there is less area for you to care for.

Which leads me to my Second recommendation - start small. If all you want is some tomatoes andqukes why go crazy planting a huge garden plot? Sometimes our enthusiasm can get us in over our heads (like me with garden #1). To know what sized bed will work for you - take my advice from the previous post and make a list.

With this list you can determine what the right amount of space is for what you want to plant. You can always add more later! I like to loosely use the square foot garden method of planting, keeping veggies nice and close to prevent water evaporation, weeds, and to optimize on space. Here is a great list to let you know how many of vegetables can be grown within a square foot.

For Dom we determined with her list of; Corn, Tomatoes, Yellow & butternut Squash, Zucchini, Carrots, Green beans, sweet peas & cantaloupe that she could easily have enough space with one 8x4 foot raised beds, or 32 square feet (initially she thought she would need two beds).

Third thing to do is determine where your raised bed(s) should go. Wanting optimum sunlight for your vegetables (which need at least 8 hours of sun a day) it is generally best to plan your bed where it will receive a southern exposure, or even best a south-western exposure. This is all assuming that there are not any big trees or buildings in the way of your sun.

With your garden facing south you also want to be sure to get water to your garden. This may mean running a hose from your house into your yard, or installing a spicket close to your garden. Do not water your vegetable garden with your ornamental garden! Your vegetable garden will need to be watered much more often than other garden areas AND you will want to water your vegetables at their base (using a drip system or soaker hose) to prevent disease.

In the next posts I will share; what I believe are the best materials to build your raised beds out of, more on this weed less soil, Dominique's garden plan I will draw for her, and shall we talk a bit about how to get even more out of a small garden by going up? Talking vertical here people.

What are some questions you have about starting a vegetable garden? Leave a comment!