To get the most bang for your gardening buck, start with seeds. Why? A pack of seeds costs approximately $3 for anywhere from 25-100 seeds, while transplants run about $3 for 4 plants. You do that math. Well, there are a few more factors to figure in to your total seed starting costs, but seeds still come out ahead (I’ll show you below).

To start your garden seeds, you need soil and something to put it in. The most common thing to use are trays just like you buy your transplants in from a greenhouse. You can buy the trays at just about any home and garden store, or you can order them online. If you’d like to buy them in bulk and save more money, I’ve used FarmTek before with no complaints.

You will want a tray and a sheet of inserts for each tray. The inserts vary in size, but I would recommend using a bigger cell for good root formation. This means you want a lower total plant number (48 vs 72) insert.

For soil, I do not recommend the soil-less stuff that is everywhere. Unless you want to worry about fertilizing your plants. I never do, so I had stinky results using the stuff. Last year, we tried Natural Beginnings Seed-Starting Mix from Garden’s Alive. I will be using this from now on. In all the years we have started seeds, our seedlings have never been as big and healthy as they were last year. (By the way, this is not an ad, I just love this stuff and know you will, too)

This soil is more pricey than the standard soil-less stuff, but it is so worth it. One bag did 5 trays. When I added up the cost of the soil, seeds, and trays, it figured out to about $7-$9 per tray depending on the seeds. Remember each tray held around 48 plants, which gave me a per plant cost of 15 to 19 CENTS.

If you grow open-pollinated varieties and save your seeds, you can reduce or even eliminate this cost factor in following years. Save your trays and inserts for a few years, and all you have is the cost of soil. Do you see why I recommend heirloom seeds?

Once you have your supplies, the process is easy. Fill your inserts with soil, plant your seeds, and keep the trays moist and in the sunlight. That’s it. I should mention that some seeds germinate best out of direct sunlight, your seed packets will tell you this. They will also tell you when you need to start the seeds, generally 4-8 weeks before you intend to plant them outside.

I highly recommend open-pollinated heirloom seeds. These can be hard to come by, as most stores do not carry a wide selection of these. I’ve compiled a list of sources to share with you. If you know of a source that is not mentioned here, please share it with us in the comment section!

Places I’ve ordered from and can personally recommend:

• Seed Savers Exchange
• Territorial Seeds
• Heirloom Seeds
• Azure Standard

Places I’ve not ordered from, but others recommend:

• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Bulk Herb Store
• Botanical Interest
• Comstock Ferre & Co.
• D. Landereth Seed Company
• High Mowing Organic Seeds
• Sow True Seed
• Victory Seeds
• Heritage Harvest Seeds
• Annie’s Heirloom Seeds
• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
• Johnny’s Selected Seeds

Happy gardening! Next week we will talk about recipes you can grow (or mostly grow).

I will be linking this post up with the Better Mom Monday link-up at The Better Mom, Living Green Tuesdays at Like a Mustard Seed, Encourage One Another at Deep Roots at Home, Wellness Wednesday at Intoxicated on Life, Proverbs 31 Thursdays at Raising Mighty Arrows, and Hearts at Home at Upside Down Homeschooling –> Be sure to check out these link-ups for more great posts!

Our first garden was a little area on the side of our house where we grew a small variety of veggies (aka, I don’t remember what we grew…). We did really well…the first few weeks. I think most beginning gardeners deal with the same naive, over-optimism when it comes to planning their first garden. We were finally realistic with our expectations with our sixth garden. And we did so well that year, that we actually expanded the next year. We intend to expand again this year, too. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Planning for your first garden is exciting…and overwhelming. I have four tips for you to think about.

1. Location, location, location

Real estate is not the only market where the key phrase is “location, location, location.” Location is very important when planning your first garden. Most vegetables need at least 6-8 hours of sunlight each day. There really is no replacement for sunlight when it comes to gardening. You are not limited to an open field, though.

Watch your space, but keep in mind that if you are doing this now, the sun does change positions throughout the year. What you want to watch for is tall objects and the shadows they cast, areas where water puddles (to avoid), and where the natural traffic flow is for animals (and humans). If you plant your garden where the dog routinely walks, guess what? The dog WILL walk through your garden. Planning your first garden with these things in mind will save you some headaches in the long run.

If you don’t have enough open space, look into container gardening (be sure to check out her follow-up post, too), vertical gardening, windowsill gardening, or urban gardening. If you don’t have a space that isn’t sopping wet, build a raised bed to get your plants’ feet out of the puddle. There are lots of ideas floating around Pinterest, check those out for inspiration, too.

2. Size Does Matter

Um, gardens, people. Gardens. Sheesh. As I mentioned before, I am notoriously over-optimistic when it comes to how much garden we can handle. Ultimately, we hope to produce much of what we eat here on our one acre homestead. Learn from my experience. Start with less than you think you can handle, unless you think you can’t handle anything, then start with a 4’x8′ bed. Nothing ruins the gardening experience better than losing control of weeding and losing all the time and money you invested. Trust me.

3. Plant What You Eat

Tomatoes are fun to grow. They come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and even flavors, especially heirloom varieties. But if you don’t like tomatoes or eat food with tomatoes in it, you are wasting your time and space. I know it is tempting to think “well, I don’t eat them now, but I will when I grow them…” You won’t.

Plant what you eat, not what you think you should be eating. Trying new things is fun. Shopping all the things you can grow in your first garden is fun. Rotten veggies that you invested time and money into is not fun. It does nothing to inspire your gardening efforts. Try new varieties and veggies next year. This year’s new thing is planning and growing the garden itself.

4. Easy Does It

Now, let me expound upon number three. You also want easy to grow. Zucchini is easy to grow and it is a prolific plant. However, zucchini plants are prone to squash bugs. Want to know how I feel about squash bugs? Ahem. I would avoid plants that are prone to these buggers your first year and read all you can about natural pest control in the garden (please, please, please do not use pesticides or such chemicals in your garden).

Tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers are all relatively easy to grow. So is lettuce and spinach (green smoothies, anyone?). Root veggies take a little extra ground work at the beginning, but keep well once harvested in the fall.

Remember that everything you plant in your garden is going to need watered and weeded. Raised beds and mulching help you out in this area tremendously. Trust me on that one, too.

Bonus Tip #1

Keep a garden journal. I don’t, so this may seem hypocritical advice to some. To that I say, learn from my mistake! I intend to start one in my home management binder this year. I can’t tell you how much I wish I could reference notes about our past successes, failures, pest problems, yields, etc. I’m not talking anything elaborate or pretty, though if that’s your thing, go for it. A spiral bound notebook will work just fine.

Bonus Tip #2

Raised beds. Build them, fill them, use them. They make gardening infinitely better and easier.

Bonus Tip #3

If you find a snake in one of your garden beds, go right back out the next day. You probably scared him off when you ran screaming out of the garden the day before anyways…

{Good Reads} for Planning Your First Garden

Wondering where to buy seeds and transplants? I’ll cover that on Monday. I’ll see you then!

Related posts here on ye ol’ blog:

• My Absolute Best Money Saving Tip
• Heirlooms, Hybrids & GMOs, Oh My!
• Around My Yard in Photos (no advice, but a nice reminder that greener days are ahead!)

I’m linking this post up to Encourage One Another at Deep Roots at Home, Wellness Wednesday at Intoxicated on Life, and Hearts at Home on Upside Down Homeschooling.