Start a Family Vegetable Garden: Planning, Planting & Harvesting Together

Why Grow Your Own?

• Taste & nutrition: Vine-ripened beats truck-ripened every time.
• Savings: $70 investment → $600+ retail value (NGA data).
• Health: Exercise, stress relief, zero pesticide control.
• Family bonding: Shared project, kids learn responsibility, everyone eats better.

Pick the Perfect Spot

• Sun: 8+ hours non-negotiable for fruiting crops (tomatoes, peppers, squash). Leafy greens tolerate 4–6.
• Water: Hose reach or irrigation. Level ground = even moisture.
• Soil: Test. Build raised beds if drainage poor or soil contaminated.
• Access: Wheelbarrow path, tool storage nearby.

Beginner-Friendly Crops (High Success, High Yield)

Stagger for Continuous Harvest

Plant a new row of beans/lettuce/radish every 2–3 weeks. Determinate tomatoes ripen all at once—great for canning. Indeterminate = fresh eating all summer.

Essential Maintenance Rhythm

• Weed early, weed often: 10 min daily > 2 hrs weekly.
• Water deep: 1" per week in one soak. Morning only. Mulch 2–3".
• Feed smart: Compost at planting. Side-dress fruiting crops with balanced organic at first fruit set.
• Scout daily: Flip leaves. Squish eggs. Remove diseased foliage instantly.

Harvest & Celebrate

Pick at peak. Share extras. Save seeds from open-pollinated favorites. Plan next year's garden over winter stew made from this year's bounty.