By Susan Hickey

The COVID-19 pandemic led many of us to change habits, some by necessity, others by choice. Many of us took the opportunity to develop healthier habits, like eating more vegetables. Fresh veggies are even better when grown in your own garden.  Planting a garden can be overwhelming, but not as challenging as you might think.

Depending on your home, you could choose to plant using containers or in a garden bed. We chose to expand our garden area last year since we had extra time on our hands!  Therefore, we were able to preserve beans, tomatoes and carrots for use all winter.

When choosing what to plant, one should consider family preferences, available space, and time constraints. Obviously, planting vegetables that your family prefers is a great idea, but consider trying something they might not normally eat. Actually seeing the veggies grow can entice your kids into trying new things – and it’s also an inexpensive way to experiment with veggies because seeds are cheap! 

Space constraints are important when planning a garden. Vegetables that require more room, like melons, squashes, cucumbers, and tomatoes, will limit the variety of plants you can grow in your garden. Remember that the small tomato plant you buy at the store will eventually quadruple in size and plan accordingly! Container gardening is a great option for those with limited space. Tomatoes, green beans (pole variety) and peas do well in containers.

Some plants require more time. For example, regularly harvesting green beans and tomatoes becomes important to keep the vegetables growing. We harvest green beans easily twice a day in July and August which stimulates continued bean production. Remember to stagger planting of seeds for vegetables like lettuce. Plant a few seeds every week so that they harvest at different rates. 

Keeping pests away from your vegetables is important to preserve the harvest. We found that chili powder and crushed eggshells sprinkled liberally around our plants deterred rabbits and other animals from eating our lettuce. Of course, there are plenty of other chemicals that are sold for this purpose, but we avoid those as much as possible.

You can naturally deter many bugs from your garden by planting marigolds. We tried this for the first time last summer and had great success. Not only was the garden beautiful with all the color, it also attracted bees and butterflies for pollination. Marigolds are inexpensive and low maintenance and we will definitely plant them again this summer.

Planting a garden is a great way to improve a healthy lifestyle by adding more vegetables into your diet as well as getting you and your family outside to keep up with weeding, harvesting, and other maintenance. Start with a few simple plants and enjoy your harvest in a couple months. Check out these links on more tips for successfully planting vegetables in Ohio, as well as why marigolds are a great addition to a garden!

Other Tips for Gardening: 

Marigolds in the Vegetable Garden: Important Things they do by Tiffany Davis

10 Best Vegetables to Grow in Ohio by The Gardening Dad