The first year you plant a vegetable garden you will be filled with excitement. You will have energy and gusto and be excited about the whole thing. As the year moves on, the weeds encroach on your veggies and the weather gets hot you may find your huge vegetable garden is not only overwhelming, but just impossible to manage.

There are the weeds, and the weeds and the weeds, as well as the pest control to deal with.  This can be seriously overwhelming for a beginning vegetable gardener.

Your best bet to have success  is to start with a small vegetable garden. Choose your favorite veggies to plant. The ones you really eat and will use are a good way to start. Think about how big the plants will be when they are full grown. If you are thinking about planting squash (which is a great beginner plant ~ very forgiving) remember it is a BIG plant. If you plant more than one or two or them you are no longer talking about a small vegetable garden

Tomatoes are pretty big too, but you can always find smaller varieties to use. If you choose a few basic vegetables to start with, say tomato, cucumber, squash and maybe some green beans you will find you have a very nice small vegetable garden. You can also throw in some herbs to round out the garden.

If you really have a small space and want to grow a LOT of vegetables you can get the book  Sqaure Foot Gardening. It will show you how to grow tons of vegetables in a very small space by planting them closer together and using a square foot grid to plant your vegetables in.

If you are a beginner vegetable gardener, don’t really like your summer weather, or only have a small amount of space I highly suggest you start with a small vegetable garden. Having a successful garden under your belt will make it even easier next year to expand.