My first vegetable Garden?? Advice?

I live in an area where it rains from September to April nearly every year, and then the temperatures rise and it is relatively dry from May to August. I know next to nothing about gardening, but would like to give it a try to save myself some money on groceries since I just bought my own house.



I want to start a smaller sized garden that is easy to maintain, but that I can grow my favorite vegetables. I would like to grow squash, cucumbers, carrots, leaf lettuce, sweet bell peppers and radishes.



So my questions are:

1) How large should I make the garden?

2) What are the best vegetables to plant with the weather conditions that I generally have?

3) What are the easiest "beginner" vegetables?

4) How much space should I be allowing for each different plant?

My first vegetable Garden?? Advice?
All the items you mentioned should grow well in your climate. I would get going on the radishes and carrots right away though. A neat trick on those two. Take a string of toilet paper and use kids glue to attach radish and carrot seeds. Do every other one every six inches. I think the radishes come up first and whey you harvest them the carrots have room to grow. Works kind of nice. just put an inch or so of dirt over the toilet paper.



Cucumbers and squash are a cinch. Here in Oregon (because of similar growing season) We buy starts of cukes and squash so they get to harvest quicker. But you will harvest all of August and Sept. and into Oct. if the weather permits.



No, experience with lettuce. Just planted some for the first time, so we will see.



Put a black mesh around the base of your bell peppers. They take forever if their roots don't get warm enough.



You can probably fit all those into a 10x15 plot if you plant it all in one area.



Tomatoes are a great beginner one, but if you don't like them, who cares. Just plant the stuff you like.



Oh, spacing. Leave at least 4 feet around your cucumbers and squash, they love to spread their wings.
Reply:The size of the garden depends on how much time you are willing to work it. Everything that you mentioned is easy to grow. For carrots, beets, onions, radishes plant the seeds 3" apart in both directions. Cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, corn, peppers takes a 12" square. For cucumbers do you want bush type or vine type. You can put cucumbers on a trellis or tomato cage and they will grow up the cage. Tomatoes are another easy plant to grow and you need to leave about 24" between the plants. Get a tomato cage gor each plant, this will help them from rotting on the ground and you will receive plenty of tomatoes. For squash, do you want vine or bush as well. They too take up a lot of room in the garden.
Reply:The first two choices require MUCH space since they must begin from mounds, then spread their vines out. Cukes sometimes can be staked up a little, though. I would start out with something 10' x 10'. Everything you wanted to plant will do fine. Make sure you amend the soil with some manure and peat moss (to loosen the soil and enrich it). The seed packets will tell you exactlly how to space them; if you buy plants, this information will be on the tag. Miracle-Gro DOES work and you'll be pleased with the results. Water daily.