An effective garden doesn't mean it has to be huge and hold tons of plants. Not everyone has the space for a garden like that, but they can grow thriving plants in a small area as long as there's access to sunlight.

Gardens have grown in many places - from a small patch of ground outside of a home to planting pots placed outside one's front door. The size of your garden doesn't matter because it's the quality of your gardening skills that will provide you with thriving plants.

You'll want to research the plants you want to grow within your garden. Find out what plants can be planted near each other, which ones need the most sunlight and any care instructions needed to grow a particular type of plant.

This will help you plan the placement of your garden, whether you plant in a small patch of land or in planters. Next, you'll need to find out when each plant should be planted. Some need to be planted ahead of others, so plan accordingly.

Now you're ready to purchase the plants or seeds, whichever you choose to grow in your garden. Make sure you have the right size planters for your garden if you go with gardening pots. The plants need some space to grow, so don't overcrowd them.

Make sure you use top quality potting soil. Your plants could use the extra effort to provide them with the nutrients they need to grow and thrive. Your local gardening center can help you decide which soil would be best for you to use.

Even gardens grown in small areas will have problems with insects that feed on your plants, so make sure you purchase plants that are inviting to the insects that will keep the harmful ones under control so they won't have time to destroy your garden.

Some fertilizing soil has ingredients mixed in that will help repel some of the pests, so check them out as well. If you feel you must use pesticides, use them sparingly. Most of these harmful chemicals can affect the plants as well as animals and children, so use only what's absolutely necessary for your garden.

Every garden, no matter if it's big or small, needs to be nurtured. Stay on top of the weeds, aerate the soil once in awhile and water as often as needed. No garden will thrive without the proper care and nurturing from the gardener, so don't neglect them.

Small gardens can thrive just as much as larger ones, so if you don't have the space for a big garden, just make use of the space you do have and grow healthy and robust plants. With the proper care, any garden can produce excellent plants.

Take the time to plan out your garden to use the best areas of the small space that you have. Your small garden could then outmatch any large one if you put forth your best effort and make it successful.

In deciding upon the site for the home vegetable garden it is well to dispose once and for all of the old idea that the garden "patch" must be an ugly spot in the home surroundings. If thoughtfully planned, carefully planted and thoroughly cared for, it may be made a beautiful and harmonious feature of the general scheme, lending a touch of comfortable homeliness that no shrubs, borders, or beds can ever produce.

With this fact in mind we will not feel restricted to any part of the premises merely because it is out of sight behind the barn or garage. In the average moderate-sized place there will not be much choice as to land. It will be necessary to take what is to be had and then do the very best that can be done with it. But there will probably be a good deal of choice as to, first, exposure, and second, convenience. Other things being equal, select a spot near at hand, easy of access. It may seem that a difference of only a few hundred yards will mean nothing, but if one is depending largely upon spare moments for working in and for watching the garden and in the growing of many vegetables the latter is almost as important as the former this matter of convenient access will be of much greater importance than is likely to be at first recognized. Not until you have had to make a dozen time-wasting trips for forgotten seeds or tools, or gotten your feet soaking wet by going out through the dew-drenched grass, will you realize fully what this may mean.

Exposure.
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But the thing of first importance to consider in picking out the spot that is to yield you happiness and delicious vegetables all summer, or even for many years, is the exposure. Pick out the "earliest" spot you can find a plot sloping a little to the south or east, that seems to catch sunshine early and hold it late, and that seems to be out of the direct path of the chilling north and northeast winds. If a building, or even an old fence, protects it from this direction, your garden will be helped along wonderfully, for an early start is a great big factor toward success. If it is not already protected, a board fence, or a hedge of some low-growing shrubs or young evergreens, will add very greatly to its usefulness. The importance of having such a protection or shelter is altogether underestimated by the amateur.

The soil.
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The chances are that you will not find a spot of ideal garden soil ready for use anywhere upon your place. But all except the very worst of soils can be brought up to a very high degree of productiveness especially such small areas as home vegetable gardens require. Large tracts of soil that are almost pure sand, and others so heavy and mucky that for centuries they lay uncultivated, have frequently been brought, in the course of only a few years, to where they yield annually tremendous crops on a commercial basis. So do not be discouraged about your soil. Proper treatment of it is much more important, and a garden- patch of average run-down, or "never-brought-up" soil will produce much more for the energetic and careful gardener than the richest spot will grow under average methods of cultivation.

The ideal garden soil is a "rich, sandy loam." And the fact cannot be overemphasized that such soils usually are made, not found. Let us analyze that description a bit, for right here we come to the first of the four all-important factors of gardening food. The others are cultivation, moisture and temperature. "Rich" in the gardener's vocabulary means full of plant food; more than that and this is a point of vital importance it means full of plant food ready to be used at once, all prepared and spread out on the garden table, or rather in it, where growing things can at once make use of it; or what we term, in one word, "available" plant food. Practically no soils in long- inhabited communities remain naturally rich enough to produce big crops. They are made rich, or kept rich, in two ways; first, by cultivation, which helps to change the raw plant food stored in the soil into available forms; and second, by manuring or adding plant food to the soil from outside sources.

"Sandy" in the sense here used, means a soil containing enough particles of sand so that water will pass through it without leaving it pasty and sticky a few days after a rain; "light" enough, as it is called, so that a handful, under ordinary conditions, will crumble and fall apart readily after being pressed in the hand. It is not necessary that the soil be sandy in appearance, but it should be friable.

"Loam: a rich, friable soil," says Webster. That hardly covers it, but it does describe it. It is soil in which the sand and clay are in proper proportions, so that neither greatly predominate, and usually dark in color, from cultivation and enrichment. Such a soil, even to the untrained eye, just naturally looks as if it would grow things. It is remarkable how quickly the whole physical appearance of a piece of well cultivated ground will change. An instance came under my notice last fall in one of my fields, where a strip containing an acre had been two years in onions, and a little piece jutting off from the middle of this had been prepared for them just one season. The rest had not received any extra manuring or cultivation. When the field was plowed up in the fall, all three sections were as distinctly noticeable as though separated by a fence. And I know that next spring's crop of rye, before it is plowed under, will show the lines of demarcation just as plainly.

You worked hours on preparing and planting your garden - only to have those annoying pests move in and destroy what you worked so hard to build up. Insects can damage your plants within a matter of hours once they've found the fruits of your labor.

The best way to control these bugs is to keep them out of your garden to begin with. There are many pesticides that you can use to keep the bugs away, but you need to make sure they're safe to use.

Some of the sprays can be harmful to the health of other animals and possibly small children. You want to get rid of these pests, but make sure you don't get rid of all of them, since there are some you actually want to keep in your garden.

Some of these helpful pests, such as ladybugs and spiders, feed on the annoying insects that damage your plants. They're essentially the best bodyguards one could have for their garden.

One of the best ways to control the insects and pests that damage the plants in your garden is by allowing helpful pests in that will drive those harmful ones away or eat them.

By planting inviting plants or "homes" for the helpful insects, you can keep the harmful ones at bay quite efficiently. Check with your local gardening center on which plants attract the good pests.

Another thing to keep in mind is to keep your garden clean. The harmful pests are often attracted to piles of leaves, grass cuttings and dense spots of weeds. These pests can thrive in those areas, so weed your garden regularly and clean up the leaves and grass cuttings that find their way into your garden.

Some organic gardeners use a hot pepper wax that they lightly spray on the leaves of their plants. The oils from the spicy contents of this wax wards off the harmful insects and other pests as well.

The wax solution is safe for your plants and doesn't affect the produce at all, so don't worry about "spicing" up your vegetables. As long as you properly clean them before consuming them, you won't notice any residue.

There are some plants that give off a scent that repels those bugs and keeps them away from your precious produce. Such plants - like marigolds and the borage herb plant - are very effective at keeping those pests away from your tomato plants. Plant them nearby and watch your tomato plants grow to be healthy and robust.

Every gardener wants to see their garden thrive after putting in a lot of hours of hard work and dedication into it. No one wants to see that labor go down the drain by losing their plants to those annoying pests that move into your garden.

Before planting your garden, do your research and find the best companion plants to repel the annoying pests and the ones that invite the good insects in according to your geographic location.