Our number one advice to new gardeners is to grow what you love to eat, so if you’re a salsa lover, why not grow a salsa garden?

Plan

Consider what goes into creating your favorite salsa and start from there. Most salsa recipes consist of tomatoes, garlic, onions, cilantro, and peppers (mild and hot for variety). Having an idea of what you’re growing helps you plan the layout of your garden. Most veggies like full sun exposure so choose a place that gets enough sun and large enough to support your salsa habit. A raised garden bed or square foot garden around 4×4 size should be enough.

I like to use a grid sheet to plan plant placement, but its pretty simple and safe idea to place your veggies as the following:

Area 1: Plant about 4-5 cilantro plants

Area 1A: Plant about 10 onions and 10 garlic

Area 2: Plant 1 hot pepper (ideally jalopeno or chili peppers) and 1 red/green/yellow bell pepper. If you do not like spicy salsa, plant two mild peppers or vice versa. As your garden grow, you might need to stalk or add a trellis to your peppers.

Area 3: Plant 2 tomato plants with trellis in the back

You can start from seeds to experience the fun of seeing your plants grow from seeds. It is definitely worth it. As well as a great learning experience for anyone with or desiring a green thumb. A lot of people aren’t aware of how easy it is,  we actually created an easy guide on how to start seeds here.

If patience isn’t your strongest point, there is always the option of starting your salsa garden from seedlings – plants that are already started and ready to plant. Your local nursery or Lowe’s most likely have what you need. Preferably, you should go to a nursery, but if you don’t have one or a good one locally, here is how you choose the healthiest plants from larger stores/companies. Either way, make sure that you have fun and tons of salsa!