Did I hear you correctly? You're just "starting out" in the rewarding (and often exhausting) hobby of gardening? Think you'd like to grow your own vegetables, instead of limiting your choices to that natural-looking, neatly-arranged assortment of mostly foreign grown produce in the supermarket? Are you concerned that, in all likelihood, most supermarket vegetable offerings may contain substances (additives, pesticides, and other chemicals used in their production) over which you have absolutely no control, and that you'd prefer not to serve to your family?

Then you're among a growing number of consumers with a yearning to take control over the quality and content of at least some of the food consumed, and have made a firm decision to grow their own. Below are some helpful tips for the health-conscious neophyte veggie gardener. . .tips not cast in stone, but ones that will improve your chances of success and satisfaction.

First, your new garden's location. Most vegetables grow and mature best in full, uninterrupted sunlight. You've probably noticed that the big, profitable market-growers don't have too many trees in and around their production fields. Eight to ten mid-summer hours is preferable, but that may be a bit difficult for many home-gardeners. Try for an absolute minimum of six full hours of direct sunshine during the brightest part of the day. Save the shady spot in your yard for the hammock. For the beginning vegetable grower, 650 to 1,000 square feet of space is manageable. Be careful not to bite off more than you can comfortably chew! If you find you need more space, you can always expand the following year.

If your new garden space is currently lawn or weeds, here's a word or two of caution: tilled into the soil, crabgrass, Bermuda grass, dandelions, and many other aggressive weed species will re-grow from the tiniest fragment and quickly return to haunt any gardener. Take the time to remove all weeds -- leaf, stem and root -- before starting the garden. Most experts correctly recommend that you "peel" off the top two or three inches of turf before you begin preparing the soil to receive valuable seeds or transplants. And you should know that rototilling a patch of lawn is probably the most common and tragic mistake made by overly-enthusiastic novice gardeners.

Soil preparation is next. Don't begin until the ground is drained well enough that a handful of soil squeezed into a lump breaks apart when dropped from about chin-high. Resist the temptation to disturb soil that's gooey and sticks together. I've always preferred to prepare a new garden soil with a spade. . .and I like to drive that spade completely to the "hilt" and turn my soil upside-down -- literally. That's ten to twelve inches deep. Homeowner-size rototillers rarely have the ability to cultivate any deeper than four to six inches. Not enough!

Having said that, I