Posted on 03/21/2011 5:51:03 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Eager to join the grow-your-own-food movement and don’t know where to begin?
Tried your hand at gardening with less than satisfying results, while your neighbor’s front yard overflowed with beans and cabbage?
With the start of the traditional gardening season just around the corner — and four-season gardening offering never-ending opportunities — the time is ripe to formulate a plan of action that nurtures mind, body and spirit.
Here’s a pack of tips to help you plant the seeds for growing your green thumb:
1. Cultivate your inner gardener
Gardening is about so much more than simply growing vegetables, flowers or herbs. Part of its magic is discovering what gardening brings to your life, where it takes you and the many metaphors it unfurls. But be warned: Gardening has been deemed a gateway to numerous obsessions, raising backyard chickens and vermicomposting in your basement among them.
Allow space in your mind, as well as in your gardens, for surprises — an unexpected moonflower, or a volunteer tomato seedling or 20. But also think about what you’d like to get out of gardening aside from groceries, and let it evolve.
2. Don’t try to do it all, at least not all at once.
Nothing will discourage you more than becoming overwhelmed — by the amount of work required to prepare your plot for planting, the number of weeds that just won’t stop multiplying, and endless other garden chores. If you aren’t enjoying what you’re doing — the feel of the soil, the warmth of the sun, the physical workout, the clearing of the mind — make some adjustments.
Consider starting small. Instead of setting out to grow everything from asparagus to zucchini, take square-foot gardening to an extreme and plant a single square-foot garden with just one tomato plant, and add on next year. Or you can container garden, though you’ll have to water more to keep the soil from drying out and choose varieties best suited for pot dwelling.
If you really want to go all out, do it!
3. Decide what you want to grow.
If you never want to have to buy another tomato, you can easily grow enough to freeze, can, dry and eat fresh in season.
You’ll need more than a square foot of growing space, but you can get a lot of mileage out of varieties that are uber-productive as well as tasty. Tommy Toe cherry tomatoes are big and bountiful and can be frozen whole, then popped under the broiler to top pasta. Ditto for Principe Borghese, a variety traditionally used for sun-drying, that can also be dried in an oven or dehydrator.
High-yielding San Marzano paste tomatoes virtually melt in a pan, not to mention your mouth. Freeze or can sauce, or freeze tomatoes whole to add to winter soups, stews and pot roasts. Jaune Flamme and Peach Blow Sutton are also especially delicious and productive.
Don’t forget Genovese basil for pairing with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, as well as for making pesto, which also can be frozen for pasta and pizza.
4. Read seed catalogs, many and often.
Even if you don’t start your own seeds — though you’ll be missing half the fun — you can glean a wealth of information about the incredible number of varieties of vegetables, flowers and herbs available, as well as when and where to start, transplant, nurture and harvest them.
Some good ones to start with are Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.org), Johnny’s Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.org) and Richters Herbs (richters.com). Look for sellers that have taken the Safe Seed Pledge not to knowingly sell genetically modified seeds.
5. Grow heirloom seeds.
Along with helping to preserve our food heritage and the genetic diversity of plants, these seeds have a story. Cherokee Trail of Tears beans were carried by the Cherokee people on the winter death march of 1838-39 that left a trail of 4,000 graves. Unlike hybrid seeds, the seeds of these open-pollinated varieties that have been passed down through generations of gardeners can be planted the following year to produce the same delicious vegetables or edible or decorative flowers.
6. Grow (almost) instant gratification.
Give your gardening ego a boost by reaping quick and easy rewards. Start by planting fresh seeds (old ones may disappoint) for lettuce and other salad greens as soon as the soil can be worked. They’ll pop up pretty rapidly if you keep them moist, not soggy, and before you know it you’ll be snipping baby greens for fresh salads and sandwiches.
Keep them watered and they’ll keep on coming after you cut them. Choose heat- tolerant heirloom varieties or give them a somewhat shaded spot where they won’t wither in full summer sun. Keep planting more seeds for a continual supply of organically grown (no chemicals) greens.
Some types are pretty enough to use as edible landscaping. And don’t forget to grow edible flowers (again, no chemicals!) — including colorful nasturtiums, pansies and calendulas — for salads and garnishes.
7. Have the most fun for $40, or so.
Get a jump on seed starting in your very own walk-in greenhouse. Farm and Fleet sells one for about $40, less if it’s on sale. It won’t last forever but should give you a season’s worth of enjoyment.
You might want to take the cover off if strong winds are forecast, especially if it’s not staked down.
Farm and Fleet, Jung Garden Centers and others also have more costly and sometimes sturdier options, or you can piece together your own creation with old windows and screens your neighbors are getting rid of.
8. Raise it up.
While you’re out scrounging, look for untreated wood to make raised beds, or invest in new (cedar’s the best). Plan dimensions so you can put a window, or two or three, on top for an instant cold frame to jump start seeds and seedlings — as well as extend your season into the fall. Screens can also be used to foil those pesky squirrels. A raised bed will help you contain your plot, and you can add good soil and compost that will warm up sooner than the ground.
9. Get the poop on soil.
Compost. Compost. Compost. Whether you get it from your backyard bin, worm farm, a friendly farmer or in bags from the store, add plenty of compost to create a rich, loose bed in which to tuck your seeds or seedlings.
10. Pick up a copy of the Wisconsin Garden Journal.
Published by the Madison Area Master Gardeners Association, it will tell you what to plant when. To be safe, wait until at least Memorial Day weekend for tomatoes, peppers and other frost- sensitive plants. It also will give you a place to record your garden activities and results to build on next year, and it supports the crew of master gardeners who provide information and assistance to budding growers.
You can pick one up for $14.95 at Jung Garden Centers in Madison and Sun Prairie. For a list of other outlets, or to order online for a $3 shipping fee, go to mamgawi.org.
Famous last words ...
Don’t even think about striving for perfection. Let yourself go and grow with the flow, and don’t allow perspiration to drown out inspiration.
Ping-worthy?
I support my local farmers. They have their job and I have my job...and it's not farming.
I put in flowers to make things pretty and to relieve stress.
Here ,in Central New York, planting a Memorial Day weekend garden is a tradition for at least 4 generations.
Gurney’s usually offers a a spend $50, get $25 off offer each spring and fall. I’ve had good luck with the plants I’ve ordered. Just put in another 100 strawberries.
The best veggie garden we ever had was when we lived in Minnesota. Short season but excellent soils.
Here in mid-Mizzou, I had to haul “river bottom” dirt in from 50 miles north of here to create raised beds...
Green beans going in today!
Take it from the experts...
I don’t know. I see a lot of people grow gardens that produce little more than few novelty fresh veggies. Gotta garden smart if you intend to have any real impact on your food costs.
We’re having passing thunderstorms right now and about 20 minutes a go we thought we were going to have a fried garden. Hubby was upstairs and saw the bolt of lightning strike in the center of the field. Lots of smoke immediately, but thankfully a deluge of rain came down almost immediately.
It’s still raining too hard to head out to see just how badly scorched it is.
Scary to say the least.
I love it!!!
There is nothing like walking onto my front porch, pulling some basil leaves, rosemary, and oregano- and then walking back into my kitchen to add to the homemade tomato sauce from my tomato plants.....
I support local farmers too!! I am in a co-op. I get a basket every week from them.
This gardening thing is very new for me though. This is only my third year. My first year I only did peppers, tomato, basil, and cilantro...
I am going to try brussel sprouts and cucumbers this year...
I only grow things in pots on my porch— but it brings me joy every single day....
Thanks for posting Di!!!!
I can’t say I’ve had really bad luck with any nursery. I DO plan to get some ‘mara des bois’ strawberries from Jungs the first of April, IF they still have them! Waiting for that April paycheck first, though. Also planning on getting their 2/1 European filbert offer, and a dwarf disease resistant apple tree collection.
Mmmmmaybe one of their razz blueberries too. Of course, Diana will accuse me of blueberricide for attempting to grow it down here.
I wonder at the amount of pass through stock between the nursery companies though. Last year I bought some Liberty apple trees from Gurneys. When I got them, the box was stamped and shipped from the same address of Stark Bros. nurseries. (different state than gurneys, altogether).
I ordered 3 tea camellias from Jungs last year. All arrived beautifully in pots even. 2 are still alive. I managed to kill one. Forgetting the water will do that :( If they’re still shipping when the May paycheck comes in I’ll order a couple more. The two I did manage to remember to water are doing splendidly.
My problem with Gurneys, right now, is that so little of their stock (trees, etc) are suitable for my particular area due to disease issues. Pears and fireblight are a biggie. They have one pear tree that’s resistant. I will have to get suitable ones from a local/regional nursery next year.
On a really GOOD note. Last week, my hubby went to the local nursery/garden center to get pinestraw bales. We get the free stuff on the street in the fall/winter but had run out. Nursery was out too, unfortunately. But he did manage to score 3 raspberry plants for me! ‘Dorman Red’. Good for canning, not for fresh eating though. But, supposedly the only variety that will live more than a year or two down here due to soil diseases and heat intolerance.
Oh yes you can. If you can sc**w up a potato or carrot crop, you should have to eat plastic bags.
Maybe we should set up a pool on when Michelle switches completely to burkha..
Recently picked up a 150 lb or so of my city’s free compost (from yard waste collected last fall). It generally looks good but came with a few plastic bits and a bonus free 1/2 in stainless steel sheet metal screw!:)
Thanks for posting Diana! This year, we are trying vertical gardening. Limited space so we thought going UP is the way to get more produce. This year, I will plant pole beans and sweet peas. Plus, some heirlooms and hybrid tomatoes. Does anything taste better than a fresh tomato picked right off the plant?!! YUM!
They left out Point 10:
10) Due to the democrat-created, democrat-sponsored, and Obama-supported Food Safety And Modernization Act of 2010, it is now a federal offense to sell, donate, or even give away any food that you produce on your own land.
Wrong, but don’t let facts stand in the way.
Some of the best gardeners I ever met not only could cultivate a fantastic vegetable garden but also were very good at ‘growing their own’ in their home closets.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.