SubscribeThe Zero Mile Diet: Creating your Own Garden
With a food crisis on our hands and the prospect of shelling out big bucks for our food sources of phytochemicals, many people have thought about starting a garden. The prospect of growing one's own fruits and veggies does have a certain nostalgic appeal to accompany the financial one. The idea is certainly gaining ground (at least in my neck of the woods in western Canada). Companies that sell seeds, soil and other essentials have seen unprecedented demand for their goods.
Because the idea of gardening is new to me, I've had to pull together some resources to help get me started. I would recommend doing your homework, speaking to someone who works at a gardening store and clip some articles from the web.
Here are some basic tips on how to start a vegetable garden:
Start Small: Keep in mind how much time you have/want to dedicate to your crops. Begin with an 8' x 10' space and expand as desired. Also, don't start with a large variety. Some of you may have the same limitation as I - a 1' x 4' planter box on a balcony.
Get the Needed Supplies: Buy seeds, seed starting kits and gardening supplies for vegetable gardens. If you are new to gardening, starting vegetables from seed may be too huge an undertaking, instead purchase plants. My tactic: Go to the gardening expert and ask what you need based on your situation.
Find a Location: Choose a location that receives as much sun as possible throughout the day. Northern gardeners should insist on full sun.
Ready the Soil: Check your soil. Grab a fistful of soil and squeeze. If upon release it crumbles - this is desirable. "Good" soil is made up of 50 per cent soil, 25 per cent water and 25 per cent air. Buy topsoil if you are unsure. If you can't afford topsoil, you can amend the soil with compost. Compost includes any biodegradable material which can be broken down into a fine, dark humus.
Control Pests: This will depend on what you are exposed to. For me, I don't often have issues of deer descending on my 4th floor balcony but you may be located somewhere where pests - big and small are more problematic. Proper spacing, weeding and fertilizing is a good way to prevent disease and insect infestation without having to resort to harmful insecticides.
Watering Tips: It is best to water first thing in the morning or early evening to prevent evaporation. A good steady watering is important: don't confuse a light sprinkling every day with a good soaking... check that the water is getting down into the soil. If you stick your finger into the soil every so often, it will give you an idea of how dry the ground is.
What to Grow?
Among the easiest veggies to grow are; tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce. Different fruits and veggies require a variety of conditions.
Here is an article outlining 8 great vegetable gardening books
Please do share your produce-growing tips as newbies like myself are eager to learn.
Happy Growing!
Sources:
www.thetyee.ca
www.gardenguides.com
www.gardengrowth.com
www.home-gardening-tips.com
www.timesonline.co.uk
alas, Im such a try'er and not do'er on this one.
I just finished writing an article for kids detailing how EASY it is to plant & grow yer own veggies (though you mightcould have done it a bit better than I---oh well :)) and yet I still havent done it myself.
gonna print this...
M.
ReplyI live in an apartment with a tiny balcony with indirect sunshine and I still grew tomatoes last summer that tasted better than anything I bought at the supermarket.
If I can do it, ANYONE can do it.
ReplyGreat ideas! My parents had an allotment when I was a kid, and home-grown veg definitely tastes best.
At the moment, I live in a flat without even a balcony :-( but we have grown fresh herbs on the kitchen windowsill...
I definitely want a vegetable garden once I get a bigger place. :-)
ReplyMesclun is the easiest and most practical "crop" to start with. It's just a term for a variety of plants whose leaves can be eating in salad (various lettuces, chicories, even things like beet leaves). Online at johnnyseeds.com they have a really good selection.
Basil is also easy and can be grown in a planter.
ReplyLast summer we started off our gardening adventure small - some tomato plants, peppers, cucumbers, squash and melon...all did well and this year we've expanded our garden plot and our options to - tomatoes, peppers, cucumebrs, beets, onions, carrots, lettuce, melons, squash and pumpkins - this year. No doubt what we grew ourselves last year tasted better than anything we bought in the store!
ReplyI've been eating fresh mesclun and spinach for about 3 weeks, and it keeps producing as long as I keep it watered and cut back a bit. I expect to have some radishes next week, and peas in about 3 weeks. Mmm!
If you have a yard and want to get started on a small scale, I recommend raised beds. They're neat and simple, and you can purchase many types made from recycled plastics that are guaranteed for years.
ReplyI always wonder how people grow enough to get their vegetables.. I hear some people grow all their own vegetables.
But growing up, my mom had a vegetable garden, and it didn't grow enough for 2-4 servings per person in the house (7) every day-- not anywhere near that.
I have no yard anyways.
Growing herbs though, those seem to be easy, produce plenty, and save you some real cash if you cook with fresh herbs and spices.
ReplyI had a vegetable garden for years. There were lots of great things about it, great pesticide free carrots, potatoes, peas, beans, broccoli, etc.
It was a pretty intensive job in the summer as our growing season is very short - basically two months and a bit. I also got tired of powdery mildew on the peas, little green caterpillars in the broccoli, tomatoes and peppers that never got ripe (although I brought them indoors to do that) etc. Then we started spending summers at our lake cabin - and discovered local organic produce at the farmer's market and at the u-pick down the road. It's not 0 mile but it's about 5-mile and I'm supporting local farmers.
I miss having my own garden in some ways - and I do still grow things like tomatoes in pots, herbs in flower beds, etc - but I also like saving my time (and my back) for other things.
ReplyI've gardened a few years and have decided that I prefer belonging to a CSA and buying the rest from the farmer's market. The price is probably similar to having my own garden. I do grow my own herbs and am planning to put in some perennials, like asparagus, rhubarb, and berries.
A few things I did learn from my gardening years are that:
1) different vegetables grow well in different areas. The article above says cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes are easy to grow. They do grow here in upstate NY, but they're not the easiest. Here I'd say the easiest things I found to grow are lettuce, herbs, peas, beans, summer and winter squashes, kale and other hearty greens, carrots, turnips, radishes, potatoes, garlic, shallots, and onions. It really helps to talk to local gardeners and farmers to get an idea of what grows well in your area.
2) I can't recommend the book Square Foot Gardening enough. I looked at a lot of books, but this is the one that worked for me and a lot of gardeners I know. It made getting a lot of vegetables out of a small garden very easy for a beginner, and it made it very easy to keep myself organized. It would even be helpful for someone with nothing more than windowboxes.
ReplyI'd be happy to find out how not to grow rhubarb! I inherited rather an enormous plant when we bought our house and the toxic leaves have killed everything growing around it. I like rhubarb, but it's just not in a good spot (smack dab in a flower bed) I've tried various things, but it's the plant that will not die!!!!
ReplyReally? It can't be transplanted somewhere else? And if you cut it (to eat it), it grows back the same summer?
If you lived near me I'd take it!
I like rhubarb tossed with some sugar and grated ginger and roasted. Yum.
ReplyHa ha ha. If we dug it up and transplanted it, it would grow in both places. It's just got roots that go who knows how far and deep and it always comes back. I've baked rhubarb and apple pies, my husband will make huge batches of stewed rhubarb, and we don't make a dent in that stupid plant. However, we are now adding to our garage on top of it - that should do the trick.
Every once and a while someone at the farmers market sells it - that and crab apples - this always causes a big laugh because in Alberta if you have to buy rhubarb and crab apples, you really have no friends. That and zucchini - at the end of august, people here will ply you with zucchinis, feed you zucchinis, serve you zucchini loaf and chocolate zucchini cake, it's just zucchini run amok!! (zucchini choc cake is terrific)
ReplyMy neighbor has a bunch of rhubarb plants, as does my mother in law. Since it always gives so much rhubarb, I am never without rhubarb in the spring and summer...I like to make rhubarb crisp with it. Or rhubarb sauce. Or strawberry rhubarb pie...yummy :)
ReplyI've been eating fresh mesclun and spinach for about 3 weeks, and it keeps producing as long as I keep it watered and cut back a bit. I expect to have some radishes next week, and peas in about 3 weeks. Mmm!
If you have a yard and want to get started on a small scale, I recommend raised beds. They're neat and simple, and you can purchase many types made from recycled plastics that are guaranteed for years.
ReplyThanks
ReplyI've started my first garden this year. I have tomatoes almost ripe, beans, melons, squash, cucumbers and some herbs. I'm looking to expand it and plant some more - digging up an unused patch of yard to plant some pumpkins, maybe some corn.
It's going to get us all eating more veggies, as my husband has promised he will eat anything I grow, and my boys are outside with me "working" for hours every day. We have also started composting, and it's been amazing how much less garbage we have each week. My 4 yo son is so excited at the thought of composting and that our food is going to be food for our plants, which then become our food.
Oh, and we have sunflowers which are already taller than my sons, and are just too much fun.
I have no idea how much we will get, but if I get the hang of what I'm doing, with our climate (Deep South Texas, near the Mexico border), we have warm enough weather all year that we can grow something year-round and we might get to a point where we can grow most of our own, at least what grows in this climate.
ReplyJudy - it is great to have a garden with little kids. They are just so much more likely to eat what they've "grown themselves". Great that your getting your kids involved. Even now that we don't have a garden, I find the kids are still more open to eating things that they picked themselves at the u-pick.
Lucky you to live somewhere you can grow stuff year-round!
One thing I am doing this year at the lake is starting an "orchard" in our yard at the lake. We can grow some really great apples, even here, that get to be a fair size and are good keepers. There are also some small pears and apricots that have been specially bred for our climate. So I'm starting with two each of those this year.
It's getting harder and harder to find fruit from BC in the stores because so many of the orchards have been destroyed to plant grapes for wine. There just hasn't been enough money in orchard fruit to keep a lot of them going. Not really different than all the corn going to produce ethanol instead of food. One of these days we will need to sort out our agricultural priorities as a society.
ReplyIt's a lot of fun for kids to have a garden, especially if they have a lot of success with it. Have your kids plant radishes to start with...they can be harvested pretty early and they're really hardy. I remember growing radishes, cucumbers, and tomatoes in my "spot" in the garden. I was SO excited when I got to eat my first cucumber off the vine :) (hey, I was 7...I was pretty easy to please, lol)
ReplyMy boys are loving the gardening, the only real problems being the 2 yo keeps pulling all the cherry tomatoes off the vines before they are ripe (and then he tries to put them back on), and a big patch in the middle didn't grow anything because he climbed in it right after I planted and scattered everything around!
The 4 yo is really excited to do everything we can at home (even convinced us to buy an ice cream maker so we would never have to go to an ice cream shop again). He can't wait until it's cold enough here to try to grow broccoli.
ReplyI am really looking forward to starting a garden either this year or next year at the latest. The added convenience and health benefits just can't be beat.
ReplyMy hard-to-control plant has been arugula (rocket). I planted a modest amount, and it spread.... all the way to cracks in the driveway on the other side of the house.
ReplyWe just bought a house last fall, and I'm so excited watching my lettuces and rhubarb and carrots and broccolis starting to look like real plants. I have so many other foods I want to try next!
ReplyI've been planning on doing this for a while! I read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (link to the ebooks and audiobooks version) about a month ago, and was really impressed by his arguments. Most of what we eat these days is just processed junk... I wouldn't feed my kids glue, so why should I fill them up with chemicals and preservatives?
ReplyI thoroughly enjoy vegetable gardens. I've had a lot of success with tomatoes and different types of parsley. Around us we have problems with rabbits eating the vegetables. We plant marigolds around the garden, and this seems to help keep them out. Growing your own vegetables is a great idea and can be very satisfying. Thanks for the tips.
ReplyUnfortunately, when we bought our house, the 1200 sq. ft. garage with a car hoist in it took up most of our backyard. We have a tiny patch of grass and that's about it. I can only plant a few things by the side of my house, like herbs and cherry tomato plants.
The good news is that my neighbor, my parents, and my inlaws all have gardens and they all know how much I adore fresh veggies. So I usually get all the tomatoes, jalapenos, green peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet corn, cucumbers, blackberries, and raspberries I want.
You do have to do your research though...choose breeds of plants that do well in your climate and soil type. I tried planting watermelon once and it never ripened enough because the growing season up here was too short for that type. But cantaloupes do well, so I planted those the next year and they grew well. And if something says to plant it in sandy soil, do it...carrots don't do well at all in dense soil.
Oh, and if you want an all natural way to repel slugs from your garden, place a shallow dish in the soil and press it down so the edges are flush with the soil. Pour in some flat beer and the slugs will be drawn to it and they'll fall in and drown. Works like a charm.
ReplySpectra, sometimes the best garden is the one that someone else has to look after :) It seems all glamourous until you're out there in a full moon plucking slugs out of the strawberries. I'm happy to pay someone else to just let me come pick when all the hard work is done.
ReplyYeah, it is much better to have your own garden at home. Not only making you healthy, but having your own garden is a good relaxation and it is good for the health
ReplyMy wifes family are european and have a vegetable garden. They taste so much better than the vegetables at the super market. I saw a report on tv the other night and an ex employee of a major super market chain here in Australia was saying the produce is snap frozen and resold up to nine months later.
ReplyDon't know about snap frozen, but I don't think I'd be too surprised considering how far some things get shipped and how long after their season some of them come on the market.
I've been to a fruit packing plant and I know the strategy there for storage is to take things like apples and pears as close to freezing as possible without actually freezing them.
Replyit's getting harder and harder to find fruit from BC in the stores because so many of the orchards have been destroyed to plant grapes for wine. There just hasn't been enough money in orchard fruit to keep a lot of them going. Not really different than all the corn going to produce ethanol instead of food. One of these days we will need to sort out our agricultural priorities as a society.
ReplyI grew up on a farm where we literally went into the garden every night to pluck fresh veggies and my veggie patch here is an integral part of my life. And never mind that everything is fresh, organic and I don't have to go to the stores - I just love that I'm able to generously give to all my neighbours too. And I LOVE watching how everything grows - it's like watching a mini miracle.
ReplyCari
I wholly intend to grow my own food one day. It's the cleanest, healthiest food there is, and best of all you know exactly where it's come from!
ReplyYou just can't beat growing your own veggies. I've been growing my own 'mater, cukes, and peppers for more than 5 years now; however, I have grown them the last couple of years hydroponically. Before the "weed" comments start, I think most traditional gardeners would be surprised with how much large a harvest you can get when you literally play "god" with the plant. And now that they have organic hydro solution for those who want to grown totally organic.
ReplyIts really good for health to have garden because trees makes us great relaxation with fresh air in morning. So every one should maintain garden for good health
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