FREE GARDENING TIPS!
Deciding what to grow
What do you like to eat? Start by growing those. Here is a crop list . Pick your favorites to start with and select others to try over time. Add new crops each year and replant your favorites. Fruit trees and berries can take time. Plant them with the knowledge that they will yield a harvest in the future. Vegetable crops, on the other hand, provide you with a harvest within weeks, depending on the crop. Here are a few ideas.
- Salad greens: Choose a selection of lettuces, add some arugula, spinach, mizuna, and even kale or chard for a great mix. Harvest with scissors or a knife within weeks of planting, and they will regrow. Replant lettuces every few weeks for continuous harvest.
- Herbs: Enhance the flavor of food and add nutrition. Choose from perennial herbs, like chives, garlic chives, mint, sorrel, oregano, sage, lovage, tarragon, thyme, and tarragon. Add parsley, basil, dill, and cilantro (coriander) for a great selection.
- Vegetable variety: Garden favorite:- kale, broccoli, napa, cauliflower, cucumbers, corn, tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots, garlic, onions, leeks, parsnips, beets, butternut squash, zucchini, mache, claytonia, endive, tatsoi, potatoes
Deciding how much to grow
How many people do you intend to feed with your garden? How much of your supermarket shopping do you want to replace?
The needs of a family of four can be supplied by about 225 square feet of growing space, which could translate into a garden space about 18' X 32'. A single person can be supplied for by a 4' X 4' bed if it is planted intensively and successively. A good recommendation is to start small and grow from there, rather than start out big and risk getting overwhelmed or frustrated.
Here is a yield chart that can help you calculate how much you want to plant of each crop, which should be based on how much you will actually eat/can/freeze of that crop.
The needs of a family of four can be supplied by about 225 square feet of growing space, which could translate into a garden space about 18' X 32'. A single person can be supplied for by a 4' X 4' bed if it is planted intensively and successively. A good recommendation is to start small and grow from there, rather than start out big and risk getting overwhelmed or frustrated.
Here is a yield chart that can help you calculate how much you want to plant of each crop, which should be based on how much you will actually eat/can/freeze of that crop.
Where to grow
Pick a spot that gets 6-10 hours of sunlight a day.
To grow crops successfully, you need maximum sunlight, good soil, and the right amount of water. You can add amendments to your soil to improve it, use raised beds to help deal with moisture issues, but you can't very well adjust the sunlight factor after you have placed your garden. Plants that bear fruit, like tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers and eggplants, need 8-10 hours of sun, while greens like lettuce, spinach, arugula, chard, kale and collards can manage with 4-6 hours of sun. Plants like peas, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, and turnips are somewhere in between. Remember that trees grow, so you will want to factor that into the equation to ensure that your garden stays in the sunshine. Pick a spot close to your house that you walk by regularly to stay engaged.
Place your garden in an area that drain wells.
How do you determine this? You can dig some test holes, place a can in them with holes punched in the bottom, fill it with water and see how long it takes the water to drain out. If it drains slower than 1 inch and hour, you will need to make some adjustments by either raising up your beds or digging some drainage ditches, or perhaps even finding another sunny location for your garden. Here is a video showing this- just click on the one that says testing soil drainage. You can get a quick primer on soil types on our Preparing Your Soil page.
If you don’t have a yard, you can still enjoy some fresh produce with container planting. Grow some veggies in planters on a sunny porch or window with southern exposure in containers; many people enjoy tomatoes, herbs, and salad greens grown in container gardens.
If you don't have a yard another option is to rent a plot in a community garden. These are available in many locations. You may be able to check with your local cooperative extension for resources.
To grow crops successfully, you need maximum sunlight, good soil, and the right amount of water. You can add amendments to your soil to improve it, use raised beds to help deal with moisture issues, but you can't very well adjust the sunlight factor after you have placed your garden. Plants that bear fruit, like tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers and eggplants, need 8-10 hours of sun, while greens like lettuce, spinach, arugula, chard, kale and collards can manage with 4-6 hours of sun. Plants like peas, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, and turnips are somewhere in between. Remember that trees grow, so you will want to factor that into the equation to ensure that your garden stays in the sunshine. Pick a spot close to your house that you walk by regularly to stay engaged.
Place your garden in an area that drain wells.
How do you determine this? You can dig some test holes, place a can in them with holes punched in the bottom, fill it with water and see how long it takes the water to drain out. If it drains slower than 1 inch and hour, you will need to make some adjustments by either raising up your beds or digging some drainage ditches, or perhaps even finding another sunny location for your garden. Here is a video showing this- just click on the one that says testing soil drainage. You can get a quick primer on soil types on our Preparing Your Soil page.
If you don’t have a yard, you can still enjoy some fresh produce with container planting. Grow some veggies in planters on a sunny porch or window with southern exposure in containers; many people enjoy tomatoes, herbs, and salad greens grown in container gardens.
If you don't have a yard another option is to rent a plot in a community garden. These are available in many locations. You may be able to check with your local cooperative extension for resources.
Visualize your garden beds
Go for raised garden beds.
A visually pleasing, well-organized area makes for a peaceful, enticing environment in which to work, and that leads to a well tended, productive garden.
It can be overwhelming to look at a 25'X40' space and think about planting, weeding, or even harvesting it; but when that space is divided into a combination of 4' X4' , 3'X8', or 4'X8' beds, that same square footage can now be tackled in bite sized pieces. It is much less daunting to think about weeding or planting a 4' X 8' bed than that big ol' 25' X 40' plot, therefore the chances that you will actually do it are much higher. Visually, the garden is more approachable; you can work for just 10 minutes and feel like you accomplished something, because you did!
Size:
2-4 foot wide beds work well. Most people can reach 2 feet into a garden patch to work a bed from either side. 3 foot wide beds are better width for those prone to back problems; there is less reaching and overextending into the growing areas. 2 foot wide beds are great for trellised plants, like peas and pole beans. The length can be as long as you want it to be. The beds can be raised up 4-6 inches or deeper by filling your perimeter borders with beautiful loamy soil.
Plant placement:
As you plot out your raised garden beds, remember that plants like optimum sunlight. Place the taller trellised plants/tall plants along the northern side of the garden in a position where they will block not shorter plants from the sunlight they need. You do not want to have a beautiful thick row of pole beans blocking a row of sun starved tomatoes or broccoli. Taller/trellised plants include peas, pole beans, tomatoes, squashes, melons, cucumbers, and corn.
Enclose each bed with a perimeter border.
Borders help retain the soil in the designated areas and they help keep soil loose and "fluffy" just by defining the walking paths. Because walking on garden beds compacts the soil and we want the soil loose, having clearly marked paths helps our soil stay loose because paths keep people and (trained) pets out of the garden beds, which in turn makes less work for the gardener. These can be made out of wood or concrete block, and you can even purchase plastic units especially designed for this purpose available through garden supply stores.
Reduce weeding with weed barriers. Save hours of weeding by putting a weed barrier down on your garden paths between your raised beds. Weed barriers allow water to pass through but stop weeds from penetrating through them at the same time. You can purchase weed fabrics from garden supply places, or use what you have on hand, such as papers/magazines, broken down cardboard boxes, carpet scraps. You can also purchase specially designed weed barriers from garden supply stores. Any of these can all be laid on the pathways and then covered with wood chips. We add to the wood chips every couple of years as they break down over time.
A visually pleasing, well-organized area makes for a peaceful, enticing environment in which to work, and that leads to a well tended, productive garden.
It can be overwhelming to look at a 25'X40' space and think about planting, weeding, or even harvesting it; but when that space is divided into a combination of 4' X4' , 3'X8', or 4'X8' beds, that same square footage can now be tackled in bite sized pieces. It is much less daunting to think about weeding or planting a 4' X 8' bed than that big ol' 25' X 40' plot, therefore the chances that you will actually do it are much higher. Visually, the garden is more approachable; you can work for just 10 minutes and feel like you accomplished something, because you did!
Size:
2-4 foot wide beds work well. Most people can reach 2 feet into a garden patch to work a bed from either side. 3 foot wide beds are better width for those prone to back problems; there is less reaching and overextending into the growing areas. 2 foot wide beds are great for trellised plants, like peas and pole beans. The length can be as long as you want it to be. The beds can be raised up 4-6 inches or deeper by filling your perimeter borders with beautiful loamy soil.
Plant placement:
As you plot out your raised garden beds, remember that plants like optimum sunlight. Place the taller trellised plants/tall plants along the northern side of the garden in a position where they will block not shorter plants from the sunlight they need. You do not want to have a beautiful thick row of pole beans blocking a row of sun starved tomatoes or broccoli. Taller/trellised plants include peas, pole beans, tomatoes, squashes, melons, cucumbers, and corn.
Enclose each bed with a perimeter border.
Borders help retain the soil in the designated areas and they help keep soil loose and "fluffy" just by defining the walking paths. Because walking on garden beds compacts the soil and we want the soil loose, having clearly marked paths helps our soil stay loose because paths keep people and (trained) pets out of the garden beds, which in turn makes less work for the gardener. These can be made out of wood or concrete block, and you can even purchase plastic units especially designed for this purpose available through garden supply stores.
- Additional tips for perimeter borders: Whether you are a do-it-your self type or you would rather pay someone else to do it for you, there is a solution for you. You can go as simple or as fancy as you like. We got free lumber in a variety of places for ours. We screwed them together into rectangles. Pre-made beds can be ordered from garden supply places. You can go to your lumber yard, buy some lumber and make them yourself. Cedar is a great choice if it is within your budget because it will last for years. Locust is also long-lasting. The upfront cost is a bigger price tag than other woods but over the long run it would be worth it. Douglas fir is another choice and can be treated with a solution of mineral spirits and boiled linseed to increase the life of those beds, which is garden safe. Plastic units can be purchased from garden supply centers.
Reduce weeding with weed barriers. Save hours of weeding by putting a weed barrier down on your garden paths between your raised beds. Weed barriers allow water to pass through but stop weeds from penetrating through them at the same time. You can purchase weed fabrics from garden supply places, or use what you have on hand, such as papers/magazines, broken down cardboard boxes, carpet scraps. You can also purchase specially designed weed barriers from garden supply stores. Any of these can all be laid on the pathways and then covered with wood chips. We add to the wood chips every couple of years as they break down over time.