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Crunchy Coach Blog
Eat to Live
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10 Vegetable Gardening Tips For Wannabe Green Thumbs
Vegetable gardening tips are a must-have when first stepping out into the world of growing veggies. When I began my vegetable garden, tips on how to succeed were my number-one priority. My parents had been big vegetable gardeners when I was a kid, and I wanted to experience the freshness of homegrown food again.
I longed for the sweet juiciness of tomatoes that you just can't find in a
store. I couldn't wait to
snack on sugar snap peas fresh off the
vine, like I did when I was a kid.However, in spite of the numerous gardening books I scoured, my initial attempt at gardening failed miserably. Mostly because, instead of following the experts' vegetable gardening tips, I tried to take shortcuts.
And ended up with plants that didn't grow, unexpected pest problems, and a dismal harvest.
I was determined to do better. Food that you grow yourself costs a fraction of store-bought produce (usually; see tip #1 for exceptions), is more nutritious, and bursts with flavor.
I wanted to do better, and, I am happy to say, I have. After many mistakes and much hard work--and sticking to the vegetable gardening tips I've found--I can now sow a seed and watch it grow into a towering plant that provides me with delicious nourishment.
Based on my experience, along with the expertise of other gardeners, I have developed a list of ten vegetable gardening tips that will help even the most uncertain beginning gardener get off to a good start.
1. Read The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
by
William Alexander. It's an entertaining way to learn what
NOT to do when getting your garden started. (Kind of an anti-vegetable
gardening tips book.) And yes, he does explain
how he one day sat down and figured out that each tomato from his
garden had cost him $64.2. Buy plants from the nursery until you have developed some vegetable gardening saavy. Trust me, growing plants from seed is not as easy as it looks. If you try it your first time around, you may become so discouraged that you give up gardening altogether. Which, of course, we don't want to happen.
And one of the most sanity-saving vegetable gardening tips I can give you is to start out with fusarium-wilt resistant tomatoes. Fusarium wilt is incurable once it begins, and can stop what would have been a plentiful harvest in its tracks.
3. Talk to your local gardening experts (or extension office) about how much and how often to water. For example, North Texas gardens require much more water than Minnesota gardens. Even when Minnesota is going through a dry spell, the sun doesn't heat up the ground like it does in the South.
But even the hot climate gardeners need to be cautious about overwatering. One summer, I overdid it and we had a constant barrage of mosquitoes.
4. Mulch, mulch, and more mulch. If you cover the soil with several inches of mulch, you not only keep down the weeds, but you also will conserve moisture. In hotter climates, mulching can also lower the soil temperature as much as twenty degrees.
5. Start
small. I didn't, and almost gave up gardening as a
result. Even this past year, I planned a garden that would feed the
entire neighborhood for six months. After realizing that life with a
two-year-old would not give me nearly the time I would need to work in
a garden that size, I decided to grow enough to provide us with about
25% of our produce. It has worked out well. I have had just enough time to tend to it, but the work has not overwhelmed me, so I continue enjoy the gardening chores.
6. Keep track of when to fertilize. Another one of the most important vegetable gardening tips. You will get a lot better results if you fertilize as often--and no more--as the experts tell you to. My favorite organic fertilizer is Garrett Juice, which now combines compost tea with fish, a powerful way to boost food production in your garden.
7. Consider Square Foot Gardening. This is a must if you have limited space to garden. Even if you live on an acreage, square foot gardening has definite advantages:
- loose soil, so no digging or hoeing required to transplant or weed;
- healthier soil than the native dirt;
- you can grow a variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a small space;
- makes planning and organizing your garden a cinch.
8. Check on your plants at least every other day. If you follow none of the other vegetable garden tips, follow this one. Believe me, a tomato hornworm can consume an entire tomato plant within a couple of days. Aphids can infest and disease a plant in less than a week. (Yes, as a matter of fact, I am assuming that you are planning on gardening without the use of toxic chemicals.)
And the sooner you can stop powdery mildew or other such fungi, the better chance your beans and peas have to survive. (Spraying your plants with Neem Oil at least twice a month will go a long way to keeping pests and diseases away from them.)
9. Do not buy ladybugs from the nursery. This is a total waste of money. If your peas are infested with aphids to the extent that you are desperate to try anything, it is probably too late anyway (and time to reread vegetable gardening tip #8). The aphids will have already given your plants an incurable disease.
The ladybugs will just eat their fill and fly away, leaving enough pests to continue to reproduce.
10. HAVE FUN! This may be the most important tip of all. If gardening feels like a chore more than 10% of the time, you are either making it too hard, or are trying to take it on during the wrong time of your life. Either way, you are causing yourself more stress, and will be healthier in the long run if you continue buying your food from a store (at least until circumstances change).
May I coach you? Follow these vegetable gardening tips, and you will soon begin wondering where gardening has been all your life.
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