Today's post is all about how to start gardening. I get asked all the time what are your secrets? What advice do you have for a beginner. Number one advice for beginners, is be a beginner. huh? That's right, start with a few plants, I cannot say this enough. Either start a small container garden, or a small raised bed garden. It's easy to get excited, when all those plants are blooming, the birds are chirping, the fresh smell of spring is in the air. If you truly want to be good at gardening, don't let cloudy judgement get in the way. Its better to plant few and it grow, than plant too much. When you get too excited and plant a ton, usually you wind up with hardly any. That even goes for those who have gardened a long time. It's easy to jump in and want to plant everything you see. Gardening is VERY hard work, tillering, and planting is the easy part. How can you say that Debbie???? You have to rake, plow, tiller, dig holes, plant, water, seed, etc..... Yes I know and that's why I am warning you, that is the easy part of gardening.
So if I have finally convinced you to start small, we can start with seeding.
Number one tip for seeding, don't buy expensive pots. Yes, we all know there are a billion cute expensive seed starters out there, don't waste your money. My favorite seed starters are Free. They work better than anything you could buy. Start saving you cans, soup, vegetable, what ever you buy that comes in a can save it. Milk cartons, plastic butter containers, Ice cream container, even the card board half gallon ice cream containers, egg cartons, egg shells, the options are limit less. Lets say you don't have enough to plant all the seeds you wart, buy a pack of Styrofoam cups. The key is drainage, make a few small holes in the bottom, and you have a great seed starter. Next picking your seeds, what do you use the most? Don't try to start with growing broccoli, carrots and lettuce. Start small, 3 tomatoes, 2 squash, 3 peppers, and 2 cucumbers. You can fit all of these in a raised bed. Then start some easy herbs in a container, like basil, chives and parsley. Then stop, starting small is the key to learning. It may sound like nothing, but you didn't run before you crawled did you? I have seen dozens of people start bigger, and almost always it don't pan out, or what turns out are just a few plants. Why not have a few amazing plants, that make plenty. If you learn the basics, do well with a few, then double it next year, and try 1 new thing.
Step three for those who have mastered, without a doubt these plants. Don't seed beans and peas. They grow faster, to just start them in the ground, you get healthier plants, that are less likely to die. I also prefer to start my cucumbers that way, but that's because I plant like 10 plants. Fences are a wonderful tool to same some space. If you have a fence plant your garden next to it. You can run you butter beans, green beans and you cucumbers to save space. This gives you more area to plant. If you are starting with a raised bed, plant it next to a fence. Tomato cages are another wonderful tool. When you plant tomatoes in the ground add a teaspoon of Epsom salt, it prevents bottom root. Trust me bottom rot, will ruin lots of tomatoes if it starts. Plant things around your tomato plants to detour bugs. Chives, mint, marigolds, basil, petunias or parsley are good things to help detour bugs. Plant you peppers between your tomato plants. Check you tomatoes for tomato worms, they can take inches off you plants fast. I like to feed them to my chickens, if I find one. Pour your coffee grounds out near your tomatoes. Crush egg shells up in the garden to prevent slugs and fertilize the garden. Banana peels are great for tomatoes and peppers, just cut them up in smaller pieces.
