Creating Your Green Garden While Keeping More Green in Your Pockets
Spring has sprung and it's time to be thinking about beginning your garden. A garden is a great way to save money. Vegetables are not cheap at the store and fresh vegetables, the ones that taste way better, are even more expensive. This isn't even taking into account if you want organic produce, but creating your own organic vegetables isn't too hard. Besides saving money, have a garden also encourages healthier eating by providing loads of vegetables (and fruits if you plant them). Believe me, you're more likely to eat the vegetables if you already have them and you know that you'll just throw them away otherwise. Finally, gardening is a great hobby to have. It's the perfect excuse to get outside and enjoy the summer rather than getting caught up on inside work. You'll get lots of fresh air and get out of the nightly habit of watching TV or other sedentary activities. If you're really not into vegetables, try having a flower garden. Having a yard full of flowers would cheer anyone up even on their worst days. I'm sure there a ton more reasons for having a garden, but overall, gardens are good.
Now that we've got that established, let's start planning!
Figure out how much yard space you want to devote to your garden. The best thing is to start small if you've never had a garden before. You don't want to get overwhelmed and give up once you've started. I actually went out and measured mine while there was still snow on the ground, but you can estimate too. After this, think about which vegetables or fruits are your favorite. What are you eating or would you like to eat almost every day? You can easily plan out the spacing and placement of your plants with some grid paper.
That was my beginning example-I cheated and used the computer because I have pretty messy handwriting. Each square is a square foot. My garden plan has since moved around, but you get the idea. I followed the spacing guidelines found at howstuffworks.com, but I'm sure they are listed on several sites and on the backs of the seeds you buy.
If you are lucky enough to live in a warm climate with a long growing season, all you have to do now is plant the seeds in the ground. Of course, you'll have to water, occasionally weed and collect your vegetables as they ripen, but that's pretty easy to do. Be very careful with weeding until your plants have reached a substantial size. It can be easy to mistake small seedlings for weeds.
For the rest of us, who have a short growing season, we will need to begin our plants indoors. You can buy plants at the store to place in your garden, but this is much more expensive than beginning a garden indoors. A tomato plant can be $12 or more, the tomato plant seeds are $1-$2 for tons of them. We planted 16 and had seeds left over. So be smart, plan ahead, and save big! Thankfully, it isn't too hard to start the plants ahead or we would never grow squash or peppers or tomatoes or so many other delicious vegetables. I started by buying a tray with little peat moss pellets in it. Since I now have the tray, next year I may try to make my own starter kit. Another idea would be to use the cardboard toilet paper rolls. You can cut these in half and fill them with potting soil-they will decompose over time so they can be placed in your garden directly. We have also used solo cups, 2 liter soda bottles, and milk jugs. The options are endless. I would recommend against using steel cans as it is almost impossible to get the plant out of the can. Once you have either a store-bought starter kit or your homemade planters, you can begin planting your seeds. Plant those with the longest growing time first and proceed over the course of a few weeks to plant those that have the shorter growing season. A good planting time frame can be found at Organicgardening.com.
Now that you've planted your seeds, make sure you keep them watered. You don't want them to be waterlogged, but it will really slow the growing or be harmful to the seeds to let them dry out. Many of the seed packets say it will take 10-21 days, or something along those lines, for a seedling to appear. I found that my squash plants and tomato plants came up a whole lot sooner. The following picture was after about 7 days. We planted peppers, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, and butternut squash. The rest of the plants should be able to make it planting directly outdoors (cucumbers, beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, and more).
Maybe I just got a freak bunch of seeds, but the plants have taken off. This is great though as they still need a long time to develop and the "fruit" vegetables to appear/ripen. The squash plants grew so large that we decided to transplant them to a larger container. We also found cheap degradable planters (6/$1 at Menards) and bought potting soil to go with them. It's important to transplant the seedlings if they become large as they will die off if they no longer have room to grow or nutrients to feed them. I expect we will have to transplant the tomatoes if the weather doesn't warm up for several weeks yet.
Once it is warm out, never freezes at night and more constant temps, you will have to acclimate your plants before transplanting them into your garden. The first day you bring your plants outside, set them in a shaded area for a few hours before bringing them back inside. The following days slowly increase their exposure to sunlight and the length of time that they are outdoors. If you put them directly into the garden they will most likely wilt and die. This is due to that fact that they are not accustomed to harsh winds, temperatures, and direct sunlight. This process should only take about a week to ten days. In addition, slowly reduce your watering to prepare them to be transplanted. Plants should preferably be transplanted when it is cloudy out. This will give them a short break before dealing with a full day in direct sun.
Once you've transplanted into the garden begin enjoying the fun of tending to your garden. If you absolutely hate weeding, like most people, leave enough space between your rows to allow a tiller through. I have done this the past couple years and it works like a charm. Rather than hours spent pulling weeds, it's about 5-10 minutes with a tiller. Otherwise, a hoe will work wonders as well. If you get the weeds before they are too widespread and keep up with it, it takes hardly any time. (The tiller works even once the weeds are established) Mulch is another option, but I hate digging through that to plant anything. Lastly, keep the soil moist and have fun with your garden! I'll keep you posted on how my plants are turning out later in the season.
Now that we've got that established, let's start planning!
Figure out how much yard space you want to devote to your garden. The best thing is to start small if you've never had a garden before. You don't want to get overwhelmed and give up once you've started. I actually went out and measured mine while there was still snow on the ground, but you can estimate too. After this, think about which vegetables or fruits are your favorite. What are you eating or would you like to eat almost every day? You can easily plan out the spacing and placement of your plants with some grid paper.
That was my beginning example-I cheated and used the computer because I have pretty messy handwriting. Each square is a square foot. My garden plan has since moved around, but you get the idea. I followed the spacing guidelines found at howstuffworks.com, but I'm sure they are listed on several sites and on the backs of the seeds you buy.
If you are lucky enough to live in a warm climate with a long growing season, all you have to do now is plant the seeds in the ground. Of course, you'll have to water, occasionally weed and collect your vegetables as they ripen, but that's pretty easy to do. Be very careful with weeding until your plants have reached a substantial size. It can be easy to mistake small seedlings for weeds.
For the rest of us, who have a short growing season, we will need to begin our plants indoors. You can buy plants at the store to place in your garden, but this is much more expensive than beginning a garden indoors. A tomato plant can be $12 or more, the tomato plant seeds are $1-$2 for tons of them. We planted 16 and had seeds left over. So be smart, plan ahead, and save big! Thankfully, it isn't too hard to start the plants ahead or we would never grow squash or peppers or tomatoes or so many other delicious vegetables. I started by buying a tray with little peat moss pellets in it. Since I now have the tray, next year I may try to make my own starter kit. Another idea would be to use the cardboard toilet paper rolls. You can cut these in half and fill them with potting soil-they will decompose over time so they can be placed in your garden directly. We have also used solo cups, 2 liter soda bottles, and milk jugs. The options are endless. I would recommend against using steel cans as it is almost impossible to get the plant out of the can. Once you have either a store-bought starter kit or your homemade planters, you can begin planting your seeds. Plant those with the longest growing time first and proceed over the course of a few weeks to plant those that have the shorter growing season. A good planting time frame can be found at Organicgardening.com.
Now that you've planted your seeds, make sure you keep them watered. You don't want them to be waterlogged, but it will really slow the growing or be harmful to the seeds to let them dry out. Many of the seed packets say it will take 10-21 days, or something along those lines, for a seedling to appear. I found that my squash plants and tomato plants came up a whole lot sooner. The following picture was after about 7 days. We planted peppers, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, and butternut squash. The rest of the plants should be able to make it planting directly outdoors (cucumbers, beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, and more).
Maybe I just got a freak bunch of seeds, but the plants have taken off. This is great though as they still need a long time to develop and the "fruit" vegetables to appear/ripen. The squash plants grew so large that we decided to transplant them to a larger container. We also found cheap degradable planters (6/$1 at Menards) and bought potting soil to go with them. It's important to transplant the seedlings if they become large as they will die off if they no longer have room to grow or nutrients to feed them. I expect we will have to transplant the tomatoes if the weather doesn't warm up for several weeks yet.
Once it is warm out, never freezes at night and more constant temps, you will have to acclimate your plants before transplanting them into your garden. The first day you bring your plants outside, set them in a shaded area for a few hours before bringing them back inside. The following days slowly increase their exposure to sunlight and the length of time that they are outdoors. If you put them directly into the garden they will most likely wilt and die. This is due to that fact that they are not accustomed to harsh winds, temperatures, and direct sunlight. This process should only take about a week to ten days. In addition, slowly reduce your watering to prepare them to be transplanted. Plants should preferably be transplanted when it is cloudy out. This will give them a short break before dealing with a full day in direct sun.
Once you've transplanted into the garden begin enjoying the fun of tending to your garden. If you absolutely hate weeding, like most people, leave enough space between your rows to allow a tiller through. I have done this the past couple years and it works like a charm. Rather than hours spent pulling weeds, it's about 5-10 minutes with a tiller. Otherwise, a hoe will work wonders as well. If you get the weeds before they are too widespread and keep up with it, it takes hardly any time. (The tiller works even once the weeds are established) Mulch is another option, but I hate digging through that to plant anything. Lastly, keep the soil moist and have fun with your garden! I'll keep you posted on how my plants are turning out later in the season.
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