Digging in the Dirt: Part 2

Note from Sara:  You may remember that I've been lucky enough to have John (aka "El Gaucho") guest post for me in the past.  He and his girl, Alycia, have been friends of mine for years and years, and they're also the most prolific gardeners I know.  Because it seems that Mellisa and I are new to the world of growing our own food, I thought I'd ask John to hop over and offer up some tips.  I'll be pestering him for more as the season continues on, and hopefully we'll bully him into sharing more of his wisdom come next spring when it's time to plant again.  Enjoy!

This is the second part of a series of gardening posts.
Part 1 can be found here



Tips For Beginning Gardeners, Part 2:

Find a Resource for Help.
Just about every city or town in the United States has a local Master Gardeners program, extension service or gardening club(s), that would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about gardening in your area. Utilize the magic of the Internet to help you find these resources, or ask at your local nursery/garden store and they can help guide you in the right direction.

The best resource for gardening tips are other gardeners themselves. Ask family, friends, and co-workers if they garden, or if they have a friend or neighbor who gardens, and who might teach you. Peruse around your neighborhood and see who has a nice vegetable garden (yes this might be hard to see without peeping into someone’s back yard) and strike up a conversation them. Offer them a few hours of free labor from you in exchange for them teaching you what they know. Most gardeners are quite happy to offer their knowledge and experience and would be happy to chat with a newbie.

I’m lucky in that my In-Laws have a beautiful garden and live only an hour and a half away. They’re more than willing to discuss their experiences of what does and doesn’t grow in the area, what pests to watch out for, when to be wary of frost, etc. We also have huge veggie exchanges throughout the year and each grow and then swap what works well in our respective gardens. They grow a ton of rainbow chard and beets but don’t even eat them (they just like they way they look), so we get a bumper crop of these every year without ever having to grow any ourselves.

Get the Family Involved.
If you have kids, try to get them involved in the gardening as well. Not only (when properly harnessed) are they a great source of free labor, but they’ll benefit from a closer connection to their food source and interaction with nature. New studies have come out and authors (see Richard Louv in particular) have examined the link between kids exposure to nature and gardening and reduced behavioral problems and physical ailments. And anything that gets a child to eat more fruits and veggies is going to help them lead healthier lives.

Try growing vegetables that will captivate kids' interest. Depending on their age, growing carrots can be a magical thing, the moment that they pull a full formed carrot from the ground that they planted a few months ago can be enthralling. Veggies like cucumbers, melons, zucchini, or pumpkins are entertaining for kids as they are large bushes with big pretty blossoms and produce hefty fruits. Growing snap peas, cherry tomatoes, or strawberries can make every stroll through the garden a healthy snacking opportunity for you and your children. What kid wouldn’t be impressed with a zucchini plant like this one that produces dozens of zucchini every week?

Embrace Perseverance and Seek Inspiration.
Every gardener fails. Every gardener has failed at something in their garden, killed a plant, and allowed weeds to run rampant. I’ve killed plants, lost harvests, or seen plants die from just about everything you can imagine: bunnies, birds, hail, squirrels, acts of God, a careless step in the wrong direction, simple neglect, various diseases, over watering, under watering, rampaging garden gnomes (OK I made this one up), over exuberant dogs (this one is true), bad soil, wind storms, too little sun, too much sun, pulling a garden hose the wrong way, and the list goes on and on. The bottom line is to not let your setbacks get the best of you and never let the things that failed define your experience in the garden.

And seek inspiration every chance you get. Go on garden tours, visit local farmers markets to find new fresh fruits and veggies, and find cool sites on the Internet. Here are the websites of two of my most inspirational gardeners, though they’re not necessarily oriented towards fruits and veggies, they are amazing. Not only are they great writers, but they post regularly and are spectacular photographers. Each post has dozens of beautiful pictures that make me want to get off my tush and play outside in the garden.

http://conradartglassgardens.blogspot.com/

http://krensgarden-karen.blogspot.com/

Nothing tastes quite as good as veggies you grow yourself. It may be entirely in your head, or simply a result of the time and effort you put into growing it, but nothing matches the satisfaction, pride, and freshest of fresh taste you get with homegrown fruits and veggies. If you haven't before (or even if you've tried and not quite succeeded) I would highly recommend trying your hand at some gardening and raising some of your very own grub.
- John


      

Digging in the Dirt: Part 1

Note from Sara:  You may remember that I've been lucky enough to have John (aka "El Gaucho") guest post for me in the past.  He and his girl, Alycia, have been friends of mine for years and years, and they're also the most prolific gardeners I know.  Because it seems that Mellisa and I are new to the world of growing our own food, I thought I'd ask John to hop over and offer up some tips.  I'll be pestering him for more as the season continues on, and hopefully we'll bully him into sharing more of his wisdom come next spring when it's time to plant again.  Enjoy!



Tips For Beginning Gardeners, Part 1:


Sara recently sent me an e-mail asking if I could offer up some trusty gardening tips to the wonderful readers of From Blah to Ta-Daa. When I pressed her for details about what kind of gardening tips to discuss, she said, “Make it for people like me. I seem to have some imaginary boundaries that venture only a few feet from my stove and refrigerator.” So bearing in mind that many people have time constraints, space limitations, fear of failure, imaginary boundaries, a dark and sinister past with failed gardening attempts, or just uncertainty of where to start in the huge realm of gardening, here are a few trusty tips to help you be successful in your garden.

If you’re already reading this blog, you’re obviously interested in cooking, preparing food, and making delicious dishes for your family. I’m here to tell you that even if you have any or all of the constraints I mentioned above, or have a “brown thumb” when it comes to gardening, that you should not let these things stop you from trying your hand at raising your own fruits and vegetables.

Here are a few things I’ve learned over many years playing in the dirt and succeeding and failing at growing stuff in the garden.

Just Like Real Estate – Location, Location, Location.
Make sure the spot you choose for your garden gets a full day (at least 6, preferably 8 or more) hours of sunshine, ideally oriented towards the south or west. Make sure that you’re near a water spigot, close to where your tools are kept, close to your backdoor/kitchen door, and not in a place where your dogs go to tinkle (Yes I made this mistake, remember this theme – every gardener makes mistakes).

The raised bed above faces south and is along my garage, so it gets additional heat and light reflected from the garage siding. I’ve learned that my heat loving plants (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant) do really well here, but it took a few seasons of trial and error to find that out.

If you don’t have your own yard or live in a condo, townhouse, or apartment, a sunny South or West facing patio/balcony can easily support a pot of tomatoes, some fresh herbs, or even a small lemon tree. Don’t let the physical constraints of your situation keep you from trying to grow your own fruits and veggies.


Don’t Break the Bank.
You can literally start gardening with zero dollars and no tools other than your two hands. Yes, digging in the dirt with just your hands is much harder than using a shovel or a trowel, but it can be done. The point is that it’s easy to get caught up in buying fancy new tools, pretty colored pots, specialized gardening accoutrements, or tons of vegetable seeds through a seed catalog. The point is to economically grow a few veggies that you love, enjoy the fruits of your successes, and then build from there.

A recurring theme in learning to garden is the beginner who gets all excited about raising their own food, spends a few or even several hundred dollars on shiny tools, fancy pots, and exotic plants, and then somehow gets derailed. Expertise and proficiency in gardening can’t be purchased with money. Start out slow with a few necessities (or borrow them if you can) and build up your inventory of tools, seeds, garden toys, etc over a number of years. My collection of tools are a series of hand-me-downs, stuff from Freecycle or the “Free” section on Craigslist, things left in the garage by previous home owners, Christmas/Birthday presents, and a few things I’ve actually purchased.

Keep a Journal.
This isn’t a mushy “thoughts and feelings” kind of journal, though if you want to add your thoughts and feelings, by all means go ahead. Mine sometimes have expressions of my emotional pain like “I’m full of despair. I wish I could find the bunny that ate my cucumber and watermelon seedlings that I just planted yesterday. I’d like to lure that bunny into a trap with some Skittles and then punch him in his little bunny head." But that’s just me. I just use a basic Mead Composition book, but any notebook, pad of paper, or even Excel spreadsheet will work.

You want to write the logistics of everything in your journal. What you planted, where you planted it, and when you planted it. During the year, make a few notes (rainfall, temperatures, weird weather, bugs, plant diseases, etc), and then a recap at the end of the season. This will help you understand the things that didn’t work (remember - everybody fails at growing something, even experienced gardeners) and identify and repeat next year the things that did work.

Make a sketch or a list or a spreadsheet to help you document what you did in the garden. My beginning of the year sketches look like this:

For me, the journal method helps us as we’re harvesting our veggies and realize that if one particular tomato is delicious, I can identify which nursery we bought that seedling from and make sure to get one (or two or three) next year. Last year we realized that one variety of cherry tomato, a yellow pear shaped tomato, just wasn’t that good. It looked pretty in salads, but just wasn’t that tasty. But we also realized that another variety of cherry tomato we planted, a wild Mexican hybrid, was absolutely delicious (seriously sweet and delicious, it was like candy), and we made sure to plant several this year.



Good luck in your gardening endeavors. And it’s only July, so it’s not too late to start a zucchini, cucumber, tomato, or pepper plant this year…
- John




         

Gardening + I Aren't Getting Along

This is my 2nd year of trying to garden and let's just say it's not going as planned. Who knew it would be this hard to squeeze a few veggies out of these plants?

I had dreams of growing enough veggies to keep my family of 6 eating their 5 a day all summer long but have yet to harvest anything more than 2 puny roma tomatoes and 1 sad looking banana pepper.

Thankfully while visiting with my family, my Aunt Kirsten took me on a walk through her garden...and my hope has been renewed.

I was amazed at all the vegetables that were in a word, bountiful.

I am feeling very resolute now as I look at my poor pitiful garden and can recognize the hard work that must be put in to grow things. It takes daily weeding, watering and lots of good old fashioned family time.

Her whole family helps with the work, and they have been blessed with enough for themselves plus plenty to giveaway and even a bit to sale. 

Even though I live in rural Oklahoma, this was the first time that I have seen corn actually growing on the stalk. While she was laughing at my antics trying to snap a ton of pictures, I was busy trying to capture the feeling of being able to walk outside to gather dinner. Could you imagine?

Instead of loading up 4 kids in the hot car,
driving to the store,
walking the aisles (buying a ton of stuff that I don't need)
and then having to lug it all the way home
and finally putting it away?

Most of the time after a grocery store trip, I'm just to exhausted to cook.

But if I could just walk outside and pick and wash...we'd be eating fresh from the garden every night!

Along with all the glorious veggies, she also has a massive patch of watermelon and cantaloupe sprouting. I told her when they are ready I would love to bring the kids down so they could see it growing right on the vine. I am convinced that my kids think food is grown right in the grocery store aisles.

Tomorrow I will be back to show you all the wonderful veggies that my Aunt shared with me. If there is anything that says summer more than a freshly picked dinner, I don't know what it is.

Do you garden or have any tips for a gal who would love to grow her own?