8 Gardening Tips for Beginners & 4 Must Have Tools

 

I haven't always wanted to grow my own food.  I didn't even really understand where food came from for a while (besides that it came from farmers).  As I started reading about nutrition and started cooking for myself, I wanted to see and be a part of the entire cycle of seed, plant, harvest, eat.  

I read a little about gardening, but any gardener will tell you, the best learnings come from your garden (your success and failures), not from a book.  Every garden is different, as is every gardener.  You may have a patio with a couple pots or an acre of tilled soil.  That dirt could have come from a bag or be rocky clay like mine was.  I wanted to pass on my learnings because failure can be hard to overcome and can kill all motivation to grow your own food.  But with these few tips, hopefully you'll bypass any setbacks and have success from year one!

 

1.  Good dirt is essential!  Our yard is rocky clay dirt.  Just awful for growing anything but grass and weeds.  So we knew to start, we needed raised beds with trucked in dirt.  Too bad we didn't spring the extra dollars for some good, dark garden soil.  But over time I've added amendments (compost, peat moss, and fertilizers) and we have good dirt!

2. You can use fertilizer and still grow things organically!  I was so scared to use fertilizer when I started.  Just the thought of whatever the plant eats will be in the vegetable which I will eat... ick!  Well, my plants didn't grow because they didn't have enough nutrients in my awful dirt.  I grabbed some organic fertilizer the next year and had much better results!  Now I add it once when I'm planting and once mid growing season.

3. Don't neglect your garden halfway through!  This one is still hard for me... I put it quite a bit of energy in the beginning; planting, weeding, watering, observing.  Then summer comes and I want to do other things.  The dirt dries up, the weeds take over, and the vegetables that are growing are forgotten.  So pick a day of the week and spend 30 minutes watering and weeding.  You'll know what's going on in your garden and harvest a lot more.

4. There are good and bad bugs.  Some bugs can eat away at your entire garden if they invite their friends... others make your garden possible.  Worms, ladybugs, fireflies, and pollinators (bees, butterflies, etc) are all garden friends.  Slugs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, aphids, and most beetles are all trying to eat things in your garden before you do.  Spray them off with a hose or use an organic insecticide (but not within one week of harvesting), I use diluted neem oil.

5. Most vegetables need one inch of water per week.  If you have your plants in pots, it dehydrates faster, so water at least twice a week.  And fully saturate the soil you're watering.  The deeper the water grows, the deeper the roots grow.  The deeper the roots, the bigger the plant.  The bigger the plant, the more veggies you'll get!  Also, if the water is underneath the surface, the sun can't zap it away. 

6.  When planting, dig deep.  Especially with clay or rocky soil, when you dig out a hole that is deeper and wider than the plant actually needs, you have loosened up that soil so its roots can easily grow down and out making a stronger plant.  Add some fertilizer at the bottom mixed with some loose soil... and those roots will reach down for it!

7.  You might need a fence.  If you have deer, rabbits, or dogs in your yard, you have just planted a buffet.  I tried scarecrows, shiny items, noisy stuff, fake snakes, dog fur... so many things to keep the deer away.  Nothing works quite as well as a cheap wire fence.

8.  Know how much sun your garden will get.  If your garden location doesn't get much sun, chances are good that you won't have much luck with tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant.  If it gets full sun... you're lettuce and cabbage will bolt before you can harvest anything leaving bitter greens (but your tomatoes will be prolific!).

Now that you have the tips, you'll need some tools.  Gardening should be a "cheap" hobby.  As with any hobby, it's easy to spend more money than necessary.  Here are four tools you will need to start...

link to my shovel (which I looove)

And a couple that come in handy...

Gardening is great for giving you time to think and reflect.  It's almost like meditation, but you're getting your hands dirty and fresh food.  The past several years I have spent gardening has really made me feel closer to my food.  Not just the stuff I grow myself, but knowing and understanding how the whole cycle works increases your appreciation of all food!  

 

   

My POV on GMOs

GMOs (or genetically modified organisms) have been in the new a lot over the past five years or so.  In the last month, fast food restaurants like Taco Bell and Panera have announced they are removing GMOs and other artificial ingredients from their foods.  Food Babe, a pretty controversial food blogger, also preaches the horrors of consuming GMOs.  All are being met with some opposition from the science community saying that we shouldn't be afraid of scientific advancements in the food industry.  All of this can be pretty confusing.

I take a pretty opinionated stance right in the middle ground.

So here are my pros and cons to GMOs...

The good...
Genetic modification actually occurs in nature.  If a bee pollinates a spicy habanero plant and then to a sweet tomato plant, that tomato will have a bit of a kick to it because of cross-pollination.  As a gardener, that is how we get so many different varieties of plants to choose from.  It is plant evolution.  The seeds from the most delicious cross-pollinated fruits have been saved over the years and are now our heirloom varieties.  My favorite tomato, purple cherokee, did not exist 100 years ago.  Instead, it is a descendant of the original, Mexican tomato that grew like a wild flower.

There are so many that go hungry every day because they either do not have access to food or cannot afford it.  When scientist find varieties that are naturally resistant to specific problems, like blight resistance or drought tolerance, and then cross-pollinating those in a lab with another variety that may be known for high yields results in a plant that provides a lot of food and doesn't need as much water or chemicals.  More food using less resources sounds like a win in my book!  Take that extra food and cost savings and distribute it to those who are hungry and that "GMO" solves (or gets closer to solving) world hunger.

The bad...
Unfortunately, the Big Ag companies that are creating most of the GMOs aren't doing it to feed the world, they are doing it for profit.  Companies like Monsanto and Bayer create seeds that are dependent on their chemicals.  Or... the chemicals are "baked" right into the seed.  Now think about a tiny seed injected with insecticides, fungicides, and fertilizers that becomes hardwired in the plant and therefore the food it produces.  There have been too many reports of bees pollinating these chemically charged plants and dying on the spot.  Now imagine what it could do to you (or to the cows and chickens that eat that same grain that end up on your grill).

Like I mentioned in my first point, some of these modifications are the natural process of plant evolution.  However, the modifications Big Ag have been working on are getting patented.  That means even if you're not using Monsanto seeds, pollinators will still travel between crops.  This results in the patented GMO DNA in your non-GMO plants.  Because of patent laws, this means companies like Monsanto are able to sue farmers for stealing their genetically modified intellectual property and prevent the farmer from being non-GMO certified.

The ugly...
Now that you know not all GMOs are created equal, you still have your own consumer decision to make.  Do you play it safe and go non-GMO whenever it is available?  Do you support science's right to patent plant DNA knowing that some of them are trying to solve for world hunger and others are trying to profit?  It is a confusing choice to make and certainly not an easy one.

Weekly Menu

I'm going to start doing bicep curls in the garden with my zucchini... these giants weighed in close to eight pounds a piece!  I love that it keeps raining a couple times a week so I don't have to water the grass or garden at all (although if mother nature could keep the rain to times I'm at work or sleeping, that would be best).  With all the rain, my garden is growing out of control.  What used to be a nice clear walking path now has tomato branches, chard leaves, melon vines, and green bean shoots all over it!  (... not that I'm complaining!)

  

I don't know what is about balloon flowers, but I just love them.  I think it is cute the way they grow like a bubble (or balloon, whatever) and then pop open with this gorgeous purple color in the shape of a star.  And my butterfly bush is finally blooming!  I love this time of year when our yard is full of color and fragrance!  :)

Speaking of fragrance... they need to bottle up the smell from Jazz & Rib Fest because as soon as we got out of the Jeep, the smell of barbecue hit me and I was instantly hungry.  I only eat ribs once or twice a year just because I have to be in the mood to eat with my hands and get super messy... and when you have all the best rib joints from around the country, you have to indulge.  

 

 

Went to support the Crew last night and they won (finally)!  The game was sold out... so it looks like the World Cup has had an impact and soccer... ahem... futbol... is gaining some popularity here.

Alright, so the menu this week has a repeat from last week since I didn't get to it... but now I have ripe tomatoes to make fresh sauce for my zucchini lasagna!  So procrastination results in a win this time.  :)


zucchini enchiladas 
grilled rosemary chicken and corn on the cob
zucchini lasagna (oops, didn't get to this last week)
fajitas
stuffed onions

Weekly Menu

After an off-and-on stormy day, it ended with a full rainbow while I was making dinner tonight.  A colorful reminder that there is always a silver lining, you just have to wait and be looking for it.

On the weekends we like to go out to eat, mostly because we're already out and about.  So to get out of our same-place-every-Friday rut, we have been trying new restaurants every week for a couple months now.  It's great to find new favorites and dishes to recreate at home.  This week we went to Cork in Gahanna.  It is a cute little wine bar with Italian tapas, entrees, and desserts and most of the dishes incorporate wine in them.  The chocolate berry lava cake was delicious!

Enjoyed some sunshine this weekend reading the first issue of Stock & Barrel and out on the kayak (maybe a little too much sun, ouch).  Tomatoes are starting to ripen and the mint is telling me it is mojito time!

Spent some time in the garden in between the storms today and found some zucchini I hadn't noticed before.  They are huge!  So to get back in control of the harvest, we'll be catching up by eating zucchini nearly every night including some zucchini bread in there too.  What was I thinking when I planted enough seeds for SIX zucchini plants?!?

pizza night
stuffed zucchini with green beans
zucchini lasagna
okra corn cakes with sauteed zucchini
creamy salmon pasta

extras: zucchini bread and baked peaches

Weekly Menu

It's officially summer!  Hope you're all enjoying the extra sunshine!

I'm so excited with the progress of my garden this year.  It definitely shows that practice really does make perfect eventually.  I went from killing every plant I touched (I never remembered to water things) to having a 8'x16' garden that is already producing more than we can eat!  

After all those years, I would have to say, the trick is definitely the soil.  I read several articles and books saying the same thing and I always thought dirt was dirt.  It's what you put in the soil that counts.  That is what the plant 'eats'.  Yep... they do need water (everything does) and sunshine (for photosynthesis), but neither of those are feeding the plant to make it grow.

The secret to getting your soil right is really just some good organic fertilizer (or compost) with crushed asprin and calcium pills.  The fertilizer when get a good base of nutrients back into your dirt.  The asprin wards off disease in plants, just like it does for us.  And then the added calcium helps several plants, especially tomatoes, from rotting prematurely.  I have been using this technique for the past couple years thanks to Tom at Seeding a Good Life (check out his crazy large harvests).

My tomatoes are starting to turn from blossoms to fruit, green beans are finally trellising, zucchinis are growing, and my cantaloupe vines have taken over my chair.  Now I just need to keep the bad bugs away and eat, share, and put up for later!

 

 

So now that my garden is hopping and will soon be producing pounds of zucchini (knock on wood)... this week I'm dusting off a few zucchini favorites and working on a couple new ones.  Here is this week's meal plan...

stuffed squash blossoms
squash stuffed shells
fish fillets, steamed broccoli, and cheesy chard biscuits
hamburgers and red white and blueberry salad (go USA!)
pizza night

Weekly Menu

At last weekend's blogger brunch, one of the bloggers asked for my Instagram account name because it was easiest than any other method to keep in touch.  I told her I didn't have one and she looked back at me like I must be from a different decade or something.  Considering my day job includes keeping up with the latest happenings on the internet and how it impacts the company I work for, I probably should have an Instagram account.

When I heard about Twitter for the first time back in 2006, I really thought that there was no way it would last.  I mean, at the time, MySpace was dying a slow death (maybe not so slow).  How could something like Twitter catch on when Facebook already does the same thing.  I thought the same thing about Instagram.  It kind of started as a hipster thing, I figured everyone would jump on, and then it would just go away.  Looks like it is here to stay... so guess what... I'm now on Instagram!

I feel a little addicted to my phone now.

This weekend I was putting in my garden.  A little early.  Especially with the fluctuating thermometer we have had this year.  But it is in and it is covered with a hoop house (first time ever trying this and we ended up spending a lot of time going back and forth to Lowes).  End result, pretty awesome I'd say.  I was sitting under the plastic covering at one point trying to get everything to stay put and it was nice and toasty under there.  I'll probably keep it covered until June which should really give the tomato and pepper plant an awesome start!  Yay for gardening season!





Alrighty, here's the plan for this week!  What are you planning to make?

tacos for Cinco de Mayo
yakisoba
breakfast for dinner
game night sliders and snacks
mac and cheese

Canning Tomatoes - total time 2 hours

Canning tomatoes is like storing a little bit of summer and getting to open it up again when the ground is covered in snow.  It is also pretty easy to do.  As long as you have a large pot, some mason jars, and lots of tomatoes... you can do water bath canning.  Tomatoes are high enough in acidity that it doesn't require being canned in a pressure cooker.  There are only a handful of things you can can this way, and even with high acidity, you still need to be careful and follow every step.  You're not putting the preservatives and additives that food producers use in their canning process.  So follow the steps and make sure your kitchen is nice and clean before starting!

Weekly Menu & Preserving Summer's Bounty

As much as it pains me to think about it... the end of summer is near.  Don't get me wrong, I love autumn with the crisp air, the beautiful colors in the trees, the bonfires, hiking and camping... so many great things.  But.  I love summer more!  It also means summer harvests are coming to an end as well.  That can often mean there is more produce on our counters and gardens than we can eat.  There are several ways to easily preserve these fruits and vegetables so you can bring them out again during the dead of winter to unlock some of those memories of summer in the soul warming meal.

Freezing.  
This is the easiest way to save fruits and vegetables for a later date.  You can cook them first or freeze them as they are.  I love to freeze fruit!  You can easily use them in smoothies or bake a dessert or add them to muffins or pancakes.  I always freeze some berries and peaches from the summer... just peel and cut up your peaches and spread evenly on a baking sheet, freeze, then transfer to a freezer ziploc bag.  Same goes for berries, although you can skip the peeling and chopping part!  

I also like to freeze corn, both cooked and uncooked.  I cut some ears in half and toss them into a freezer bag.  I'll boil or steam those later as a quick side.  Then I'll roast several ears on the grill, cut off the kernels, freeze them on a baking sheet, and then into the freezer bag they go.  Those kernels will end up in soups and stews.  I also freeze uncooked peas and green beans.

Canning.
This method saves room in your freezer and can really be store anywhere in your house giving you flexibility and the ability to store a LOT of food.  Ever since I learned how to do water bath canning (which requires a high acidity), I have been "putting up" enough tomatoes to make home made sauces and soups all winter long (I have eight jars so far and my tomato plants are still going strong).  I'll share the steps to can tomatoes later this week.

I also pickle cucumbers and peppers in water baths.  The vinegar makes it possible to can these without using a pressure cooker.  

Now that were stocked and ready for fall vegetables, lets move on to this week's menu...

mexican stuffed shells
zucchini soup
asian meatballs with rice and edemame
enchiladas of some sort
ordering food in while canning a lot more tomatoes!

Weekly Menu

After going to the Tomato Festival that I mentioned yesterday, I noticed a lot of red in my garden.  Look at all the tomatoes!  This has to be my largest single harvest of tomatoes yet (not to mention some more over-ripe maters I had to throw out) including the largest tomato I have ever grown!  This brandywine variety is producing some huge fruits, thanks to the very rainy July this year.  But until this week, all of the ripe tomatoes have cracked and burst before I could pick them (also thanks to the heavy rains).

There was no way I could eat all of these tomatoes... so I canned them.  More on that later.  But I was really excited to stock the summer away to enjoy again during the dead of winter in something warm and comforting.

So this week we have a little bit of mismatched travel in our schedules.  It is making it hard to plan dinner for the week since we'll only both be at home one, maybe two, nights this week.  

eggplant rolls
pan ravioli
jerk chicken and mexican corn on the cob
eggplant parm
turkey burgers
kale chips