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How to Get Started Growing Your Own Food

12K views 40 replies 22 participants last post by  sakuragaming 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)


Planting a garden can be a great way to reduce your monthly food costs while ensuring that the produce you enjoy is organic and not coated with pesticides or other chemicals. Planting enough food to feed your family can be challenging and sometimes intimidating, but it's also rewarding. If you want to create your own garden, here are some tips and tricks to get you started.

Choose Your Location


First, you need to decide what part of your home or yard you're going to turn into a garden. Take a close look at the available area and ask yourself these questions:

  1. Does this area get full sunlight for at least six hours a day?
  2. Do I have the ability to get water to this area if it doesn't rain?
  3. Is the ground relatively flat?
  4. Are there any low spots that could trap cold air during the cooler months, creating frost pockets?
  5. Is the soil suitable for growing?
  6. Are there any rules against planting a garden in my Home Owners Association handbook?
If you can answer yes to the first five items, and no to the last one, then congratulations - you've found the perfect spot for your garden.
Sunlight is the most important of these questions. Most vegetables require full sun for at least six hours a day - and some require more - so make sure you don't have any overhanging trees or branches. Water is also a necessity, so be prepared to lug a watering can if your hose doesn't reach. Flat ground allows for even water distribution and prevents rain erosion from washing away your plants.

Learn Your Growing Season


Your next step is going to be learning your local growing season. This will vary depending on where you live - southern states have longer growing seasons than northern ones, because they get warm earlier and cool off later. First, check the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map - this will provide you with your growing zone. Next, take a look at this chart that will tell you your primary growing season.
You can figure out your own growing season by paying attention to the weather too. No matter where you live, your growing season starts after the last frost of the year and ends after the first frost of the new season. Anything planted before the growing season begins or after it ends might not germinate, and if it does, the plant itself will likely die in the cold weather.

Collect Your Tools


Once you've chosen a location, you need to start collecting your tools to get your garden ready before it's time to plant. Your exact collection may vary depending on what you're planting, but in general, you're going to need:

  • Shovels, spades, rakes and other hand tools. Keep a sharp shovel handy to break up roots that you might encounter.
  • A roto-tiller to turn the soil if you don't want to do it by hand.
  • A wheelbarrow for moving large items like soil, or to collect your harvest.
  • Gloves to protect your hands.
  • An air compressor for powering tools, filling tires, and cleaning off ground-based produce like carrots and potatoes.
  • At least one hose with a watering attachment, or watering cans.
  • Stakes or trellises for plants like beans and tomatoes that grow upward.
Once you've collected all your tools, and the weather warms up, it's finally time to plant.

Plant According to the Directions


Your next step is to sow your crops, but make sure that you're planting all of these fruits and vegetables according to the directions. Some require more water than others, and some need to be kept far away from similar plants.
Potatoes, for example, don't grow well around tomatoes, melons, or sunflowers. Keep your beans away from beets and peppers. Broccoli and cauliflower might grow well together, but they won't grow at all if you plant them near your squashes. Asparagus won't grow if your garden is too crowded, or if you plant it near any veggies that grow underground like onions and potatoes. Sunflowers release a chemical that prevents anything around them from growing - great for weed control, but not so great if you're putting them in an already crowded garden.
Plan out your garden accordingly. You can grow all of these things and more in the same garden. You just need to be a little more mindful of your placement.

Enjoy Your Harvest


Once you've got the plants in the ground, all that's left is to be patient. Vegetables and fruits can grow in as little as 30 days or as much as 120 or more, so you may be waiting a while. Keep an eye on things, make sure everything is watered and watch out for pests, but that's all you really have to do once the garden is planted.
At this point, all that's left to do is enjoy your harvest - and maybe learn how to can or preserve produce because you might have a lot of it leftover!

Guest Author Article By:
Scott Huntington is a writer from central Pennsylvania. He enjoys working on his home and garden with his wife and 2 kids. Follow him on Twitter @SMHuntington
 
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#4 ·
Start with Potatoes high yeld. easy and high pay back.
 
#5 ·
Are there any rules against planting a garden in my Home Owners Association handbook?

check with your municipality - very common BOCA ordinance across the country is nooooooo veggie planting in the front yard section of your plot - there's usually a % that needs to be in grass - no large majority even in flowers ....
 
#6 ·
A green house would only make it hotter. Unless you go to the expense to put shades on it. O liked what Disney did. They have sprinlers spray soap suds on the top to block the sun when it get too hot. I do grow some stuff, tomatoes, potatoes, green peppers, etc. but the crops are very small, and it takes a ton of water.
 
#8 ·
Ah, spring! We've got the lettuces in now. Hubs has some other things planted in the raised beds. I need to ask him what they are.

Garlic, basil--but I bring the basil in when the temps drop. Still early here. I keep most of the herbs for my kitchen garden in tall pots in a fenced in area which is nice and sunny. It's deer proof. My other herbs'll be getting planted soon. Rosemary, oreganno, mint (which grows like a weed), cilantro....smells like heaven.
 
#9 ·
Being a city boy, growing things was something I never learned to do. BUT I'm correcting that now since I retired. I've joined our local Master Gardeners Association and all interns must take classes. Classes are taught by professors from A&M and some local experts. You get fire hosed with info but boy have I learned a lot. And I'm having fun doing it. And the learning continues with being around people who have been doing this for years. Many love passing along what they've learned over the years.

Not if but when things get ugly, the plan is to be able to add to our meal from the garden.
 
#10 ·
We started with a large garden, learned a few things but because of the constant weeding we now just grow in a few raised beds. But we still keep the larger garden area clear in case it's ever needed.

Keeping a little bag of heirloom seeds isn't enough, you need things like fertilizer, pest controls, and basic tools if you plan to plant an emergency garden.
 
#11 ·
Keeping a little bag of heirloom seeds isn't enough, you need things like fertilizer, pest controls, and basic tools if you plan to plant an emergency garden.
One thing I've learned is about pest controls. You need pollinators for a variety of plants. No pollinators equals no food. Many pesticides kill pollinators and most don't consider that part. I found there are a variety of organic pest control things to use without killing the pollinators.

If you get to a point where pesticide is your only option then use it late in the day when the pollinators have gone to rest. Right now I'm trying to stay with the organic stuff.

I'm also focusing on personal pollinators. By that I mean mason bees and leafcutter bees. They only travel about 300 feet so basically they become your personal pollinators, if you can provide enough pollen to keep them fed.
 
#17 ·
I've found that collecting the honey is less work than catching the swarms, building the boxes with frames, and protecting the hives from mites.
While I started with 3 purchased Langstrom hives and nucs I've moved on to catching my own swarms using swarm traps and splitting hives. I've found that effective mite control is the trick to honeybee hive survival.

Our family makes mead and candles with the honey from the hives. Great presents for family and friends while maintaining a prep.
After the 1st year a good hive will make about 1 1/2 -2 gallons of honey and 1/2 lb of wax.
 
#16 ·
Some people have more knowledge in gardening than others, and some have none. If you never planted anything, I suggest starting small or even in containers, but do something. Arugula IS very easy to grow. The first crops may not be what you expect, but it does get better. Your garden soil will improve over the years if you take care of it. Also, if you have available area, planting some fruit trees would be nice, but they do take some years to produce well.
Tools can get expensive, but they don't need to be purchased all at once, and you can get them secondhand too.
 
#25 ·
To Cricket and Annie, as you two know, my wife and I were cursed with "black thumbs." I can kill plants (even barrel cactus) with simply an angry nod. Every plant my wife planted last year died in the yard. She tells me to just buck up since now we have 'natural fertilizer.'

We can still work the dirt since we haven't gotten a hard freeze yet. Is there any way we can prepare the plots we have to better our chances next spring?
 
#29 ·
Well, I am going to try again this year. I already mulched the ground and mixed in some filler dirt so hopefully I can get peppers and tomatoes this year. Last year everything died, I mean everything, everything including the fake plant on the porch. It's in the 70's here this week so I am working outside some. Putting poison down between the fences for the wasps and hornets. (God made a mistake with these ornery damn things) I am going to try strawberry's in half drums made of wood this year. I hear they will do well here in the heat.
 
#32 ·
I think this year I am going to try and plant a Knob Creek tree. Then I won't care if I kill everything else. :tango_face_grin:
 
#34 ·
The US is divided up into grow areas. What does well in your area can differ in my area. Just as an example, last year my wife bought a vine. Here it is an annual, in Houston it's a perennial. When buying plants, a seller should ask what zone you are in. Below is a link to the USDA zone map. Put in your zip code and it will display what zone you are in. In N TX, we are in zone 8A.

https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/
 
#37 ·
Why? What's wrong with a link to a useless blog that has nothing to do with the topic at hand? :vs_laugh:
 
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#38 ·
I expect a lot of persons coming out of the confines of Netflix for the first time to start gardens given the current situation, and I applaud that.

I would like to add one tid bit of advice,

Don't start your seeds to early.

Calm down and let me explain.

In my area of Michigan the rule of thumb is putting your garden, OUT on or about May 20th. throngs of people do so on the memorial week end.

I have lost 2 wonderfully started gardens on the 29th of May from Frost.

So back up to start your plants inside. or in a green house, where ever you plan to start them.

You need to know your weather condition, ideal date of planting, last day of frost expected, and the hardy nature of the plants you are going to grow.

Kale, Arugala, Potatoes, Alaskan Snap pees will grow through a frost.

Cucumbers will drop dead, if the weather girl mentions on the news that there is a chance of spotty frost, next week Tuesday.

Plants need to be hardened, by mother nature, wind whipped and sun beaten.

Many persons start plants inside, and they grow like crazy in the protected environment, long tall and spindly. the first time mother nature shows them a wind, they fold at the ground and or become sun burnt.

Put your starters out in the environment every day that it is above freezing, to harden them.

And back up no more than 6 weeks from your target date for putting them outside, or they will grow uncontrolled and die when you transplant them.

Remember exceptions to every thing, in Michigan here you can plant Alaskan snap pees and they will grow under the snow a little.

Cucumbers die from a cool breeze.

Proceed with your seeds wisely.

There may not be another pack at the store, when you go again.
 
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