Garden Planning Series, Day 1

There are a few things to consider when planning a garden. (By the way, I've decided to break this garden planning thing up into a few different posts to save you the riveting experience of reading a garden planning novel. I think it’ll be easier to follow this way).

1. Are you going to start from seed, or purchase seedlings? Consider winter sowing as a frugal approach to starting from seed (allowing you to avoid the hefty price tags of grow lights).

2. Are you doing raised beds, container gardens, or a traditional garden in the ground? A combination? Pinterest houses a wealth of ideas on container gardening and raised beds. Go there and browse!

3. How much growing space do you have?

4. What are you going to grow this year?

A lot of garden planning articles will tell you to start small. Learn how to grow a couple of things, then add more next year. That's cool. If you're patient. I'm not. So, I say go big or go home, baby. That may or may not be the advice of a Type-A, overachieving, run-yourself-into-the-ground, kind of person. I like to just go for it. Some of your plants may not thrive. So what? You'll still learn something and gain wisdom to use next year. Failure is okay. It's actually guaranteed in the world of gardening. You just have to learn from it, apply your new knowledge to next year, and carry on. Each pack of seeds costs a couple of bucks. You probably won’t even use an entire packet in one season for most things, so really, you don’t have a whole lot to lose here.

Watchya gonna grow? Grow things that your family enjoys eating. That's a given. 

Another important tip is to use your space efficiently. Last year I allotted a lot of garden space to growing onions and carrots because we eat a lot of them. In hindsight, organic onions and carrots are one of the most affordable organic produce items at my grocery store and at the local farm stands. I'd rather use my limited garden space for things that are extremely expensive to buy, or that I can't find locally. Butternut squash costs $1/lbs around here (and that’s for conventional, GMO squash that is probably not grown anywhere near me). I was able to grow 60-70 lbs of squash, it was heirloom, it was grown organically. All from 2 vines. I spent about $2.50 for that pack of seeds and I have plenty left for this years garden. That’s a solid investment of my time, money, and space.
 
Plus, I kept pulling my carrots too early because I was too impatient. I wanted to see my beautiful multicolored carrots!! My impatience basically meant a waste of seed money and garden space.

Oookay. Welp. That is one cute kid holding some seriously beautiful, albeit tiny, carrots (those are the caliope carrots from Botanical Interests, btw!). Maybe we’ll grow just a few carrots this year.  
 
How many of each plant should you grow? I always use this chart as a guideline. It's for a family of 4, so I adjust as necessary. Plus I like to grow extra for freezing and canning.

Once you have a list of what you're going to grow, you can choose varieties from your seed catalogs and place your first order! Read the descriptions and take the length of your growing season into consideration (find your first and last frost dates by zip code HERE . I like to break my seed orders up so that it's not a significant strain on my budget to order all at once. I'll start with ordering the first few crops I plan to plant, which would be things like your brassicas, lettuces, carrots etc. Then with the next paycheck, I'll order a few more seed packets.

Alright, that’s it for now! Adios muchachos.
 
Next up: Mapping it out.


I shared this over at: Frugally Sustainable

Winter Sowing

I think most people who are interested in gardening realize that starting from seed is generally the most affordable way to go. Even if you go with fancy pants organic heirloom varieties, you’re still going to save a boatload with starting from seed. Sounds simple, right? Get some seeds, plant them in some recycled containers with some soil, and then put them under … whoa. Wait a minute. Put them under what? You can only put so many seedlings on a window sill. So, what do you do? Grow lamps? A green house?

Some may be fortunate enough to live in a warmer climate where they don’t need to extend their growing season in order to get a decent yield. As for the rest of us? Suddenly, starting from seed isn’t so frugal when you’re talking about spending hundreds on grow lamps or a green house. Sure, it pays off in the end. You’ll get years of use out of them. That’s true. It’s a worthy investment. But what if you don’t have the cash now?

Before you know it, you’re buying half-dead hybrid seedlings from a department store, only to have them refuse to grow, never mind produce. All because you just can’t afford the set up required for starting from seed. Not that I know from experience or anything.

My friends, let me welcome you to the world of winter sowing. It’s amazing. It’s freaking amazing. And you can do it on a shoestring budget, even if you live in a cool climate. You can do it for veggies, flowers, and herbs. You need a few things: Plastic containers that are clear. My favorites are milk jugs and clamshell type produce containers. Soil. Water. Mother Nature. That’s it!

I’ll share some links to websites where folks who are way more experienced than I have already explained it in detail. I winter sowed almost everything last year. Anything that needed to be planted before my last frost date got winter sowed with the exception of peppers and tomatoes. I successfully grew onions, kale, mesclun, butter crunch lettuce, cilantro, thyme, marjoram, sage, and broccoli with the winter sowing method. All the rest got direct planted after the last frost date, including squash, zucchini, pumpkins, cukes, beans etc.

(Pictured above are some mesclun, kale, and broccoli seedlings. These were winter sown in late January last year. This picture was taken outside in April, 6 weeks before my last frost date! Look at how strong and healthy and adorable they are! )

I was not able to successfully winter sow tomatoes or peppers, and ended up buying heirloom seedlings from a local nursery. I’m going to try again this year with different varieties. I’ll update!
Here are some links that describe winter sowing in detail. I used these as a guideline last year:
http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2012/11/winter-sowing-101-6/
http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2012/01/what-to-winter-sow-and-when/
http://www.wintersown.org/
What to Winter Sow and When: http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2012/01/what-to-winter-sow-and-when/

(The same mesclun pictured above, thriving!)

So, basically you create little greenhouses out of your recycled containers. You poke or drill drainage holes on the bottom and vent holes on the top, put in 3-4 inches of soil, plant your seeds, water, and then stick them outside. Yes. Stick your tender little baby seeds out in the snow. As the weather freezes, thaws, freezes, thaws, freezes (… you get the idea), it softens the outer shell on your seeds. When they are ready to sprout, they sprout. As the weather starts to warm, you’ll want to watch the soil to make sure it doesn’t dry out, and water accordingly. This creates plants that are hardier, stronger, healthier, and more productive. Last year I winter sowed my mesclun at the end of January, set them outside, and I had baby lettuce sprouts by late February!

Do you grow kale? You should! It produces like a beast, making the most inexperienced gardener feel like a rock star. Plus, it’s delish and crazy healthy. This kale was also winter sown in January and produced well through November in my Zone 6 garden.

I linked this post to: Frugally Sustainable and the Homestead Barnhop!