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beginner gardening – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Tag: beginner gardening

  • Gardening Tips From Seasoned Gardeners

    Gardening Tips From Seasoned Gardeners

     

    When you just get started with gardening, it can be easy to feel very overwhelmed! As a beginner, there’s so much to learn, and so many ways things can go wrong. But never fear–you can learn from those who have gone before you.

    We’ve got some great tips for beginner gardeners to help you beat the stress and have a flourishing, healthy garden in no time.

    Let’s begin!

    Ask for help

    Don’t be shy! Usually, seasoned gardeners love to talk gardening, so reach out and ask for help! People at your local nursery, in local gardening FB groups, or even community gardens would probably be happy to help out and help you troubleshoot any issues you’re having or give you a good idea of where to start out.

    Keep records

    As soon as you get started, start logging what works. This might not seem very helpful if you have no idea what you’re doing, but it will be invaluable next year! Gardening involves a lot of trial and error, so tracking what works, and what doesn’t, this year, will be an amazing resource next year. Write down everything you plant, when, and track the time it took to sprout, grow, come to fruition, etc. Also, record any issues with pest or disease, and what you did to combat it.

    Know your zone

    This is why it’s so important to seek advice from locals! Know what zone you live in, what’s grown there, does well there, the nuances of the climate, seasons, and weather patterns, etc. Then plant accordingly! Seed packets always have instructions based on zones on the back, so it’s very important to know yours.

    Test your soil

    Before you get started, know what kind of soil you have, and how to amend it. If you are starting with a container garden, you will most likely be purchasing your soil, but if you’re planting in the ground, you need to understand that not all soil is equal. You might have amazing soil to plant directly in, but most likely, you’ll need to amend it. You can buy simple soil test kits at any gardening supply store, and these will give you an idea of what you need to add to your soil to make it healthy and fertile.

    Start simple

    You might be really excited to start growing your own food right away, but take it slow. Your first year, you’ll probably want to plant a handful of easy, reliable crops so you can focus your efforts on these while you learn the ropes. As you get the hang of gardening (you’ll be amazed how much you can learn in one season), you’ll gain the confidence and experience to experiment.

    Choose your plot wisely

    When deciding where to plant your garden, keep in mind it will have to be somewhere with lots of sun. If you have only partial shade in your yard, there are still some things you can plant, but most plants need a decent amount of light. Watch your yard for a few days and track how much sun it gets. Also, bear in mind that the sun’s position changes throughout the year.

    Also, make sure the place you choose to plant your garden is easily accessible to you, and to your garden hose!

    Plan, plan, plan

    Before you start planting your garden, make sure you have a good plan. There are lots of free resources online to look at example garden plans. You can look into companion planting to learn which plants go well together, and which ones don’t. Draw out a map of your garden space, and assign each plant its own plot. Take into account weeding, harvesting, pruning, etc., as you will need to ensure proper accessibility.

    Don’t do it alone

    Involve your friends or family members in your first garden so you have some accountability–and help! You can learn together, and you know what they say, two heads are better than one.

    Get organized

    You’d be amazed how quickly you can accumulate various tools and supplies for gardening, so make sure to keep it all in one place. A basket or bucket that you can take out to the garden with you is very handy, as well as a simple gardening apron or a pair of overalls. Your gardening supplies probably won’t stay clean very long, but they can stay neat and organized, and this will contribute to the overall success of your garden very well.

    Beginner gardening can be intimidating, but don’t fret. It’s a learning experience and you’ll gain so much knowledge in such a short time, it’s worth it for a few bumps along the road. These tips are designed to make your transition from novice to expert smooth and painless, so make sure to keep them in mind as you get started with your garden!

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  • How to Choose What to Plant This Year

    How to Choose What to Plant This Year

    It’s spring time, and if you’re an experienced gardener, you’ve probably been planning out your spring garden and what to plant for months now.

    But if you’re just getting started, either on your very first garden or second or third, you might be overwhelmed with the amount of choices for what to grow in your food garden this year.

    Here are a few tips for how to narrow down your options and choose what to plant:

    History 

    Obviously, if you’ve gardened already, you’ll want to think about what you’ve successfully grown in the past, and go with what worked. But also be honest with yourself about what didn’t work.

    For example, you might have really had your heart set on growing tomatoes, but if you struggled with pests or diseases last year, or simply didn’t have much of a harvest, you might want to skip them this year. However, just because a crop failed, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should always skip it, if you learned a lot in the process and can take some simple measures that might prevent the trouble you ran into last year, it may be worth it to give it another shot.

    Region

    If you are a first-time gardener and don’t have a garden history as a starting-off point, do some research on what grows best in your region. That doesn’t necessarily mean your zone, although you should definitely have a good idea of what your zone is and what grows well there. But the climate and soil in your town or county will play a factor as well. Talk to friends and neighbors who have gardens and ask them what they recommend, or local farmers and nurseries.

    Know your garden

    Every garden space is different, and if you don’t have full sun, your neighbor might be able to grow something that will never work in your garden. If you have partial shade all day, there’s still plenty you can grow successfully, so don’t worry. Just watch the sun patterns in your intended garden space for a few days, and plant accordingly.

    Know your lifestyle

    You’ll also have to take into account how much time, energy, and physical ability you have to put into your garden. If you work full-time, for example, you won’t want to plant anything that requires constant watering unless you can set up a drip irrigation system, for example.

    Also, anything you plant and intend to consume, you’ll have to harvest and process. When choosing seeds, make sure you know what’s involved in harvesting and preserving, and that it’s something you’ll actually consume! You don’t want to get to harvest time and have a wonderful, productive crop go to waste because you’ve got no time to process it.

     

    In the end, while it’s always best to play it safe, don’t be afraid to experiment, too. If you’re a first-time gardener, even if your first garden isn’t perfect, you’ll still learn a lot in the process! Happy planting!

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  • Tips for Growing Herbs Indoors

    Tips for Growing Herbs Indoors

    Herbs can be a helpful addition for any homesteader. They can be used for flavoring food, and in some cases, the herbs will even have medicinal purposes. Depending on where you live, you will not be able to have a garden all year long, and this would normally mean an end to your herb production until things warm up again. However, if you still want to grow your herbs throughout the year, it is possible. You just need to grow them indoors.

    Types of Herbs to Grow

    When you are growing herbs, think about the best types for your needs. Consider the herbs that you will be using the most of and that you want fresh. What are you using in your food? What might you need for medicine? Some of the most popular options when it comes to indoor herbs include mint, thyme, oregano, parsley lavender, and sage. Once you know the herbs you would like to grow, spend some time learning more about them and what each one takes to grow.

    Prepare the Soil

    One of the big differences between growing outside and inside is that when you grow your herbs indoors, they will usually require more maintenance. You need to make sure you have a layer of small rocks on the bottom of the pot before you add the soil mixture. The mixture should be 20% perlite and 80% soil. Make sure that you know about each of the different herbs you are growing and anything special they might need to thrive.

    Misting the Plants

    When you are growing the herbs inside in the winter, there is a chance for the herbs to dry out. This is especially true when you have heating in the home, as you naturally will during the cold months. Instead, your best option is to use a spray bottle to mist the plants. You can add some water to the soil, but you should also mist the plants about once per week.

    Although you want to be sure the herbs do not dry out, they still need to have good drainage. If the water sits in the soil and has no way to drain, it can cause the roots of the herbs to rot. Add drainage holes to the pots.

    The Temperature and Light

    You will find that you do not have to change the temperatures too much to make the indoor herb garden happy. The plants will do well in the mid-60s to the mid-70s, which is typical for interior home temperatures in the winter. Overnight, the temperatures dip a bit, but the plants are fine with this as well. It closely mimics temperatures outdoors during the warmer parts of the year.

    The herbs should get at least four hours of sun each day. Placing the herbs in windows that are facing the south or the southwest should give you plenty of light.

    When you first start your indoor herb garden, you will have a period of trial and error as you start to grow different types of herbs and try to perfect your techniques. Overall, it is easy though, and you will get the hang of it quickly.

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  • Crops to Get Kids Excited About Gardening

    Crops to Get Kids Excited About Gardening

    Gardening can be fun for kids, though it requires more patients than most kids can muster up.  Getting them started with an interest in gardening at a young age will increase their likelihood of eating healthy and continuing gardening as they grow older.  Gardening can get kids off the couch and outside where they belong, learning about the world around them, and how they can relate to it in a beneficial way, both for them and the natural environment.  Here are a few crops that are more likely than others to get kids excited about gardening.

     

    Stevia

    Stevia seeds are on the small side, so you will need to help young kids when handling them, or even get a few starts instead of seeds.  The excitement from stevia doesn’t come from growing it, but from eating it.  Kids are in for a pleasant surprise when they taste how sweet stevia leaves can be, which can increase their interest in other green foods and plants in general.

    Beans

    Beans are a great first crop for kids to grow.  The seeds are large enough for the kids to handle on their own, and the large size makes them great for learning since all the parts of the developing plant will be more clearly visible.  It’s more fun if you sprout the beans on the surface of the soil so the kids can see the root and leaves come out of the bean.  They can even let them go to seed and see the end result is the bean they first planted.

    Mint

    Mint is a great plant for kids because of its unique taste and its ability to root from nearly any cutting.  It’s a great plant to demonstrate rooting cuttings from.

    Meyer Lemon

    Kids love everything that seems to be sized just for them.  Kids can water the tree and watch the fruit grow at eye level.  Meyer lemons are also sweeter than larger varieties, so kids are more likely to enjoy them.

     

    Whether you want to teach your kids botany, health, and fitness, or the utilitarian skills of self-reliance, getting them started early with gardening will put them well on their way.

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  • Crops I Don’t Recommend and Why

    Crops I Don’t Recommend and Why

    I’m sure that I will get people who disagree, but that’s why the article is titled “crops I don’t recommend” instead of “crops you shouldn’t grow”.  Everyone has access to different resources and has different levels of experience and time they are willing and able to put into their garden.  If you have a lot of money, and a lot of time, and you don’t mind putting a lot of work into growing a certain crop because you enjoy the satisfaction of overcoming the inherent difficulties in doing so, then great, grow whatever crops you want to.  But for the rest of us, these are a few crops that I, personally, would recommend that you don’t waste your time with.

     

    Asparagus

    Don’t get me wrong, I love asparagus, and I know that it is difficult and expensive to get tasty young asparagus in the store.  But I personally take a utilitarian approach to gardening and if I can get similar nutrition from a crop that is easier to grow, then I will.  Asparagus takes years to produce, requires a lot of space once it does, and will eat more fertilizer than green I have ever grown.   If you aren’t going to be deterred by my warnings then at least do yourself a favor and buy asparagus roots and not seeds, you will never get anything from the seeds.

    Strawberries

    The low sprawling nature of strawberries make them difficult to mulch.  Any crop that is difficult to mulch is also going to be difficult to water and to keep weeded.  Add to these difficulties the fact that mice and rats love to beat me to my strawberries and I give up.  From my experience you need to grow strawberries in a raised bed with store bought top soil, water them on a timer, and cover them with wire to protect them from pests.  That is too much work for so little reward.

    Head Lettuce

    I have nothing against head lettuce varieties, but I have never experienced the same level of success that I have with leaf lettuces.  I always end up having some level of rot of pest damage in a head lettuce, and even if it is minimal, some of the lettuce ends up in the compost anyway because I didn’t eat it fast enough.  On the other hand, leaf lettuce is much less likely to rot or be bothered by pests, and I can harvest as much or as little as I need for each meal, so it is as fresh as ever each time I eat it.

     

    If you have had success with these crops, then continue growing them.  But if you haven’t tried them yet and are considering growing them this season, you have been warned.

     

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  • Tips for Saving Money When Purchasing Seeds

    Tips for Saving Money When Purchasing Seeds

    Seeds are an unavoidable cost of starting a garden.  But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t show some care when going about getting your seeds.  Purchasing seeds for your garden without using some discretion can cost you.  Here are a few tips on how to save money when purchasing seeds so that you have more money to invest elsewhere in your garden.

     

    Don’t Buy Package “Deals”

    If you are looking at a seed catalog you are likely to find package “deals” advertised.  Sometimes these are salad greens, medicinal herbs, culinary herbs, or starter packages for new gardeners.  The premise to these “deals” is that it is cheaper to buy them as a package instead of purchasing all the seeds separately.  This is true, but, it’s likely that you don’t want all of the seeds in the first place, that’s why they are included along with the seeds that you do want in order to get them off of their shelves.

    Avoid Novelty Crops

    Don’t buy seeds that are not likely to easily produce useful food or medicine.  Exotic crops are often exotic because they are highly demanding to grow.

    Perennials

    Perennial greens or long lasting fruiting vegetables like eggplant will provide you with much more food per seed or cutting than annuals.  This will cut costs and increase production.

    Avoid Spring Time “Deals”

    Seed companies often promote their products in the early spring.  These seeds are from last season, but they are sold for a premium price.  Buying them earlier and saving them yourself will save you money.  Likewise waiting until later in the year to purchase late season crops will usually save you money.

    Save Your Own

    You should always save seeds from your own crops.  If you have friends that garden as well, ask them what seeds they have and what seeds that would like to get, trade them extra seeds instead of both of you purchasing far more than you need of the same seeds.

     

    Saving money on seeds will mean that you will have more money to spend elsewhere in your garden, or elsewhere in your life.  Gardens should save you money in long run, but if you aren’t being frugal, then gardening can quickly become expensive.

     

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  • Easy Mistakes to Avoid in the Garden

    Easy Mistakes to Avoid in the Garden

     

    When you have a failure in your garden chances are it is not unique to you.  You probably made a mistake that plenty of other gardeners have made, a mistake that was easy to make, and probably easy to avoid as well if you know how.  Here are a few of the more common easily avoidable mistakes that gardeners make.

     

    Bad Stock

    If you start off with something bad, you can’t really expect to get good results.  For this reason you want to buy your seeds or cutting from a good source and not try collecting seeds from store bought tomatoes (which are probably hybridized and don’t produce true seeds) or ordering cheap seeds online from less reputable sources.

    Bad Soil

    Even if you start off with the best seeds, you won’t get too far if you soil is devoid of nutrients.  This usually happens when gardeners start with good enough soil and then fail to properly fertilize during growing and properly amend the soil between crops.  Mulching with wood chips throughout growing and amending with rich compost will usually prevent this, but soil test should be done if these are not enough.

    Growing Out of Season

    Just because you see a crop in the store during the summer doesn’t mean that you will be able to produce that same crop in your zone that time of year.  A lot of time and resources can be wasted if you try to grow out of season.

    Improper Harvest Time

    Even if you have good seeds, soil, and grow the right time of year, if you harvest too soon or too late you will not get good results.  Two examples of common crops harvested at the wrong time are okra and corn.  People often let their okra get too large so that they have a lot of okra in one harvest, then are disappointed that it doesn’t taste good because it is too old.  Corn is often harvested too young because gardeners get impatient.  Test each crop with a single harvest if you are unsure.

     

    You work hard in your garden, so do it right so you can enjoy all the fruits of your labor.

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  • Tips to Save Money in the Garden

    Tips to Save Money in the Garden

    One of the big benefits of growing a garden is that your grocery expenses are less when you grow your own vegetables, berries and herbs. There are numerous tips you can implement to save money in the garden. By becoming a frugal gardener, you will increase the financial benefits your garden offers.

    Some of the money saving tips related to gardening involves the plants themselves. Starting plants from seeds enables you to get more plants for less money than if you bought individual plants. However, if you don’t have the proper setup for starting with seeds, go ahead and buy the plants. When you purchase plants, the cost is often determined by the size of the plant. You can save money by purchasing small plants and exercising a little patience as you wait for them to grow.

    If you start plants from seeds or buy packs of small plants, you may have more of one variety than you actually need. This gives you a good excuse to participate in a plant swap with neighbors, friends or family who also grow a garden. Swapping plants is a good way to acquire some different varieties of plants without spending money. Plant cuttings or plants from the division of perennials is a good way to acquire free plants. You could also participate in a seed swap as a way to expand the diversity of your garden with no out-of-pocket cost.

    Although waiting may be difficult, it’s best not to purchase plants as soon as they begin to appear at the local garden center in early spring. Prices will be lower if you wait until those who are over-eager have time to buy the first few shipments of plants. In many areas, springtime weather is unpredictable. An unexpected cold snap could kill your new plants and you would end up having to spend money to buy replacement plants. Once you’re finished with your spring planting, keep an eye on what’s left at the garden centers. Most likely, as summer progresses the remaining plants will be reduced as much as 50% or more. You can inexpensively plant a late summer garden that will give you the opportunity to enjoy fresh vegetables until cold weather arrives.

    Garden tools typically go on sale at the end of summer. This is a good time to replace your worn out garden tools or to add to your collection. Due to the increased interest in gardening, you are likely to see garden tool sets, garden accessories and various other garden related products featured in gift sets during the holidays. You could add gardening items to your holiday wish list or shop for bargains at post-holiday sales.
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