14 Organic Vegetable Gardening Tips

Gardening is one of those pastimes that is more than a hobby - it's personal! And to complicate it, Mother Nature doesn't always help you out. How, then, do you succeed with your vegetable garden? It's never a sure thing, but these gardening tips and bits of advice might help.

1. Keep a journal. Record when you plant, how much you planted, how much you harvested, any bug or disease issues and what you think you might do differently next year. Then next year, refer back to what you wrote. You'll be surprised by how much you can forget in a year if you don't write it down.

Raised bed of lettuce, tomatoes, 6 different types of basil, marigolds, zinnias, garlic chives, zucchini. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

2. Keep a positive attitude. That total fail with your tomatoes this year? It will make a good discussion piece with other gardeners. And next year can only be better. Hopefully.

3. Tis better to cover your tender plants before the heavy rain and hail starts, not during. Keep your eye to the sky and take weather forecasts seriously.

4. Every year is different. Don't ever think you've got this thing in the bag, because if you do, you're jinxing your next crop.

5. Plan for moderation. When planning out your garden during the winter, reduce the size and number of plantings you think you want. Looking at those seed catalogs makes you go overboard - I know from experience!

6. It starts and ends with your soil. (I would double-bold that if I could.) The health of your soil is more important than you might realize. Healthy soil makes healthy disease-resistant plants that give a good yield.

Also, it's soil, not dirt.  :-)

7. Kitchen gardens are placed near the kitchen for a reason. Gardeners who break their backs digging, hoeing and weeding, don't want to walk too far to pick a few things to go in the dinner.

8. When seed packs say not to plant outside before the first frost date, they mean it.  But sometimes you can get away with starting before the approved planting date by using row covers, cold frames, or Wall O' Waters. It's up to you if you want to take your chances.

9. If you're planting a seedling, peat pot and all, tear off the bottom of the pot. The pots are supposed to decompose but that can take a while and you don't want your seedlings to become root-bound.

10. Pole beans aren't the only thing that can climb a trellis; so can cucumbers, melons and squash. Think vertical - especially when you're space-challenged.

11. If you have raised beds, you can use an old window or door screen to cover small seedlings so they're protected from birds, bunnies and bugs.

Powdery Mildew on a tomato plant. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

12. Worms in your garden are a good sign. Slugs are not.

13. Your tomatoes will never taste exactly the same from year to year; it's going to depend on the weather and water conditions.

14. Water your vegetables in the early mornings. Midday watering can mean evaporation in the hot sun, and can sometimes burn the leaves if they get wet, and nighttime watering might give your plants powdery mildew problems from being moist all night.

These vegetable gardening tips should give you a leg up, but they're only the beginning. For more, get yourself a gardening app for your phone or iPad, read gardening books and magazines, talk to experienced old-timers, and get out there and experience it firsthand. There's nothing more rewarding than growing a successful garden!

The Squirrel Battle - Update

Well, a few weeks ago I had posted some suggestions on keeping squirrels out of the garden - an annual and ongoing battle, for me.

Image via WikipediaI actually found quite a few suggestions I had not tried before, but the only one I have actually implemented so far is the spices....because I haven't needed another method!!

I am SO excited that this is working, and I would have posted sooner, but wanted to make sure the results I was getting were for real, and not just a coincidence. But it will be a month, this week, since I started trying this, and I've had virtually NO digging in my garden - whereas before, it was more than once a day.

I've still seen plenty of squirrels around, so I know they're still in the vicinity, but they just seem to be leaving my garden alone.

I had tried cayenne pepper before, but on the advice of the video I posted, I decided to try some stronger smelling spices. I had a small bottle of ground cloves in the pantry - obviously very potent, scent-wise, which I'd had for ages and never used much of. So I started with that, and just using the shaker bottle, sprinkled it around the perimeter of my tiny garden plot, and also over the area where the most active digging was occurring.  Immediately, I stopped finding holes everywhere, and my dear lettuces stopped being molested.

Image via WikipediaEncouraged, I continued this, but my small bottle soon ran low, so I picked up a big container of ground cinnamon at Aldi's (I think I paid a dollar?). I've been using this ever since, and it seems to be working just as well, although it is more obvious to the eye - the cloves were the same color as the soil, so you wouldn't notice it, but the cinnamon now gives a rust-colored perimeter to the garden. It doesn't bother me though, and hopefully the neighbors don't care!

The one drawback is that I do need to reapply every time it rains - which, this spring, is a lot - but it only takes a minute or so, and it is working so well, I don't mind at all.

I haven't planted the potatoes just yet, but the onions are all up and growing nicely, and the gladiolas are just planted and mulched - and nothing is digging them up!

Anyway, I hope this method proves helpful for others - it sure worked for me!

If you find your squirrels impervious to spices, there were a couple other interesting suggestions I haven't tried: 1. Castor Oil mixed with water, and used to water the areas in question (this is supposed to be good for the plants as well as repelling squirrels). 2. Cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil, and tucked into the toes of old pantyhose, hung in the corners of the garden (works on the same premise as the spices, with the strong scents).

Feel free to post your own comments below! What have you used to repel squirrels from your garden?  What have you tried that has worked, or hasn't?

Spring Vegetable Garden Series - Preparing Your Garden Spot: Part 1

It is finally (FINALLY) spring here in Ohio, and I am inspired to post a spring garden series. This will focus on vegetable gardening - growing your own vegetables I feel is such an important part of living a sustainable and holistic lifestyle. As you have probably discovered from reading this blog, even apartment and condo dwellers can practice sustainable gardening - you just need a bit of creativity!

Image via WikipediaI will try to throw some tips in for us small-space gardeners throughout the series, so stay tuned, and lets get gardening!

Choosing and Preparing Your Garden Spot:

In deciding upon the site for the home vegetable garden it is well to dispose once and for all of the old idea that the garden "patch" must be an ugly or plain spot in the home surroundings. If thoughtfully planned, carefully planted and thoroughly cared for, it may be made a beautiful and harmonious feature of the general scheme, lending a touch of comfortable homeliness that no shrubs, borders, or landscaping can ever produce.

With this fact in mind we will not feel restricted to any part of the premises merely because it is out of sight behind the barn or garage. In the average moderate-sized homestead there will not be much choice as to land. It will be necessary to take what is to be had and then do the best you can with what you have. But there will probably be at least some choice available as to, first, exposure, and second, convenience.

Image by agelakis via FlickrConsideration #1: Exposure
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The first thing to consider in picking out the spot that is to yield you happiness and delicious vegetables all summer, or even for many years, is the exposure. Pick out the "earliest" spot you can find a plot sloping a little to the south or east, that seems to catch sunshine early and hold it late, and that seems to be out of the direct path of the chilling north and northeast winds. If a building, or even an old fence, protects it from this direction, your garden will be helped along wonderfully, for an early start is a great big factor toward success (especially in cooler climates with shorter growing seasons). If it is not already protected, a board fence, or a hedge of some low-growing shrubs or young evergreens may be a great addition to your gardening efforts, that will pay off well over time. The importance of having such a protection or shelter is altogether underestimated by the amateur.

Consideration #2: Convenience

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Other things being equal, select a spot near at hand, and easy to access. It may seem that a difference of only a few hundred yards will mean nothing, but if one is depending largely upon spare moments for working in and for watching the garden and in the growing of many vegetables, this matter of convenient access will be of much greater importance than at first you might think. Not until you have had to make a dozen time-wasting trips for forgotten seeds or tools, lugged a big heavy hose out to the garden and back, or gotten your feet soaking wet by going out through the dew-drenched grass, will you realize fully what this may mean.


The next consideration will be the soil, and we will cover that on Thursday, so be sure to check back for some great tips on preparing great soil for your vegetable garden.

Tips On Planting Your New Garden

Good morning!

Today, we are going to get down to planting and organizing your garden, so grab your tools, and let’s get started!

Now you’ve picked out what type of garden you will have, where it will be located, and what plants you will be growing, you can really get started in creating your garden environment, and planting your seeds! (See previous post on choosing seeds.)  There are several items you will want to address in this process.

First, you’ll want to select what your garden barriers or borders will be. What will separate your garden from the rest of the world? Next you’ll want to select the types of support needed for your plants. Often some kind of mesh, stakes, or other supports are necessary to keep your plant upright. You will also want to plan how much soil and fertilizer to buy, and how to arrange all the plants in your garden.

Borders
Choosing a border can be a fairly important step in getting your garden started. While it might not actually affect the health of the plants, many people enjoy a garden that is aesthetically pleasing, as well as functional. Metal, wood, brick, or stone can be used as attractive edging and border materials — that choice is yours, depending on what you want your garden to look like.

Red tulip in my spring garden.

Supports
Finding something nice-looking to support your plants can be a little bit more challenging. Sometimes a short pole can work well, but often for larger and heavier plants, such as tomatoes, you will need a wire mesh for it to pull itself up on. You can find these at almost any gardening store, usually pre-shaped in a sort of conical shape well suited for plants. The plant will then grow up through it, and you can tie the branches to the cross spokes with twine if they need more support.

Buying Soil
If your soil is poor, you may want to buy some soil and/or compost to add in, but the goal should be to build up your own soil over time, so that it will be able to support a garden without adding too much from outside sources. (Some people try to solve the problem of poor soil by loading up their plants with every type of chemical and fertilizer known to man. This usually works to some degree, but to me it seems kind of unnatural to rely on man made materials to keep your plants alive. Also, as a sustainable gardener, and especially if I’m growing vegetables, I don’t feel very comfortable eating something that is full of chemicals!)

If you must add outside soil, try to find a source of organically certified soil, so you are not adding toxins to your new garden right off the bat. (Scott’s makes an organic topsoil mix, and for a good organic fertilizer, try Rainbow Grow Mix.)

We will cover making your own compost in a blog post coming up shortly, so be sure to check back!

Tulips along my garden fence.

Plant Placement
Arranging the plants can also be important to the success of your garden. I’m not talking about some kind of feng-shui thing, but depending on your watering, some plants might hog all the water and leave the other plants high and dry. Some plants have longer roots than others, and are more aggressive at seeking water. If you place one of these plants next to a plant with weaker, shorter roots, it will promptly hijack the water supply for itself, and can choke out the other plant.

Climate Considerations
Many gardeners live in areas where virtually anything can grow effortlessly. Just plant some seeds and water them for a few weeks, and you’ve got a beautifully lush garden. But if you live somewhere like Colorado, or other northerly climes, you’ll understand what its like to have a limited selection of plants that will grow naturally. It can be rather a challenge to facilitate the growth of a large variety of plants, especially when the very world you live in seems to be rooting against you.

This can be an important consideration, and one method that can work well in these situations is to create a “microclimate” for each type of plant. This is when you regulate the sunlight, shade, moisture, and wind factors for each separate plant. It sounds like a challenge, and it is. But you can regulate these factors in such a way that the plant feels just like it is in the ideal growing conditions. This can be achieved by the use of wind barriers, shading umbrellas, extra water, or different types or amounts of compost. This is fairly time consuming, but can be very rewarding if done right, and in some climates, it can be the best option.

I can’t explain every phase of this process, because everyone’s goals, climate, and setups are slightly different. But you can do research on every plant that you would like to have in your garden. Find out everything you can about the zone that it flourishes in, and ask yourself how you can emulate that zone within your own backyard. In most cases, you can take control of the environment and recreate whatever you wish. Ordinarily all it takes is some preparation and strategy. (If you try to find plants that will grow well in your area in the first place, though, that is the most sustainable option.)

In our next post, we will discuss watering techniques, and a couple of other important items, before wrapping up this series with a bonus lesson on that all-important topic — composting!

See you next time, and happy gardening!
Rose.