Top 10 Tips for New Gardeners

I was a new gardener once.  I was 5 when I first began to grow plants with my parents on our little sustenance farm on Guam.  We grew sugar cane, lemons, melons, guava, sweet potatoes, eggplants, Thai basil, chili peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, lemon grass and much, much more.  Now let’s fast forward to 2007, when I rented my first garden plot at MCGA.  I did not know much about growing food crops in the Pacific Northwest but I was an eager learner.  Here are my top 10 tips for new gardeners to the PNW and to MCGA, this is a compilation of some the things I have learned and taught myself through trial and error over the past 7 years.

1.  Grass and weeds are evil, remove as much as you can as they suck vital water and nutrients from your crops.

2.  Plan out your garden.  Do you want to build raised beds?  If you do make sure the beds are not so wide that you cannot reach the middle of the bed to weed.  It might also be a good idea to make sure you can reach all parts of your garden bed from the edges as well.  Next plan out your paths, even if you do not build raised beds make sure to plan for paths as it is not wise to step into your beds.  It compacts the soil and destroys its structure. 

3.  "Make" the best soil you can.  Add the best soil amendments you can afford.  Here are the names of some great things to add to your soil, some are free, some will cost you some change. These things are NOT the same as fertilizer although they do provide some nutrients. You do not have to add them all in 1 year, also follow the application directions.

a.  Compost, make your own or buy some.  (free and $)

b.  Sustainable peat moss for your blueberries at planting time ($$), pine needs as mulch (free).

c.  Earthworm castings ($$$)

d.  Lime in the fall. ($)

e.  Manure, steer, chicken, rabbit, etc... Beware that horse and cow manure contains the highest salts, use sparingly and make sure it has been aged 6+ months. ($$)

f.  Coconut fiber or coir fiber ($$$)

g.  Coffee grounds (free) 

h.  Leaf mold (free)

i.  Perlite or horticultural vermiculite, great natural products for heavy soils, they help with aeration but provide no nutrients.  ($$)

1j.  My favorite amendments right now re-mineralize the soil:  Biochar, rock dust and glacial rock dust, AZOMITE (wear a mask when you apply powdery amendments).

4.  Start your seeds at the right time, see seed packet for information.  Make sure the soil is wet before you make your furrow to sow your seeds. Tamp down the soil around your seed; many seeds need to contact the soil before they can germinate.

5.  Learn about cold crops and hot crops:  These crops are planted at different times at the garden.

Some example of cold crops:  arugula, lettuce, mache, radish, spinach, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, spinach, turnip, carrots, beets, garlic, onions, shrubs can be planted early in the season, asparagus, snow peas, sugar snap peas, parsley just to name a few.

Some examples of hot crops (usually like day temps 55F and above and night temps about 50F and above):  tomatoes, okra, eggplants, melons, beans, potatoes, cucumbers, peppers, corn, squash, tomatillo, basil, pumpkins, just to name a few.

6.  If you wish to plant starts, make sure they are hardened off before you plant them in the garden.  Do not assume they are hardened off when you buy them from the hardware store or nursery.  Hardening off means to get them ready or accustomed to life outside the cozy comfort of your home or the greenhouse.  Remember they have never felt wind, rain, direct sun or cold nights.

Here is a quick and easy guide to hardening off your starts:

a.  7-10 days before you are ready to plant your starts at the garden you should begin to harden them off.  If you have a balcony or a terrace, this is ideal!

b.  Reduce the amount of water and place them outside in the shade for 1-2 hours on day 1 to day 3.  Bring them in at night. 

c.  Gradually move them outside more and more, adding 1-2 hours at a time, they should be able to stay outside at night after days 3-5. 

d.  By the end of the 7-10 days they should be able to stay outside day and night.  Now they are ready to plant at the garden.

7.  The best time and condition to plant your starts are early in the morning and when it is cloudy.  I DO NOT recommend planting starts out on a sunny day, doing so often causes them to wilt dangerously.

8.  When planting starts in the garden, dig a giant hole, loosen the soil, add about 1 handful to 1 cup of vegetable fertilizer, depending on the plant.  Stir the soil and the fertilizer together.  Fill the hole with water, back fill as necessary as you place your start in the hole.  Water at this time again, tamp the soil around firmly and you are done!

(Exception!  For tomatoes and tomatillos, bury 1/2 to 2/3 of the entire plant in the hole, this practice encourages root growth along the buried stems and make for a stronger plant.)

9.  As you watch your crops grow over the coming weeks; weed often and water deeply.  I only water 1-2 times a week when it is dry.  I watch the weather report and avoid watering when we expect rain.  Avoid watering overhead whenever you can, use drip hoses or water right at the base of your plants.  Deep watering encourages stronger roots.

10.  Continue weeding and watering deeply.  Now it is time to control those pests who are enjoying your lovely crops.

Enemy #1 SLUGS

The slugs that do the most damage are the tiny ones.  There are many ways to get rid of slugs and I usually employ all methods! 

a.  Iron phosphate products like Sluggo and Escargo are pelleted, read the directions and avoid sprinkling directly on plants.

b.  Beer traps-set out a small container at soil level and fill with cheap beer, slugs will be attracted to the beer and drown.  Empty the container often.

c.  Sprinkle egg shells all over, this works only on the bigger slugs.

d.  Use copper tape to protect the really special plants, this tape is expensive.

e.  AVOID salt; this is not good for your soil.

f.  Hand pick at night when they are the most active.

g.  Place a wooden board or wet cardboard in the corner of your plot, when the slugs go there to hide you can get rid of them.

Enemy #2 RABBITS

These little guys love your greens, all greens and young sprouts.  I was so frustrated last year I had to put up a metal fence after they chewed through our plastic fence.

a.  You can put up a fence. 

b.  Buy some mink, fox or predator urine/feces and sprinkle around.  Believe it or not you can buy this online but it is stinky and expensive; NEVER spill it in your car.

c.  Build a small lettuce cage to protect your tender greens or sprouts until they are big enough to withstand a nibble here and there.

Enemy #3 VOLES

Voles are also known as field mice, they are small, like a small mouse and live mostly underground.  They are herbivores and love your crops.  MOLES are carnivores and eat only grubs and worms and NOT your plants.  Here is what voles look like:

They make underground burrows all over the garden but they also eat above ground crops as well.  See some underground and above ground damage.

Here is vole damage to beets, they love beets and carrots!

This really gets me boiling; they eat all the roots of the plant from underground. If you water and water your plants and they still wilt, check for vole damage.  If you water your plants and suddenly a giant sink hole forms in your garden, it is a vole hole.  The bad news is that we cannot do much, plant extra so you have more than they can eat up!

-Gia

Antsy Gardener

 It's March 1st today, only 20 more days until spring which is marked by the vernal equinox, when the day and night length are equal.

 As an avid gardener, I've spent the past winter months perusing garden catalogs and dreaming about fresh tomatoes. With the anticipation of more light and warmer temperatures, I have begun ordering seeds to start indoors.  Here is what I was looking at today:

Recently the temperatures have been uncharacteristically NOT "spring-like" but that did not deter me from sprinkling some seeds on the ground and covering them with a row cover.  The wild arugula and other greens should sprout in a week or two and I'll have some micro-greens for salads.

When I got home I ran to the garage and pulled out my garden lights, much to the hubby's dismay because he really doesn't like to see all those little pots of dirt on our kitchen counter for the next two months.  I on the other hand, revel at the site of little seedlings poking their heads out of my peat pellets. Last year I started seeds inside for the first time.  The starts did amazingly well and I am anxious to try again this year.  See this post to read about my seed starting adventures.

 If starting seeds at home is not in your plans, then spring is the perfect time to prepare your garden for planting.  Over the next few weeks it will be time to till under cover crops that have overwintered, remove winter mulch or weed small sections of your plot in preparation for some spring planting. Compost can be added to your plot as well as organic fertilizers and mineral amendments.

After you've prepared a small section of your plot, you will be ready to plant your cool season crops such as spinach, lettuce, and many other greens.  I often remove my winter mulch in stages so that every 2 to 4 weeks I uncover more and more of my plot. During my first year at the garden I learned that preparing my entire plot too early resulted in weeds growing back in the areas that I was not ready to plant.  I learned my lesson that year and now prepare my plot for planting in stages.  

A gardener can always dream of what ahead and so I am going to leave you with some garden eye candy to brighten your day!

-Gia

Fall Fog and Frost

There is a general sense it's time to batten down the hatches and close up shop as morning autumn fog greets us.  Fall does signal the end of most of our gardeners' gardening season, summer crops have mildewed, gotten frost bitten and stopped producing.  

 It's time to amend our gardens, to give the critters in the soil a head start at taking lowly organic matter and turning into something magical that will awaken in spring.

It's time to protect those tubers, bulbs, fall plantings as well as suppress weeds and undesirables that might want to nestle and find a place in our plots.

It's time to pick that funny pumpkin that has decided to grow in between the chain link fence that borders our garden and the dog park.  (It's located down towards the pet memorial garden.)

It's time to admire the amazing purple/black kale that grows all over the garden.  Does anyone actually eat this plant or is it just so dark and brooding that it's grown as a character all its own.

It's time to pick winter squash:  butternut, acorn, delicata, cinderella,, kubota, uchiki kuri, hubbard, turban, you name it we are growing it at the garden.

It's time to pick your winter greens, those salads with bite that scream texture and fall flavor when you bite into them.

It's time to add pine needle mulch to your blueberries, as the pine needles rot and help make your soil more acid, your blueberries are gearing up to give you a bounty next summer.

Last but not least, it's time to pick those fall veggies, you know the ones that taste better after a light frost, artichokes are one but there are many more.

Other things to do this fall:

plant onions, leeks, shallots and garlic
clean up all fallen debris from your crops, to help curb the spread of disease
spray a dormant oil
dig up or bring in frost sensitive plants
clean and sharpen your tools
plant bulbs
turn your compost pile

End of the Season Bounty

My children and I went out to the garden yesterday after our big Fall Work Party.  It was an extremely warm Sunday afternoon and we had some serious work to do.  We were quite surprised that of our summer /warm plants, the green beans and pole beans were still growing well.  Their pods were large and thick, thicker than the diameter of a pencil but with no seeds in them whatsoever!  We filled up half of a five gallon bucket with these wonderful beans.  Our patty pan squash plant needed to be pulled out of the ground but as I yanked the large plant up the from its roots, 3-4 decent sized summer squash clung to its stem.  The eggplants were pulled up, the rest of the tomatoes, the basil and some marigolds.

Leaves and straw are a gardeners best friend in the Fall, they added wonderful organic matter to your soil as well as provide an organic blanket for fall sown crops, such as garlic, leeks and onions.  Compost is wonderful added in the fall as it gives fodder for organic life over the winter months.

 The best thing you can do to prevent disease for next spring is to cleanup all the fallen fruit and leaves from this year's crop. Now is the time as the leaves fall off your perennials, to spray them down with a good organic horticultural oil.  The oil smothers insects that might overwinter on your plants.  Fall is a wonderful time to plant bulbs if you enjoy flowers in your garden.  Lilies are my absolute favorite.  I've also read that if you want to get a jump start on your flowers in the spring, you can sow many types the seeds in the fall, as it imitates plant's natural behavior.

Other than that, I tried to take a minimalist approach to winter gardening.  I like to tidy up, protect and amended, then sit at home pouring over seed catalogs in January, February and March until I decide to put on my gardening boots and head out to see what Spring has sprung.

-Gia

Blueberries Galore!

I have gotten many, many compliments on my blueberries.  I have 6 plants and have been tending them for 5 years.  I have 2 early season, 2 mid-season and 2 late season plants.  I wanted to ensure a good crop from June well into August and even September so I chose a nice variety of ripening times.

Here are my favorite varieties of blueberries to grow because they do well at the garden, they are easy to care for and most of all produce delicious and nutritious fruit.

 http://www.raintreenursery.com/Olympia_blueberry_Gal_Pot.html

http://www.raintreenursery.com/Darrow_Blueberry.html

http://www.raintreenursery.com/ChAndler_blueberry.html

Tips for planting are:  Dig a giant planting hole, fill half of the hole with peat moss (acidic and boggy), add 1 full cup of organic acid loving plant fertilizer, water well, add blueberry plant, back fill the hole with soil, top dress with compost, water and then mulch with 3-4 inches of pine needles.)  For the first year, keep your berries watered, after the first year, I only water about once every 7-10 days in moderate temps. In warm weather, 1 water once a week.

Tips for growing:    In spring, prune away all dead and broken branches from winter.  Mulch, mulch well with pine needles!  Pine needles are acidic and blueberries have shallow root systems so they do not like to dry out.  Plant an herb (chives, clover, oregano, sage, thyme) that attracts lots of bees near your blueberries to help with pollination, you can even do this in a pot then move the pot when all your berries have set.  After fruits have formed and begin to ripen, watch out for birds.  If they come after your berries you will have to put a net over them to protect your crop or use flash tape to scare them away. Once your berries start to ripen, withhold water until you have picked all your berries.  Next, spring, add 1 cup of organic acid loving fertilizer per plant (gently scratch it into the top inch of the soil around your plants), top dress with compost, mulch with new pine needles then sit back and relax as you harvest a bumper crop of berries.

-Gia

Starting Seeds via Trial and Error

With this amazing stretch of warm weather the garden has been abuzz with a flurry of activity. I have been getting many questions about seed starting and planting starts outdoors, I started my own seedlings this year using a tiny kitchen counter garden grow light set up. 

There are many reasons why you might start your own seeds, I am growing a variety of basil from Italy and the starts are not available here. Here is a detailed description of how I am going about things.

 I always begin with peat or coco pellets when I start my seedlings.  They are flat and hard when you get them but then after you add warm water, a lot of warm water, they plump right up and are ready for your seeds.  I poke a tiny hole in the pellet with a bamboo BBQ skewer, a cheap and invaluable garden implement, then place 2-3 seeds in the hole and cover them up again (with said skewer.)  I usually put the plastic dome on the plastic seed flat until the seeds germinate then I remove the dome so I can move the lights down within 1-2 inches of the pellets.  (WARNING!  Do not fill your plastic flat with 48 pellets and place seeds in all of them, (I did this). I ended up with too many seedlings and not enough space on the kitchen counter under the lights for them all.) I then learned my lesson and only planted 1 row of seeds.

When you pick up the pellets and see that the roots are beginning to grow through the bottom, then it is time to place them in a 4 inch pot but before I do this, I look at my seedlings and snip off all but the healthiest ones.  Usually this leaves 1-2 small plants per pellet. Next,  fill a small pot with soil about 2/3 of the way, place the pellet inside and then fill the remaining space with soil.  Keep the seedlings watered and when they grow their first set of true leaves, fertilize them with a fish emulsion or a fish and kelp emulsion that is high in nitrogen.  Feed them at half strength once a week.

After your seedlings have grown and are ready to put outside, you must 'harden them off'. This means you must slowly acclimate them to living outside instead of in your comfy climate controlled home.  Remember, they have never felt wind, the hot sun or cold nights.  If you place them outside without hardening them off, they might not make it.  I harden my seedlings off in a cold frame on my deck.  They sit out there for 1-2 weeks or until they danger of frost has passed. I open the top in the day and close it at night to keep them warm.  If you plant cool season plants, you still must harden them off buy many greens can take some cold and frosty nights. (lettuce, peas, greens, etc...)  Root crops are best seeded straight into the ground.

If you do not have a cold frame, you can place them outside for 1 hour a day the first day then gradually increase the time they spend outside until they are out of doors 24/7.  This process can take 7-10 days (10 days to be on the safe side) depending on what plants you are growing.

Alas, I damaged a few of my seedlings when I forgot to open the cold frame top one warm day.  The sun beat down on them in there and almost baked them all.  Their poor sunburned leaves look fried.  I will nurse them carefully in the hopes I can trim off the burned leaves in a week or so.

In about two weeks all my basil starts should be hardened off enough to begin their new lives outside at my p-patch!  Remember the best time to plant transplants or starts outside is when it is rainy or cloudy.  (TIP:  Dig your planting hole, fill the hole with water, when the water drains away, plant your start, and water again.)

I hope to have a bountiful basil harvest this summer.

-Gia

First Spring Harvest

 I have had an itchy garden finger since mid-February.  I recently purchased some grow lights and began some basil starts on my kitchen counter, very low tech. With some tender loving care, I have managed to get some really healthy starts.  I began starting the seeds in Jiffy peat pellets; I added 3 basil seeds to each peat pellet and waited for them to sprout.  Within 3-5 days, all the seeds germinated.  I watched them grow and carefully kept them watered until their little roots began to peek out from the peat pellets. At this time I used little tiny scissors to snip out the weakest seedling of the bunch, leaving only 1-2 plants per peat pellet. It was now time to love the seedlings into 4 inch pots with some good bagged garden soil.  I am keeping them happy with a half strength solution of fish emulsion once a week.  Once they get to a nice size, I will harden them off by leaving out on the patio several hours a day for about a week.  After a week, they can be left out all day and slowly be allowed to 'live' outside when the temperature gets a bit warmer.

Our first spring harvest consisted of baby spinach, lettuce, pea vines, baby arugula, kale, parsley and spring onions.  I did not build a cold frame this year but I bet if I did, I would have been able to get a harvest even earlier.

Our first couples of radishes were spicy and crisp.  I have been experimenting with re-mineralizing my soil and I think it has paid off, look at the size of that radish root.

-Gia