Nine Ways To Screw Up Your First Home Garden
My celery, after thinning, recovering nicely
7. Don’t follow directions
I love homegrown celery and last year the few I had were so awesome I over-planted this year and didn’t space them far enough apart. As a result my crop was very thin. Still tasty, but thin. It would have been better to plant all over the garden willy-nilly as long as there was sun instead of plant all together in rows in a raised bed close together. Celery needs more room than I thought. Still, it’s a great vegetable to grow and so much more flavorful when you do it yourself compared with anything you’ll find in the grocery store.
When I identified the problem, I thinned out the bed and the remaining celery did recover. In fact, by the beginning of October they started going strong and are still growing! Garden celery has many fine uses in the kitchen. First, it is much greener and darker than store-bought celery and also has incredible flavor. The leaves are wonderful for salads, soups, and even chopped up in meatballs! One of my favorite recipes I invented for garden celery is a crockpot chicken potpie.
Crockpot Chicken Potpie
Chop chicken breasts (4) and put in bottom of crockpot
Chop up celery, carrots, onions, cauliflower (and anything else you like in your potpie — peas?) and throw on top.
Place 2 T of butter in a pan and melt, then add 1 to 2 T of flour and whisk into roux. Add half a cup of cream or milk and whisk and then add as much chicken broth as necessary to get the roux to a creamy sauce texture. Add garlic salt and pepper to taste. Pour over chicken and veggies in crockpot. Top with refrigerated/canned rolls (like Pillsbury or similar) and cook on low 6 to 8 hours.
No matter what vegetable you are growing, be sure to pay attention to plant spacing. It can make or break your harvest.
Enjoyed your article. We live in the country and have a rather large garden in a very sunny spot. This was our 3rd summer tending it. We are also fortunate enough to have chickens (white leghorns) and are gathering 8 eggs daily. Chickens are great to take care of an over abundance of cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. Our biggest problem was deer. It is horrible what they can do in one night. After trying many solutions, my husband put 2 lines of electric fencing around the garden and this has worked. I used to adore seeing the deer, but after becoming a gardener, my attitude (in cartoon analogy) went from Disney princess to Yosemite Sam. Need to keep the compost going. This summer I did the most canning I’ve ever attempted. Canning makes great presents. People enjoy pickles, relish, and hot pepper jelly.
As a child and young adult I had no interest in my Mom and Grandmother’s love of gardening. The last thing I wanted to do was shell peas. But now I enjoy the results and the sense of accomplishment. It’s also good to show the 3 grandchildren where food really comes from. We’re also doing this because we don’t know what will become of society.
I would also suggest the purchase of a food processor and a food saver. The processor saved me hours in prep work and the saver gives me greater confidence about the vegetables in the freezer. Thanks.
I also live in the country and have a large garden. I didn’t want to go the electric fence route because it limited my ability to move in and out of the garden.
What I did find that worked great was motion sensor sprinklers…you just have to remember to turn the water off before you go into the garden
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5D3GKlTkpY
A few other useful tips:
1. Know When To Plant, And When To Harvest. Not all crops grow at the same rate, or even during the same season. (“Winter wheat” isn’t called that because farmers loved the alliteration.) Soil and air temperatures strongly influence growth rates and yield. Some plants like cool temperatures, others like it warmer. Get a soil thermometer, and use it to help you figure out when to plant what. (It works like a meat thermometer you use when doing a roast.) It can make the difference between food on your plate, or stuff rotting on the vine or in the ground.
2. Soil Chemistry is a Biggie. Topsoil is great, as stated above- as long as it’s the right kind for what you’re planting. Ditto the soil underneath (the actual “dirt”). Not every plant likes the same kind of soil. You need to pay attention to not just nutrients, but things like pH balance (acidity or otherwise of the soil). Get the books, read up on this- and get a soil test kit at your local farm store. Just follow the instructions; it’s about as ‘complicated” to use as the average home pregnancy test kit. (Farmers, as a rule, like to keep things simple whenever possible.)
3. Sniff The Air, Taste The Water. Especially important for urban backyard gardeners. You can have the best spot in the backyard, plenty of sun for plants that need it, great soil at the right temperature, and the exact right kind of topsoil. And it all means exactly zip if your plot is next to a street with diesel trucks spewing exhaust across your garden all the time. (Plants love carbon dioxide, no matter what the AGW crowd says. Carbon MOnoxide, plus particulate hydrocarbon residue, they have a little problem with.)
Also, water quality is another biggie. It doesn’t have to be distilled water, ordinary garden-hose water will generally get the job done. (That’s why they’re called “garden” hoses.) But like the soil, pH balance, etc., can be important. Again, there are test kits you can buy at the farm store. Get them, and use them.
You don’t need to be an agronomist or go to classes at your local Extension Office to become an expert at this. (But the latter can help.) As the author said, there are plenty of books. Get them, and read them. (Farmers are great readers, trust me.) As to a quick reference on the whole “When To Plant And Harvest” thing, just buy an Old Farmer’s Almanac (the one with the stapled spine and the sort-of-light-tan cover) every fall. It is written by people who have done all this homework, and all you have to do is read it and make notes on your calendar as to when to do what. It’s worked perfectly well for the last couple of centuries.
(In case you haven’t guessed by now, yes, I’m a “farm kid”.
)
cheers
eon
What an untypical article. I started 3 years ago my home garden: in a inner terrace with no soil in the middle of tall buildings. But I observed I had like 4-5 months of direct (but partial) sun illumination during summer, which was enough to get me started. I planted in a vases of many types. I elaborated a diagram of the terrace showing how the sun-illuminated area varies over the year, so I could move the vases to suit their needs.
Started with basil plants, and later added other types. This year has been a great success: tomatoes, basil, hot peppers, black eyed peas, parley, coriander, white mustard, chives, spearmint, rosemary, thyme, sage. I failed with cumin and sesame seeds. Still need to improve my abilities but all is going in the right direction in this little urban garden in the middle of tall buildings.
We live in an east-facing 5th flr. condo, so it’s container gardening for us. It’s taken us about 6 yrs. to finally really figure out what will/won’t grow, where to place diff. stuff, how much water & when, etc. This year we decided to mostly give up on flowers to go for more veggies/herbs. When the tomatoes came on, we had enough fresh tom. for salads & cooking from then until just a few days ago (frost came early this year).
I started my “Apocalypse Garden” on my rooftop in Mexico City a few months ago. Taking my first baby steps – broccoli, spinach, swiss chard, blackberries, carrots, potatoes, yellow and green squash..ETC. My corn was a loss. One thing Americans need to think about is water storage. Here in Mexico, every house has both a cistern and tanks on the roofs that could last 3 months. Most American homes depend on the water system, but if there is a breakdown, they would not have enough for one day.
Reply tg #4….
“Most American homes depend on the water system, but if there is a breakdown, they would not have enough for one day.”
Not true! Hint. The WATER HEATER. Forty gallons (or so) of fresh water stored in nearly every American home.
and THE ROOF- collect rainwater.
If you’ve ever ordered or been gifted w/a frozen shipment (i.e., Omaha Steaks, etc.), just save the big styrofoam container. They hold 7.5 gallons of water. We do container gardening on the 5th floor (no garden hose) so we bought a couple cheap 2 gal. watering cans, and use 2 of these freezer chests to store water. We’ve found the best way to “fix” our city water is to fill everything up w/hot water — as it cools, most of the bad stuff will escape as gas. (at least, that’s how it works here)
What a nice read to start a Sunday morning. Thanks, Megan!
I’ve been gardening for years and your list is just the tip of the mistakes iceberg– as I’m sure you know. But if novice gardeners followed your advice, they will be better off for it.
One additional suggestion I didn’t see– if you want to be serious like Megan, and I are about having a garden that will provide you with fresh (frozen or canned) veggies throughout the year, keep records. Especially for the first couple of years. When did you plant, how much, where (goes to crop rotation), how much did you harvest, when (goes to planning next year’s garden). Pictures go a long way in this department, but it is useful to know, for example, that 10 tomato plants yielded 100 pounds of fresh tomatoes when translated into 50 pints of frozen stewed tomatoes.
Happy gardening!
This is a very good tip and while I haven’t done it yet (I say I’m going to every year) I can see how it would be very beneficial. In fact, we thought we were going to keep track of how many pounds of tomatoes we brought in by weighing them on a scale and just recording…but we never did it. And of course I’m sorry now because I have no idea what we brought in. So yes, journal records would be an excellent idea. (If you could discipline yourself to do it!)
If you live in a restricted community, one way to feed our animal friends is to plant a garden: Just for them.
About growing corn, get the book Hands-On Agronomy by Neal Kinsey. You will have to spring for a soil analysis. You will need to learn about the calcium-magnesium makeup of your soil, and pH is important, too, because it influences the availability of phosphorus. If you want corn, this is the book for you.
I worked in my family’s garden when I was 14. We planted butterbeans, peas, some corn, and a watermelon vine. As I remember, I got one watermelon that weighed 37 lbs. and some very delicious corn that I cooked and later ate. Of course, there were oodles of butter beans and peas, but I never ate any of those.
The land for the garden had rich black topsoil and I watered it daily during the summer. The corn that I raised was not like the mushy stuff you get in a supermarket, but had large kernels with a very crisp consistency.
Megan, Great article. . . . Here in SC, our squash did poorly also, in fact everyone I talked to had trouble with their squash. Pallets make a great compost bin- nailing 5 together can make 2 open ended boxes that work great for transfering the compost around in, or you can start 2 piles. Try raising a few chickens sans rooster- it will be quieter, and the girls will still lay eggs. . . you would be surprized to know how many “guerrilla” chicken farmers there are in urban areas. Kudos on the BB gun!! Teaching your kids a useful skill like shooting is much more important than you can realize. I wish i had more neighbors like your family seems to be . . . instead I have the typical tecno-dependent reality tv watching, politically correct sheeple. . . . One more tip, as disgusting as it sounds, actually works ( learned it in Mother Earth News- yes, the eco-lovers have knowledge we can use) human pee, diluted about 20:1, makes a great liquid fertilizer, and helps keep the critters away. . . .keep gardening!!
Ms Fox~
GREAT article!!! Enjoyed reading it. It took me back to my youth. My mother was an organic gardener back in the mid-70′s and like you, it started with a tomato plant…before long, the woman had a couple of acres under production (& as it turned out, a new full-time job). She even raised the food she fed her farm animals–just because she could. I’ve been itching to start a garden, ordered the Heirloom Seeds kit. I just texted her to say I just read your article & invited her to teach me what she knows. Her response was a very enthusiastic yes! If you have your own blog, I’d love to follow you on it.
Jypsea Rose
“My 5 year old loves shooting at squirrels.”
Oh my gawd, you’re teaching her how to murder…
On the contrary, “killing squirrels” is a virtue.
Actually, I’m teaching her how to handle a gun responsibly and how to be independent so she won’t end up down on Wall street demanding other people subsidize her life. If that means she will need to learn to shoot,skin and cook her own food…so be it. It will also come in handy should she ever be attacked by an actual murderer. Thanks for your input though. It was scintillating stuff.
-congrats on the firearm training, one can also find an NRA instructor at a shooting range for guidance.
A good pellet gun, like a rifle and shotgun, are tools on a farm.
I use an old Remington smoothbore .22 pump rifle loaded with .22 caliber shot cartridges(a regular rifled .22 will work too, and of course would do double duty) to discourage interlopers. The shot(size #12) doesn’t carry very far, which is a plus, of course. There are sintered iron .22 cartridges also, designed to fragment and break apart to limit their range and richochet.
Used .22 rifles are usually a bargain, and there are literally millions of them out there.
“scintillating stuff”
Megan,
Scanning down through the opt-in comments I am surprised that some progressive weirdo didn’t mount a dead serious attack against you on behalf of the squirrels.
Maybe there is hope for the human race after all.
However, just to be on the safe side don’t let your daughter carry her (BB) guns to town. Mixed martial arts close combat fighting might be slight overkill when it comes to the squirrels, but it will withstand the liberal judicial onslaught that comes if and/or when your daughter defends herself against one (or more) of the real bad critters we all have to put up with these days.
Well, the even the winter greens are about gone now for another year. I hope that your freezer is in tip top shape and filled with lots of good stuff from your garden..
That which the squirrels didn’t manage to win the battle and make off with. That is one of the real lessons to learn about having your own garden. One might as well relax and enjoy the show squirrels put on because in the end the squirrel will win. They always do.
There goes another one of grandmas big, red, juicy tomatoes across the yard, up over the fence into the neighbors yard and beyond. I sense another trip to the store for a new broom handle is here. She has uncanny accuracy with those things.
So: Times have changed.
When I was young(er) we either made hamburger out of the squirrels with a 12 gauge shotgun or picked and chose whats for dinner with a single shot 22 long bolt action rifle.
Last, anyone dumb enough to get caught doing something as stupid as feeding squirrels was either hanged by sunset or run out of town whether they had socks and shoes on or not.
Thanks for a nice article. Beats the hell out of politicking.
Did I forget to mention that Veronica is also in Jiujitsu? She is. LOL Thanks for the laugh. Yes, feeding squirrels is a hangable offense.
Would you like a recipe for squirrel gumbo? It is very popular here in Louisiana. As a matter of fact, school lets out for the first day of squirrel season.
If your pellet rifle is keeping the squirrels in check you are doing better than I have been able to. One summer I shot 64 squirrels out of my pear trees without making a noticeable dent in the population. I still did not get a single pear so now I dont bother. You can bait the squirrels away from the garden by planting an old fashioned canning pear between the garden and the closest stand of trees.
In a pressure cooker put 6-8 cleaned squirrels and one large onion. Cook on high pressure for 20 minutes or so. Remove squirrels and take the meat off of the bone. Plow the bones back into your garden soil and save the meat for gumbo.
In a 5 qt pot make a half cup of roux ( it is easier to buy. Savoie’s and Richards both make roux you can buy in the grocery store; they are identical to the roux you make yourself )
Chop one medium to large onion and one large bell pepper, toss them in the pot with the roux.
Put 6-8 chicken bouillon cubes in the pot.
Put one capfull ( 1 teaspoon ) of Zataran’s liquid crab-boil in the pot.
Put 4-6 cups of Richard’s ( pronounced Reeeshards ) cajun sausage, cut into 1/4 inch discs in the pot.
Add the squirrel meat and let boil for half an hour. ( If you are touchy about squirrels, add in boneless-skinless chicken thighs instead )
Cover with water. At this point you can turn on the heat. When it is boiling and the bouillon is dissolved taste test for needed salt.
You can serve this over rice or eat alone. I like to toss in some crackers.
One a cold night, there is nothing better.
I’ll have to try this some day
Megan, Great article. Growing your own veggies at home is fun and you great some very tasty food. I grew corn this year and learned a tip from a neighbor about how to get a really good crop. I planted them in a plot with sixteen plants in a 5 X 5 square. They require a lot of water and I hand watered my plants, but here is the secret to getting the pollen to the ears of corn. When the tassels appear and the ears of corn have silk you need to go out in the morning when the air is still and gently shake the tassels so the pollen falls on the ears. Do this every day that the tassels have pollen. I tried growing corn without doing this and the corn was bad and I tried this tip and the corn was beautiful. I learned a lot from a book called Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Barthalomew.
You are right about varmints, you have got to keep them under control or they will eat everything you plant. I have ground squirrels. They are a pain. I use a trap called the squirrelinator. It works great but you have to do something with the ones you trap. It comes with a square bucket to drop the trap in to drown the squirrels. I couldn’t drown them so I found another way to dispose of them (it wasn’t catch and release) but it was certainly faster than drowning.
A good tip on corn Dan. I’d also like to add that corn is an extremely sun-loving vegetable. Trying to grow corn on many urban and suburban lots is just an exercise in frustration. That five-six hours of direct sun just won’t produce a whole lot of corn.
It’s funny you should mention gardening, because I baked my first pumpkin pie of the season the other day and I wondered if I might save the seeds and plant them this time. I read up, and found out that pumpkins must grow in the frost-free season, further that I could look up the frost-free season for my area online. I found a site that listed “from” and “to” dates for frost in major U.S. continental cities. My city’s dates were “Never” and “Never.” (It’s things like that that make us Clownifornians hang in despite the politics.)
Hmmm, I may soon be eating pumpkin pie year-round. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Regarding tip #2: If you do grow an overabundance of produce, why not consider donating your excess? A local food bank, church charity, Meals-on-Wheels, homeless shelter, or whomever, would probably LOVE to have whatever you can’t use/store. It may or may not be tax deductible, but it’d be good for the soul. Or, you could haul it to a farmer’s market, if your inner capitalist is up to it. =^[.]^=
My corn has always grown very nicely. And the local animals have always enjoyed it before I got around to harvsting it.
Thanks for all the positive comments! For the record, I have never had extra produce. I give a lot to neighbors and can the rest. It has been one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve ever had.
M~
Started a blog yet? Let us know if you have or are planning to. Would love to follow it!
My site is http://www.intolerantfox.com visit me there anytime!
Yes, I’ve had a blog for years although it’s mostly political but you can find it at http://www.intolerantfox.com
Enjoy!
“The wire keeps out the rabbits, but the squirrels do the most damage and can’t be kept out with wire fences. That’s where the gun comes in handy. If you shoot enough of them, eventually word gets around the squirrel community and they go elsewhere.”
Sort of like liberals. They’re always wanting to break in and steal free stuff without earning any of it. Maybe we need BB Guns to keep them away from Washington? Then the word will get around the liberal community and they will go elsewhere for their green cash.
“The wire keeps out the rabbits, but the squirrels do the most damage and can’t be kept out with wire fences.”
My wife’s mother always said that NOT keeping the rabbits out was an investment.
She particularly liked a Roasted Rabbit (which had gotten quite plump on her plants) with her Snow Peas and Potatoes from the garden along side.
I first had the hankering to do some gardening when I was in Baghdad, back in 2008. We were well fed (yes, I was a HQ soldier, never claimed otherwise…), but it was astonishing to reflect upon how long a logistics trail we were utterly dependant on. If you saw the huge convoys that they ran up from Kuwait I think twice a day, it was very impressive, yet it felt somewhat wrong. Not immoral, or unnecessary, but utterly unconnected with the reality of producing food. Eating crab in the desert was great, but a bit weird!
When I got home, I started to garden and now, while I certainly do not feed the family off our suburban block, I have a lot growing. It’s spring now in Australia, and I’m putting in a lot of pumpkin(we love pumpkin over here), some watermelon and rockmelon, potatoes, corn and beans. I have artichokes, Jerusalem artichokes, strawberries and rhubarb. I have a lot of fruit trees (about 20), including hard-to-buy things like persimmon. I also have muscovy ducks. They’re great, because the drakes are almost silent. They don’t crow like a cock, and their quacking is rare – not like chooks’ clucking. They are much more neighbour friendly. They’re no harder to rear than chooks, but their meat is much dearer to buy. I can’t speak highly enoug of them. They eat garden waste (including lawn clippings!) and produce high-quality fertilizer … stop me now, I love the little brutes.
We may still buy most of our food, but the kids know where it comes from. They plant, pick and kill. They get free sex ed (that may or not be a plus – depends on your perspective) in the fowl yard.
As for things to avoid, sometimes stuff goes wrong. We had a wet summer last year, an even the professional vinters lost their whole crop if they mis-timed their periodic fungicide sprays. Needless to say, a promising spring turned in to a disappointing summer for my fruit trees!
You’re living my dream! How do you keep the ducks from flying away? And do you use the eggs?
Well spotted – unlike any other heavy ducks, muscovies fly. That’s because they’re not really ducks; they’re their own species. I have a fully enclosed pen, with a roof of wire. And yes, we eat the eggs, although they aren’t great layers. There is no true utility duck, unlike the many utility breeds of chooks (Australorp, Orpington, Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, etc.), and so I compromise!
This was wonderful! Our house is located in middle Georgia, and it gets SO sunny we’ve had problems growing anything without it burning up
But we won’t give up!
Another tip: plant only food that you like to eat. It’s easy to be seduced by the lovely color pictures on the seed packages, but don’t waste the water and space on veggies you won’t eat.
Enjoyed the article. Decoration aside, corn is a wasted effort in a backyard garden. You get one or two ears PER PLANT and as noted, is hard to grow. All that work to produce 10 – 20 plants and you can get the same amount of fresh corn from your grocer (better looking and better tasting) for about $5.00. Not…worth…it.
Really enjoyed this article. I’ve been a home gardener for 30 years in three very distinct and differently challenging environments. Have the right tools. I have my trusty 7hp front tine Troy-Bilt rototiller (over 20 years old and stills starts on the second pull each season) Where I grew up in SW Michigan any idiot could grow sweet corn. I’ve lived in the Texas Panhandle and the mountains of northern NM for the past 27 years and I have yet to raise a decent crop of corn. As a kid in Michigan I even grew my own popcorn! Now all I have been able to do is raise bug food.
You have to look at the economics of what you’re doing. A lot of “experts” recommend against growing potatoes, carrots and onions as they’re available all year ’round relatively cheaply in the grocery store. Melons take up a LOT of space and water. I stick to the old proven standbys – green beans, zucchini, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beets and radishes. Some things are just plain hard to grow. I love Brussels sprouts and they grow well, but it’s very hard to keep them bug-free.
jd
“The wire keeps out the rabbits, but the squirrels do the most damage and can’t be kept out with wire fences.”
I recall a neophyte gardener being frustrated by squirrels digging up his garden….
I recommended moth balls…..I had to tell him to scatter the moth balls on the garden rather than throw them at the squirrels……
It seems squirrels and other rodents detest the smell of moth balls.
Not sure where you live, but if you want to grow good corn here in red clay country in Tennessee, triple 19 is your friend! And don’t forget pesticide. And 4 rows wide is the MINIMUM. 6 is better. Do half rows 6 wide is better than full rows 3 wide. If you don’t get good consistent rains, water it, corn needs water to make ears. That should fix you up.