So in a separate personal email, infamous commenter of recent past "szg" asked for some input on starting an organic garden from scratch. I wrote back and told him I would answer him as my question of the week/month/quarter, and he advised that I needed to slap it on the table and go large with this blog thing. He also said I should call out Mike McGrath, and then claim ownership of various professional degrees which I do not actually have. So out of deference to szg's marketing techniques, here is the (revised) question of the week/month/quarter that I will be answering.
Since I started my blog, I have gotten thousands of emails (one) from all over the country (Trenton) from first-time or wannabe gardeners. They all (same one) ask a question similar to the one I got from szg in Central New Jersey that asked "Laura, why are you like the smartest person ever? And how come that punk Mike McGrath has a radio show and you don't? And what advice would you give someone starting an organic garden from scratch?"
Well, szg, as ever, I am humbled by the overwhelming response to my blog, and would be nowhere without my adoring fans. I appreciate you taking the time to offer your insightful and completely accurate commentary. But now, on with the show, if you will.
1.) Build a raised bed
The basic tenant of organic gardening is that you garden from the soil up, not from the plant down. So if you start with loose, well-drained soil soil rich in organic matter and nutrients, your plants will be less prone to disease and pests. Now, maybe you can walk outside, stick a shovel in the ground, and conveniently have this perfect ideal soil. That could happen, and if it did, well, you suck. And congratulations. But if it doesn't (or even if it does), consider the merits of the raised bed.
Raised beds warm up faster in spring (allowing for earlier planting), are easier to plant in and weed, and allow proper drainage. If you're building the bed and adding fresh soil instead of tilling the soil you have, you will be avoiding much of the pre-existing perennial weeds, not to mention sticks, rocks, hunks of clay, broken bottles, unidentifiable plastic things and other disturbing items you find when digging too deep in New Jersey. My neighbor found an entire car buried in his yard. Seriously.
So now I told you why to build a raised bed, but I failed to mention what it is. A raised bed is simply an extra 12 to 24 inches of dirt raised above the regular soil line in your yard. Ideally it is 4 feet wide and reachable from all sides so that you never have to step in your wonderful loose soil in order to plant or harvest. It can be as long as you have room for, or have the energy to build. It can have sides, or just be a raised berm. The sides should be some rot-resistant non-chemical-laden material, like bricks, rocks, cinder blocks, cedar, redwood, composite wood-like stuff, etc. No railroad ties allowed, and organic types are still hesitant about treated wood, even though the new treatment method doesn't use arsenic. You can even google "buy raised beds" and find kits that include the corner brackets and the material. For example...
2 tier plastic raised bed from gardener's supply catalog
raised bed with cedar from eartheasy shop
composite raised bed from eartheasy shop
raised bed corner brackets - you supply the wood
I realize none of this material is cheap, and all of the fancy products in the world aren't going to save you from the fact that you STILL have to remove or turn over the sod in the area where you are going to build your bed. Knowing that may push you in the berm direction, or may make you abandon the idea of raised beds all together. If you decide to till and plant in existing soil, make sure you get a soil test to determine what your nutrients your soil needs, whether you need to add amendments to balance the pH level, and determine from there if you need to till in compost or leaves or other organic matter to make your soil more friendly to plantings.
But if you can't stand the thought of tilling, amending soil or digging out sod, there's one more option. Lasagna gardening! There's a whole bunch of organic gardeners who don't believe in tilling or digging at all. The quick and dirty (heh!) version of no-till gardening is that you kill the grass by putting down thick layers of newspaper or cardboard, let it break down for a season, and build your bed on top of that. In the book "Lasagna Gardening", Patricial Lanza explaines the system she invented of building her raised bed and putting in alternating layers of different types of organic matter 2 feet high, and then putting the plants straight in them. If this sounds good to you, looks like you have to do some book shopping!
2.) Plant stuff (not too much, and follow the freaking directions on the label!)
What??? All this time and energy making the perfect damn organically specified raised bed, and then your advice is "don't plant too much"??? Look, you're the one who asked. I'm just saying that you might get carried away out of the gates and make things too complicated. If you're new to gardening, focus on a few standard and somewhat easy crops to manage so you concentrate on getting it right the first time. Here are my thoughts for zone 6 plantings:
Spring: Peas can go in the ground mid-March even through snow and ice, and are usually pretty easy to manage. Plus you get to start your long gardening career as trellis builder, which is its own drama. Buy lettuce seedlings from your local nursery and the ground will usually be ready for them in April. Lots of lettuces can be cut an inch above the soil line, and what's left in the ground will regrow for more harvesting until it gets too hot.
Summer: Pick your two or three favorite veggies to eat, and plant them. Tomatoes, peppers and maybe a sqush plant will give you plenty to keep up with. Again, just buy the plants instead of worrying about starting tomatoes and peppers from seed the first year. It's easier, and there are tons of options at all the garden stores. This is the time when spacing really becomes important, especially if you're going to do some of the monsters like zucchini and cucumber plants. Read the package and do what it says .... right Dina???
Fall: If you don't totally hate gardening by now, put in some spinach and radish seeds. They grow quickly and don't mind the cold. Plus you get extra bragging rights at your dinner party when you're serving garden fresh salad in October.
3.) Do everything right, then figure out what you did wrong
You follow all the advice, and find yourself screwed anyway - disease, drought, bugs, rodents, hungry neighbors, whatever. Something is bound to go awry, and when it does, don't worry. It's just the beginning of your own organic gardening adventures! Here are my favorite resources to help you on your way....
Web:
Organic Gardening Magazine's website
Garden Web Forums - join and post questions
Radio Show Host Mike McGrath on WHYY
Magazines:
Organic Gardening Magazine, of course!
Books: (Clearly I am a fan of J.I. Rodale and all his works. However, I'm just about to pick up some stuff by Jerry Baker to see what he's about. Seems like a bit of a kook, but then again, most gardeners are.)
Rodale's Chemical-Free Yard & Garden
Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening
Insect, Disease & Weed ID Guide
Lasagna Gardening
You Bet Your Tomatoes!
So in summary (you were begging for that phrase, I know), my recommendation for the first time gardener is to build a raised bed, fill it with good soil, follow spacing guidelines for your crops, and get your Google fingers ready. Oh yeah, and have fun! Really, it's fun. And besides, how bad can it be? Not worse than my garden, I assure you.
Since I started my blog, I have gotten thousands of emails (one) from all over the country (Trenton) from first-time or wannabe gardeners. They all (same one) ask a question similar to the one I got from szg in Central New Jersey that asked "Laura, why are you like the smartest person ever? And how come that punk Mike McGrath has a radio show and you don't? And what advice would you give someone starting an organic garden from scratch?"
Well, szg, as ever, I am humbled by the overwhelming response to my blog, and would be nowhere without my adoring fans. I appreciate you taking the time to offer your insightful and completely accurate commentary. But now, on with the show, if you will.
1.) Build a raised bed
The basic tenant of organic gardening is that you garden from the soil up, not from the plant down. So if you start with loose, well-drained soil soil rich in organic matter and nutrients, your plants will be less prone to disease and pests. Now, maybe you can walk outside, stick a shovel in the ground, and conveniently have this perfect ideal soil. That could happen, and if it did, well, you suck. And congratulations. But if it doesn't (or even if it does), consider the merits of the raised bed.
Raised beds warm up faster in spring (allowing for earlier planting), are easier to plant in and weed, and allow proper drainage. If you're building the bed and adding fresh soil instead of tilling the soil you have, you will be avoiding much of the pre-existing perennial weeds, not to mention sticks, rocks, hunks of clay, broken bottles, unidentifiable plastic things and other disturbing items you find when digging too deep in New Jersey. My neighbor found an entire car buried in his yard. Seriously.
So now I told you why to build a raised bed, but I failed to mention what it is. A raised bed is simply an extra 12 to 24 inches of dirt raised above the regular soil line in your yard. Ideally it is 4 feet wide and reachable from all sides so that you never have to step in your wonderful loose soil in order to plant or harvest. It can be as long as you have room for, or have the energy to build. It can have sides, or just be a raised berm. The sides should be some rot-resistant non-chemical-laden material, like bricks, rocks, cinder blocks, cedar, redwood, composite wood-like stuff, etc. No railroad ties allowed, and organic types are still hesitant about treated wood, even though the new treatment method doesn't use arsenic. You can even google "buy raised beds" and find kits that include the corner brackets and the material. For example...
2 tier plastic raised bed from gardener's supply catalog
raised bed with cedar from eartheasy shop
composite raised bed from eartheasy shop
raised bed corner brackets - you supply the wood
I realize none of this material is cheap, and all of the fancy products in the world aren't going to save you from the fact that you STILL have to remove or turn over the sod in the area where you are going to build your bed. Knowing that may push you in the berm direction, or may make you abandon the idea of raised beds all together. If you decide to till and plant in existing soil, make sure you get a soil test to determine what your nutrients your soil needs, whether you need to add amendments to balance the pH level, and determine from there if you need to till in compost or leaves or other organic matter to make your soil more friendly to plantings.
But if you can't stand the thought of tilling, amending soil or digging out sod, there's one more option. Lasagna gardening! There's a whole bunch of organic gardeners who don't believe in tilling or digging at all. The quick and dirty (heh!) version of no-till gardening is that you kill the grass by putting down thick layers of newspaper or cardboard, let it break down for a season, and build your bed on top of that. In the book "Lasagna Gardening", Patricial Lanza explaines the system she invented of building her raised bed and putting in alternating layers of different types of organic matter 2 feet high, and then putting the plants straight in them. If this sounds good to you, looks like you have to do some book shopping!
2.) Plant stuff (not too much, and follow the freaking directions on the label!)
What??? All this time and energy making the perfect damn organically specified raised bed, and then your advice is "don't plant too much"??? Look, you're the one who asked. I'm just saying that you might get carried away out of the gates and make things too complicated. If you're new to gardening, focus on a few standard and somewhat easy crops to manage so you concentrate on getting it right the first time. Here are my thoughts for zone 6 plantings:
Spring: Peas can go in the ground mid-March even through snow and ice, and are usually pretty easy to manage. Plus you get to start your long gardening career as trellis builder, which is its own drama. Buy lettuce seedlings from your local nursery and the ground will usually be ready for them in April. Lots of lettuces can be cut an inch above the soil line, and what's left in the ground will regrow for more harvesting until it gets too hot.
Summer: Pick your two or three favorite veggies to eat, and plant them. Tomatoes, peppers and maybe a sqush plant will give you plenty to keep up with. Again, just buy the plants instead of worrying about starting tomatoes and peppers from seed the first year. It's easier, and there are tons of options at all the garden stores. This is the time when spacing really becomes important, especially if you're going to do some of the monsters like zucchini and cucumber plants. Read the package and do what it says .... right Dina???
Fall: If you don't totally hate gardening by now, put in some spinach and radish seeds. They grow quickly and don't mind the cold. Plus you get extra bragging rights at your dinner party when you're serving garden fresh salad in October.
3.) Do everything right, then figure out what you did wrong
You follow all the advice, and find yourself screwed anyway - disease, drought, bugs, rodents, hungry neighbors, whatever. Something is bound to go awry, and when it does, don't worry. It's just the beginning of your own organic gardening adventures! Here are my favorite resources to help you on your way....
Web:
Organic Gardening Magazine's website
Garden Web Forums - join and post questions
Radio Show Host Mike McGrath on WHYY
Magazines:
Organic Gardening Magazine, of course!
Books: (Clearly I am a fan of J.I. Rodale and all his works. However, I'm just about to pick up some stuff by Jerry Baker to see what he's about. Seems like a bit of a kook, but then again, most gardeners are.)
Rodale's Chemical-Free Yard & Garden
Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening
Insect, Disease & Weed ID Guide
Lasagna Gardening
You Bet Your Tomatoes!
So in summary (you were begging for that phrase, I know), my recommendation for the first time gardener is to build a raised bed, fill it with good soil, follow spacing guidelines for your crops, and get your Google fingers ready. Oh yeah, and have fun! Really, it's fun. And besides, how bad can it be? Not worse than my garden, I assure you.
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3 comments:
Laura:
Thanks for your thoughtful response to my question. It was so much more than I could've expected from such a high-profile gardener/blogger.
I have heard from others that this raised bed thing is a waste of time. One "expert" I spoke to, told me I should just rent a tiller and go to town on my lawn.
I thought that "expert" might weigh in on this discussion, but apparently they are too busy "working."
It's ashame too, because I need to make decisions about how/when to start my project, and I feel like I might have to make a decision without all the information -- kind of like John McCain picking Sarah Palin.
I know which "expert" you speak of, and he is currently passed out on my couch. Definitely too busy NOT working to comment. He has also REALLY been working his "hurricane bob" personality lately, and it might be too hard to tear him away from the weather channel to comment. I will note that his first observation after reading this entry was "this is bullshit". Really, what else is there to know?
Right!
(Always fun to be "called out to" in a blog post...)
I spent my day putzing around with Dear Old Dad and not getting any work done for the Pressing Deadline I have tomorrow (or actually, tonight).
Naturally, the first thing I thought to do once my dad left was come over here and start reading Laura's Organic Groundhog Tales. (Do you think the grounhogs will grow even bigger from consuming those gargantuan crops of yours?? Rue the day!)
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