Last winter I started my journey to becoming a University of Minnesota Master Gardener. It sounds more grandiose than it actually is. Basically, Master Gardeners have to go through a series of training courses, serve volunteer time and pay a fee (of course) and then are 'certified' by the U of MN. To earn the certification, I have to contribute 50 hours of volunteer time this year. It's been a bit of a challenge to earn those hours in 2020, but through social media, zoom, and online opportunities I've come quite far.
Indeed, far enough to be just one hour shy of my 50 hours! So, I'm using this post to reach my goal. I thought I'd come up with a list of things that I know now about gardening, things I wish I had known when I started. Tips and tricks for the novice-yet-enthusiastic gardener. Lessons learned over the past 20+ years of digging in the dirt, mainly focused on vegetables. Keep in mind these are MY lessons and they may not be true for everyone. So, here goes.
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| My favorite gardening book. |
- Raised beds are great. Easier to plant, weed, fertilize, water. And easier for tall people with bad knees to work in. Place the beds far enough away from each other that you can get a lawnmower between them. Or put gravel or wood chips in between.
- You'll need fences to keep critters away. 6' woven wire fence for deer, 3' chicken wire for rabbits.
- If you want to grow brassicas, you'll need Bt spray to keep the cabbage worms away.
- Drip hoses are too expensive and too much of a hassle to work with. And they don't work well in raised beds.
- It's taken me twenty years to learn this, but raspberries just aren't worth it. They take up too much space, take too much work, and give too little results. Same thing with blueberries. If you need a berry fix, go with strawberries.
- Clay soil is a bugger to work in. Spend the cash early on and add a bunch of compost.
- Weed control is a pain in the butt. Start out with weed-free soil if at all possible, and use mulch whenever you can. Buy several bales of straw each year for this purpose.
- Don't bother growing eggplants or swiss chard. Yes, they're beautiful but you'll never eat them.
- Don't grow beefsteak tomatoes - each plant only grows 3-4 tomatoes at a time. My preference is 4-6 ounce fruits, great for canning or freezing. And for broiling - my favorite way to eat tomatoes.
- Fertilize! It makes a difference! Start a compost pile if you can.
- Pole beans will produce a lot more than bush beans. Cattle panels, bent in half and erected like an A-frame over a garden bed work great as a trellis.
- Plant flowers! They are beautiful. Food is necessary, but so is beauty. Bread and roses.
- Don't plant tomatoes or potatoes too close together. You need lots of air circulation between plants to prevent fungal diseases. Three tomato cages for each 4x8 raised bed at most. You can plant shorter stuff, like radishes or chamomile between the cages.
- Not all hybrids are bad. Use open pollinated varieties for seed saving, but consider productive hybrids for others.
- Lettuce is easy to grow! And tasty! Plant more lettuce!
- Starting seed indoors will scratch that gardening itch before outdoor work can begin in spring. I love digging in the dirt and seeing green things grow while there's still snow on the ground. Looking at seed catalogs in December is like looking through the JCPenney Christmas catalog when you were a kid.
- When you start seeds indoors, use good seed-starting soil mix. Don't use potting soil! I like Burpee's seed-starting mix, or using coconut coir. Also, fluorescent grow bulbs come in different types, suitable for different plants. Do some research.
- Learn about saving seeds -- it's a lot of fun!
Whew!
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| My favorite seed saving book. |
Final thought - don't forget farmers' markets. For those hard-to-grow, space-sucking plants like melons, sweet corn and winter squash, plan to pick those up at the farmers market throughout the summer. We need to keep our local farmers in business too!
Broiled tomatoes are the best!!!
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