At eighty years of age, I can remember when my parents had a garden every year on the farm. They didn’t teach me much. I guess with the advent of a refrigerator and deep freeze, easy and cheap food at the grocery store, they could see the end of a backyard garden. Now, many, if not most people have no experience gardening. I took a University course just so I could teach fifth-graders how to garden. I am sure that the students learning to plant seeds in a raised bed might develop an interest in gardening, but few actual skills were learned.
In this article, I will give you a simple way to start a garden. Even if you are on a limited income and have health problems, you can have a garden. I will assume you have an area with several hours of sunlight and fairly level and probably a grassy yard (we will do another article on those who don’t have a space for a garden). We will not be disturbing the soil and I will explain this in more detail in a later article. But, just for now, tilling the soil brings up multiple weed seeds and disturbs the life of the soil.
We begin by laying down a layer of cardboard which works well, but you can also use paper. The reason for laying these items down first is to kill the existing grass or weeds. In addition, the layer will prevent weed seeds from sprouting as it prevents sunlight from giving them growth even if they sprout. A good way to start is with an area about the size of a sheet of plywood (you can reach everything from the sides- two feet). If you leave an area on each side with grass, then you can mow blowing the clippings onto the garden. The clippings will act as mulch and earthworms will make fertilizer out of them. There is one gardener who claims that these grass clippings provide all his fertilizer needs. When you want to expand your garden, just add at either end and make a long row.
Most of my garden has already been under development for several years, but I wanted to show you how this method works. I did have a two-foot wide area with grass between my current flower bed and the road. I laid down a layer of grocery sacks (cardboard, newspaper or even a thick layer of mulch will work, I just had some extra sacks lying around). Then put a two-inch layer of compost on top of the paper (I am doing this on the 16th of Feb). In the picture, you see the road on one side and the flower bed on the other side. The existing flower bed has mulch on it and I will explain later how I grew the mulch which nature killed when it dropped below 29 degrees.
Before going on to explain more about my methods, let me explain that once I had completed the preparation of the bed, I then proceeded to go ahead and plant. Even though it was the middle of Feb in Kansas City Mo (zone 6). Even though the predictions were for several days of cold-down to zero- and a snowstorm was headed our way. I garden in our part of the country around 9 months or more of the year. Most people and this included my parents, didn't begin planting except for potatoes until the danger of frost is over and in our area, that is around April 15th.
There are many cold-weather crops. Better homes and gardens have a chart;
- At a soil temperature of 40°F, plant arugula, kale, lettuces, parsnips, peas, radicchio, radishes, and spinach.
- At a soil temperature of 50°F, plant Chinese cabbage, leeks, onions, Swiss chard, and turnips.
- At a soil temperature of 60°F, plant beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, and cauliflower.
If you don’t have a soil thermometer, I use the rule of thumb that you can plant these cold weather crops as soon as you can work the soil. So, I planted turnips, radishes, spinach, peas, poppy flower seeds and pansy flower seeds in my new garden space. I broadcast these seeds rather thinly and most were seeds leftover from either last year or from batches I had started inside in peat pellets to transplant later when it becomes warmer. We ended up with a 7-inch snow the next day. The snow will keep the ground from freezing and when it melts, as it soaks into the compost, it will draw the seed into the soil and provide the necessary contact to sprout.
I intend to demonstrate how anyone can have a garden regardless of age or health. As a teen, I bucked bales on the farm, and working at a feed store, I carried 100 lb sacks of grain on my shoulder. I can’t do that anymore, but even with my residual strength, I still struggle with 40 lb bags. As a hint, most areas have store delivery of compost or potting soil so that you don’t have to carry these bags. If you have a coffee can or old cooking container, you can cut open the sack and carry small amounts out to your new garden spot. You will have to walk, but that is good for everyone and gardening is one of the best exercises, mentally and physically.
You notice I broadcast the seeds. This works for very small seeds and can be done even while standing. But larger seeds, like beans or sweet corn, need to be covered. I can still get on my knees and use a trowel to make rows and recover the seed. Many can’t. So you will need to use a garden hoe to make a row and then recover the seed. You can drop the seed from a standing position and to make a more accurate placement, a 4-foot section of plastic water pipe would allow you to drop a seed through it at even spacing. If you broadcast seed, you will need to mist or sprinkle on a daily basis or as I prefer, spread some straw (leaves or a very light covering of mulch will substitute). I keep a bale for a number of months in the rain so that the weed seeds will have already sprouted. When spreading the straw, it should be light enough that you can still see patches of soil. Remember the seed is tiny. You will still need to keep the soil moist.
It helps to start your garden a month or so before you plant to allow the cardboard to soften from rain. Later on, after the danger of frost is over, I will plant a row of perennials here. The compost is so loose that all I will need is a garden trowel or hoe to work the soil. Since the compost I have spread is only a couple of inches deep, I will nestle the roots into the shallow soil and then cover to the recommended depth with more compost. The compost (or garden potting soil), will be weed-free and will provide earthworms with suitable conditions. It will also hold water although you may find that it takes a good soaking for it to fully absorb the first time. In addition, the compost can be worked anytime, even after a rain, because it does not have any clay in it, you don’t have to worry about it packing and drying out hard as a rock. If I were to plow with a tractor or til with a roto tiller, I couldn’t do so until the soil was dry. Working wet soil will destroy the structure of the soil.
This article will get you started. We will be posting more articles concerning summer crops, fall crops, mulching with cover crops, simplifying fertilizer needs, preventing diseases, preventing weeds and more. And all this with just a trowel or hoe. Most importantly, your vegetables will have even more minerals and vitamins than organically grown produce. Keep it Simple Stupid! (KISS)
On the side is a picture of my new garden space. At the top is my street. At the bottom is my existing flower bed. The dark stuff is compost overlaying the paper sacks I put down. Can you imagine using a spade or having someone come in to dig up the grass that was there and get it in shape so that it could be utilized as a garden space? Everything took me about an hour using only a utility knife to cut open the sacks and a trowel to spread the compost (a rake or hoe would have kept me from bending over).
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