Spring Gardening Primer

If you are new to gardening and are unsure where to begin, below you will find some helpful information to get you started in the community garden in your own rented plot or in assisting with the community plots.

Spring Preparation

  • Ensure all undesired plants are removed thoroughly (Root pieces from certain plants will resprout).
  • Check soil temperature and texture. The texture should ideally be fluffy
  • A pH test will alert you if you need to amend the acidity/alkalinity, depending on which plants you choose to grow. There is a pH tester available for community use. You may also smell and/or taste your soil. It should smell sweet and earthy. An unhealthy soil may smell sour and anaerobic. 
  • Check the weed life. Which weeds are growing and why? Weeds are often good soil indicators, leading you to see which way the pH is leaning, the compaction and moisture levels of the soil, and missing or available nutrients.
  • Check the insect life. Which bugs are presents and why? Ants like dry conditions. Mites like damp conditions. Identify any grubs to ensure that you are not overwintering a pest population that will create a problem for you later in the season. Encourage earthworms and other beneficial insects.
  • Once you are knowledgeable of the current condition of your soil, begin to add sifted compost and other available nutrients to promote a healthy soil life.
  • Cover your soil with a light mulch. The earth abhors bare soil. God designed it to be covered and protected at all times. Picture a forest floor. Initially, cover your soil lightly enough that it will warm quickly in the spring – if those are the growing conditions you need for the plants you are growing first (This will depend greatly on your current soil temperature and climate). You will add more mulch as the year progresses and your seedlings emerge and grow.
  • Review your notes or practices from last year and make improvements or adjustments.

 How to Start Seeds Indoors

  • Find available containers.
  • Purchase or make your own starting medium (purchased is quick and easy but has a higher price-tag). Try one of these options:
    • 1/3 sterilized soil, 1/3 sharp sand, 1/3 sifted compost
    • ½ sifted compost, ½ sharp sand
    • 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 sifted compost
    • straight vermiculite (will need nutrient added as soon as first true leaves emerge)
  • Make holes in the bottoms of your chosen containers. Wet feet will kill your starts.
  • Fill your containers with moistened mix. Then, place seeds according to the package directions.

Starting quick-growing plants in flats is not necessary but helps you see the viability of your seed before taking up valuable space and can extend your growing season.

For future ease, keep seed types growing in separate containers and labeled (or in delineated rows).

Keep the soil lightly moist but not damp at all times. Envision yourself squeezing out a sponge so thoroughly you could only squeeze out one drop of water. This is the perfect moisture level for your start mix.

If you find this environment difficult to maintain, consider creating a wicking bed for your starts or covering their grow container with plastic wrap or a plastic bag or other homemade cloche to maintain humidity and moisture.

If the soil dries out around the seed, the germination that may have begun without your knowledge will cease and the seed become inviable. However, don’t throw out your work until you are sure. Some seeds may still be good. Re-moisten the soil, wait for a week, and see what happens. In the meantime, start a new batch.

Familiarize yourself with the normal expected emergence times for each kind of seed, so you will not become discouraged. Place the trays/containers in the best light you have available. If you are able, purchase grow lights or create a small greenhouse (even a window greenhouse). If you are not in a position to do this, just place the starts as close as possible to a South-facing window.

As your plants emerge, they will begin to grow toward the light (phototropism). If the available light is not directly overhead, the seedlings will grow tall, spindly stems. This is not optimal, but it is not the end of the world either. Often, when you transplant, you can and should gently bury the stem up to the first set of leaves, and the buried stem will set out roots.

Once the seed leaves (cotyledons) appear, have a place prepared to allow your seedlings more space to grow. If the weather is still not amicable outside, have small pots or flats ready for transplanting. The soil mix you place in these must have available nutrients, because once the cotyledons are gone, your seedlings will be looking to the soil and its life, the sun, and your water for nutrition. For cold-loving crops, you may also consider planting outside with a row cover for frosty nights.

To lift small seedlings, gently insert a pencil into the soil alongside the seedling. Grasp the leaves carefully, and tip the pencil upward to free the roots. If two seedlings are close together, you may be able to separate them by gently pulling the leaves of one seedling away from the other. Do not grasp the plant by its stem, as the stem is very fragile! However, you can support the stem with your fingers while you are separating or placing seedlings.

It is best to allow the seedlings a time of adjustment to outside conditions before placing them in their final growing place.

Square Foot Gardening Spacing

Plant

Spacing

# of Squares

Artichoke

48″

not suitable for SFG

Asparagus

12″

not suitable for SFG

Broccoli

18″

4 per 9 squares

Brussels sprouts

18″

4 per 9 squares

Cabbage

18″

4 per 9 squares

Cantaloupe

24″

2 with trellis

Cauliflower

18″

4 per 9 squares

Pumpkins

24″

2 with trellis

Rhubarb

36″

not suitable for SFG

Summer squash

24″

4 with cage

Watermelon

24″

2 with trellis

Winter Squash

24″

2 with trellis

Zucchini

24″

4 with cage

Tomatoes

12″

24″

36″

1 with stakes

4 with cage

9 no support

 

Plant

# Per Sq. Ft.

Basil

4

Beans, bush

9

Beans, pole

8

Beets

9

Carrots

16

Celery

1

Chives

9

Cilantro

9

Collard greens

1

Corn

3

Cucumbers

2

Dill

1

Eggplant

1

Garlic

4 or 9

Kale

1

Kohlrabi

4

Leeks

4 or 9

Lettuce, leaf

4

Lettuce, head

1

Mustard greens

16

Okra

1

Onions, storage

4 or 9

Plant

# Per Sq. Ft.

Onions, green

16

Oregano

1

Parsley

1

Parsnips

16

Peas

8

Peppers

1

Potatoes

1

Radishes

16

Rosemary

1

Rutabagas

4

Spinach

9

Sweet potatoes

1

Swiss Chard

4

Turnips

9

Themed Garden Ideas

Pizza Garden: 2 ‘Husky Cherry Red’ tomatoes, 1 ‘Golden Jubilee’ tomato, 2 basil, 1 ‘Keystone Giant’ bell pepper, 1 ‘Jalapeno’ pepper, 1 oregano, 3 onion, 2 rosemary, 5 thyme

Bee and Butterfly garden: Wildflowers, flowering herbs (e.g. borage, fennel thyme), and other flowers (alyssum, zinnias, marigolds and pinks) all attract beneficial (and pretty) insects.

Salsa Garden: for summer – tomatoes, chili peppers, green onions and cilantro

Coleslaw Garden: cabbages and/or kale, multicolored carrots and green onions

Easy Flowers: cosmos, godetia and nasturtiums

Giant’s Garden: enormous pumpkins and sunflowers

Rainbow Garden: colorful edibles planted in the shape of a rainbow

Peter Rabbit’s Garden: vegetables found in the Beatrix Potter book

Introduction to Permaculture

Permaculture is a word you may hear mentioned around the garden. The following article reprint will introduce you to the subject. 

This is a partial reprint of an article that was printed August 1994, in the Tucson Food Co-op News.

“Permaculture…I know I’ve heard that term before; doesn’t it mean doing organic gardening or living off the land?”

Such comments typify the reactions of many people I’ve mentioned Permaculture to. They often think it’s just a new name for old techniques or life-styles. In a way, they are right, because permaculture design does incorporate many time-honored techniques. They are also wrong, because permaculture goes far beyond mere techniques, just as it applies to far more than agriculture. The intent of this article is to briefly outline the essential basics of permaculture design. . . .

Permaculture […] is a design system that encompasses both “permanent agriculture” and “permanent culture.” It recognizes, first, that all living systems are organized around energy flows. [This design science] teaches people to analyze existing energy flows (sun, rain, money, human energy) through such a system (a garden, a household, a business).

Then, it teaches them to position and interconnect all the elements in the system (whether existing or desired) in beneficial relationship to each other and to those energy flows. When correctly designed such a system will, like a natural ecosystem, become increasingly diverse and self-sustaining.

All permaculture design is based on three ethics: Care of the earth (because all living things have intrinsic worth); care of people; and reinvest all surplus – whether it be information, money, or labor – to support the first two ethics.

Practically speaking, a successful permaculture design is based on three guiding principles. First, each element of the system performs multiple functions (for example, an orange tree in my yard supplies fruit for food and a cash crop, rinds for compost, leaves for mulch, dead twigs for kindling, and shade for me, my cat and other plants).

Second, each desired function of the system is supported by multiple elements (further shade in my yard comes from an overhead trellis with grapevines and several native trees).

Finally, and crucial to permaculture design, everything in the system is interconnected to everything else. This is vital, because the susceptibility and output of a system depend not on the number of elements it contains, but rather how many exchanges take place within the system (think of an old growth forest vs. a monoculture tree farm).

©1994 Katherine Wasser, http://www.permaculture.net/about/brief_introduction.html

Pre-Planning for Weeds

Weeds act as soil indicators. They alert us to the available or missing nutrients in the soil. When the soil swings too far away from neutral certain minerals become locked up in the soil and are no longer readily available to plants. Tap-rooted weeds reach deep into the soil and mine out needed minerals, making them bioavailable in their own bodies in a design to balance the soil pH over time. Hairnet-rooted-weeds hold loose soil together to prevent erosion.

In actuality, there are no weeds, just plants out of place. God has created each of these plants with specific purposes in mind, and we must have the humility and faith to see that. If we ask humbly and in truth, He will show us His purposes. Then, we can work with the nature He created, rather than against it.

There are several ways to discourage plants from growing in an area where we do not want them. First, ponder and research what that particular weed’s job is and why it is trying to grow in that spot. Then, take action.

  1. Amend the soil according to your study, observation, and understanding.
  2. Chop-and-drop to add the weed’s mined minerals to the soil. If done repeatedly, the plant will eventually weaken and die after having added all of its benefits to the area.
  3. If you desire a speedier approach, consider sheet mulching before planting.
  4. If the area is too large to be sheet mulched or chopped-and-dropped, get animals to do the work for you. Goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens work excellently and joyfully in this way. Rabbits also thoroughly enjoy a large diversity of weedy plants.

Remember, the healthier your soil becomes, the less need there will be for the weeds* to work for you. Weeds do not prefer to grow in conditions that favor vegetables and other more desirable human food plants. Those conditions often do not favor the germination of their seeds, so weed seeds remaining in the soil will lie dormant until such time (may it never be) that the soil has been abused to an extent where their work is called upon once again.

*This word used for ease of understanding and readability

Pre-planning for Bugs

Insects can be soil indicators. [See http://soilquality.org/functions/biodiversity.html for more information]. When soil becomes thoroughly healthy, the plants grown resonate a frequency that is distasteful to insect life. If insects ravage a plant, the soil lacks nutrient. [Refer to the article, “How Plants Repel Insects”]. Of first importance, care for the soil and its life.

Emergency measures may be necessary (picking bugs, spraying with Kaolin clay, purchasing and releasing beneficial insects, etc.), but they involve tedious man hours (if you want to remain organic) that could be avoided. If a plant weakens and bugs attack, step back and ensure that you have not stressed the plant by placing it out of its desired growing conditions (think time-of-year, pH, moisture level, nutrient level, etc.). If so, rather than labor endlessly to save it, move it to a more favorable location if possible and place a more appropriate plant in that position (this is provided, of course, that the difficulty lies beyond watering and feeding the plant).

If you want to get even more creative, if a pest cycle appears, you can use those bugs as a food source for another element. Bill Mollison, the founder of permaculture, loves to say, “You don’t have a slug problem, you have a duck deficiency.”