Garden Simplicity: Square Foot Gardening
Very few of us these days are dependent on a home garden to supplement our food stock. So seen as a voluntary activity, gardening can be either a source of joy and renewal, or a stressor, depending on your time and ability.
Given that disease problems have shown up in supermarket produce, and the taste and quality of home-grown produce cannot be matched in a supermarket, though, I thought it worth reconsidering my lack of gardening.
Why You Should Consider Gardening
- You control the pesticide application. Small-scale gardens do not need the pesticides that large farms do. Eliminating pesticides from our food intake means we consume fewer chemicals and will impact the environment less.
- Garden produce is fresh. Supermarket produce is often picked before ripe and sprayed to preserve it.
- You can choose what to grow. Besides the obvious decisions of growing tomatoes versus not, you can also decide which type of tomato to grow. Some cultivars produce tomatoes of size or flavor you would never be able to find in the supermarket. Growing heirloom varieties also preserves genetic diversity, which is needed to fight plant diseases.
- Fresh-from-the-garden-produce has more nutrients. “Many vegetables lose delicate nutrients (vitamins E, C, B1, folate, and retinol) rapidly as soon as they are picked.” (WebMD)
Why You Should Simplify Gardening
Gardening requires ongoing work. It isn’t a matter of planting the seeds and coming back in a few weeks to harvest. (Believe me, this is from experience).
Gardens require ongoing weeding and watering. By simplifying the ongoing tasks, you automatically make gardening require less time.
How To Simplify Gardening
- Consider containers or raised beds. Putting a barrier around your plants keeps weeds from invading wholesale. What weeds make their way in are easily dealt with because the soil in contained spaces is never packed down from walking. New types of containers are also self-watering, cutting down on time needed for watering, and providing consistent moisture for healthier plants.
- Limit the garden space. Start small, and you increase your chance of success without overwhelming yourself at harvest time. New planting techniques can also increase the output from very small spaces.
- Plant what you need. Traditional gardening has you sow many hundreds of seeds and then thinning the sprouts. Planting what you want and need eliminates the task of thinning.
- Time the planting. If you plant all your plants at once, your harvest will all come in at once. Staggering planting by weeks extends your harvest season.
- Choose non-fussy plants. Some plants require ongoing maintenance: staking, routing, or pruning. Avoiding those types of plants cuts down on your maintenance time.
- Consider buying plants. Plants already started are easy to work with. While this limits your choice on varieties in most cases, you will not have to fuss with starting seeds in the house.
After five years of dismal failures in my gardening attempts, I decided on the above actions after research and thought. This year I will be planting two 3 foot square beds (one for veggies, one for herbs) and part of my side house garden will be given over to plants. I will be buying all plants instead of starting from seed, after losing the battles for seeds with the birds.
Resources:
- Square Foot Gardening. All New Square Foot Gardening
(book), Square Foot Gardening Website
- Gardener’s Supply Company. Gardeners.Com. A source for containers, quality raised beds and innovative planting and watering solutions.
- Your state agriculture cooperative. A good source of information about native plants, climate and soils.
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[...] first attempt to control weeds involved installed Square Foot Gardens to grow edibles (Garden Simplicity: Square Foot Gardening). By limiting the size of the garden, you limit your weeding. Another benefit of square foot [...]