Posts Tagged ‘free’

Garden Growing Guide: How To Prepare Your Garden

Posted: April 11, 2013 in Landscaping and Garden
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Preparing Your Garden

If you are a newbie to gardening and hesitant about how to prepare your garden, then worry no more. I’m here to ease a bit of the worry you may have and build your gardening confidence through practice so you too can join the masses who get out and grow each season.

This garden growing guide comes from years of experience and my passion for the outdoors which should help guide you in the right direction. If you have an inherent green thumb or simply want to experiment the time is here to put your gardening plans in motion. Begin the process by figuring out how and where you will plant your vegetable garden this spring.

If you are planting a garden to grow your own food for the first time I’d recommend starting off small, get your feet wet before you jump right in. Building up gardening experience over time will lead to a more rewarding experience.

How To Start A Garden

The first step before even deciding what you are going to grow in the garden should be picking a good location. In an earlier post I talked about growing a garden in a small space if you didn’t have a large area in your yard to get started. Based on how much space you have and the amount of sunlight the area gets, you can plan your vegetables accordingly.

A garden planted with north-south facing rows will get more direct sunlight. Also consider other environmental factors in your area. I live in farm country and no matter what location I choose I will be surrounded by worked fields.

I have to keep in my mind that my garden could be exposed to pesticide drift. Pesticide drift simply means that pesticides used by the farmers for pest management in the farm fields may drift as vapours and particles in the air or through the soil.

So I will be keeping my garden as far away from the fields as possible, but I also plan to plant a small evergreen border between my garden and the field to keep the drift away.

Gardening Tip-Grow your garden a good distance from Walnut trees as they contain chemicals that can kill your vegetables.

Digging the Garden Soil

Preparing The Soil 

So now you’ve picked your location and you know what you’re going to plant. It’s time to get out there and start getting the area ready. Vegetables will benefit greatly from good soil conditions. The soil needs to be well-drained and nutrient rich.

Take a good look to see what’s in the soil in your garden. If you have sandy soil you will have to water more often, working in some peat moss or compost will still allow for proper drainage but will increase the water-holding capacity of the soil.

Soil with lots of clay will not drain properly, working in some compost even just 4-6 inches deep, will make the soil more porous and allow better drainage and increased oxygen for the roots. Compost is an excellent choice for amending any garden regardless of what soil type.

You can make your own compost at home in the backyard if you have a compost bin. If you have leaves that come down in the fall you can also add them to your compost heap to break down over the winter to give you a dark, nutrient rich soil.

Many cities offer free compost, check locally to see if yours does by contacting your city hall. You are usually required to do the work yourself, such as bagging it or putting in a container, but it’s free! Free compost means that’s one less thing you need to pay for and you can designate the money towards something else for your gardening project.

Manure can also be used to improve your soil. It can be purchased from garden centres or you could even ask a local farmer for some. If it is obtained from a farm it needs to be well-dried out before it can be used, otherwise it can have the opposite effect and be harmful to your garden. Using manure will give the best results if its applied a few weeks before planting, giving it some time to settle in.

If you heat your house by wood, you can turn in some of the ashes and it will add some potassium to the soil. Potassium encourages rapid growth, and can help to hold off disease.

Potassium can also improve the flavour the vegetables as well. Only a small amount of ashes needs to be used, and should be avoided where plants such as blueberries that require slightly acidic soil are being grown. It does not need to be applied regularly as potassium is a slow diminishing nutrient.

Young Seedlings In Pots

Transplanting Seedlings 

By this point you should have already started your seeds and they should be well on their way to making a transition out into the world. If you’ve grown your own seedlings indoors, the next step is preparing them for outdoors.

Plants that were started indoors can experience some transplant shock if they are taking directly from indoors and planted outside. This shock could be enough to kill the plant. Slowly exposing the plants to the temperature fluctuation is referred to as hardening off. 

Expose the plants gradually to the environment, the bigger the temperature difference, the slower the process should be. You can start by placing them outside for a few hours during the day, then maybe into the evening.

Then if the nights are getting warmer leave them out overnight, but not in the garden yet. If there is a threat of frost move them inside for the night. You want to disturb the roots as little as possible at this point. This process can also help with not planting too early which could cause some serious repercussions and heartbreak if you were to lose your seedlings.

I can remember multiple customers who came into the greenhouse looking to buy or re-buy their plants because they simply planted too soon! I can’t wait to get planting my and I look out my window every morning hoping to see green grass, but right now is definitely too early and even using the traditional May 2-4 weekend (in our climate)as a guideline may be too soon.

We often seem to get just one more frost when we all think the cold weather is gone. It’s better to be safe then sorry and hold off a little bit. They say the early bird gets the worm, well not in this case. Having to replace your plants is not exactly cost-effective for anyone’ budget.

watering the garden

Watering Your Garden

Don’t forget too that your garden needs to be watered, carrying  a watering can back and forth can be a daunting task. Planting closer to your home makes it easier to get access to with a garden hose, or using a watering can by not having to walk back and forth as far.

If you have a rain barrel set up on your property not only will it save you money on your water bill this summer but you will be giving your plants rain water and not tap water.

If using municipal water, filling up jugs of tap water and letting them sit open for 24 hours will allow for the added chlorine to evaporate. Chlorine can negatively affect the microorganisms in the soil, harming beneficial organisms that can help to fight off pests and disease.

Vegetable gardening is very rewarding when food from your garden ends up on your dinner plate but can also be time-consuming. Learning how to grow a garden in your backyard takes time and with proper research and trial and error over time you can have an abundance of vegetables and herbs to make tasty meals in your kitchen.

Planning ahead and taking the time to properly prepare your garden will get you off to a good start, and remember to start small if this is new to you. Don’t get discouraged right away if your first garden doesn’t work out,trial and error is the name of the game. A well prepared garden can be a great money-saving tool for your budget if you have some time and patience.

Questions:

What are some other ways you prepare your garden?

Do you have any tricks or tips you want to share?

If you have any gardening questions for Katrina feel free to leave her a comment.

Post Contribution By: Katrina is a horticulture graduate with over 10 years experience with landscaping and greenhouse production. Her goal is to share her knowledge and experiences through blogging in hopes of helping others realize their gardening abilities.While being a single mom of two and working in a sales and marketing position, Katrina runs her own Landscaping Services in Southwestern Ontario.

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Photos Courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net/ Watering the garden Feelart, Garden Sign by Simon Howden, Gardening By Dan, Seedlings in Pots by Sira Anamwong

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Turning Leaves Into Compost- Where There’s Muck There’s Brass

Posted: November 7, 2012 in Handy Hints, Landscaping and Garden
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Leaves for compost

It’s that time of year again….the leaves have already turned colour and a there’s a good splattering over most people’s lawns that have already fallen. So is now the time to save some money? Sure it is and here’s what I do to save me some money come spring.

WHAT DO I DO TO SAVE ME MONEY?

Every year I collect up the leaves from the trees in plastic bags, wet them and tie them up with a couple of holes punched in the sides. I personally store them to over winter down the side of the house (mainly because my compost heap is already full), you could start compost heap number 2 if you like depending on the size of your garden. In the spring I’ll empty out roughly two-thirds of the compost bin for use around the garden/pots/baskets and then re-fill with the leaves from the bags interspersed with other roughage. The half rotten mixture will take no time at all to rot down once the weather warms up.

Hanging Basket with Flowers 2012

WHY I BAG MY LEAVES?

The main reason I don’t throw the leaves away in brown yard waste bags is the amount of nutrients they’ll add back into the garden for next year. If your able to grow your own vegetables or just like gardening then you’ll appreciate the benefits of recycling waste products from not only your garden but also your house. We try to throw as many fruit and veg odds and ends in the compost bin rather than the “green bin” as it will add “Free” goodness to the garden. If you’ve got a wood burning stove or fireplace you can add the cold ashes to the heap too. Just remember that ashes will be high in calcium carbonate so they will reduce the acidic level of soil. If you’re unsure what type of soil you’ve got then get a test kit. I already know that my soil is on the acidic side due to the fact that the Rhododendron is growing like a weed and the Hydrangea has a blue hue in the flowers. Just finished taking this years hanging baskets apart? Throw the compost and annuals back into the bin/heap.

Compost bin with organic waste in the top

I can remember when I was a lot younger that my gran used to be able to grow an enormous amount of fruit and vegetables in her garden without fail. The soil was dark and fertile, probably because her house was a Victorian semi and over the 90 year life span everything bio-degradable was thrown onto the garden.

When the local authority comes to collect your leaves or even your green bin on weekly basis what do you think they do with it? They might not use it themselves but they do sell it, why? Someone’s making money from it, how? The let it rot down and sell it back to you in a bag, how’s that for a money maker.

Rotted down to good compost at the bottom

In fact if you add a good mixture of ingredients into your compost heap and let it rot down properly you’ll have something just as good if not better than what you can buy in the store. Sure, you can buy soil for $0.99 a bag but it’s terrible, trust me I’ve bought it and regretted it. What I get from the compost heap is top quality well-rotted compost that would cost you $4.00-$5.00 a bag but I get it for free.

I got inspired by a man called Alan Titchmarsh who’s a horticulturist and ran a TV program on the BBC (The Beeb) called “Gardeners World” but he also went back to basics to teach/inspire a new younger generation with another TV show.

His ingredients for a good garden compost are:

  • Annual weeds
  • Tops of Perennial Weeds
  • Spent bedding plants (annual flowers that have finished)
  • Uncooked vegetable peelings, crushed eggshells and teabags
  • Grass clippings (they’ll add nitrogen)
  • Soft hedge trimmings, soft prunings and spent flowers (from dead heading)
  • Dead Leaves
  • Shredded woody stems
  • Shredded paper, cotton and wool fabrics

I probably wouldn’t throw in meat, fish and other cooked foods for fear of being invaded by the ubiquitous racoon. Don’t get me wrong the furry guy will love you to death, but your neighbours are going to be more than mildly annoyed.

Inside the compost bin

For a new compost heap/bin you can also add a couple of shovelfuls of fresh manure (horse or sheep) to get it started. Once you’ve got it going, just keep adding waste and water to keep it wet, if it dries out (especially in the summer) it will stop. I usually add water from the rain barrel as rainwater is a natural source of nitrates (form of nitrogen) required by plants to grow. An alternative to adding nitrogen to your compost is adding nettles. In fact a good homemade plant fertilizer can be made from the common stinging nettle Urtica dioica due to the large amount of nitrogen it contains. Nettles are native to North America as well as Europe and Asia.

If you use a rake, because rakes are cheaper than leaf blowers and they cost zero to operate, you’ll get some exercise out of the deal too. A bit of hard work is always more beneficial than convenience.

“There is no substitute for hard work” Thomas Alva Edison………..yes, the inventor.

There’s an old saying from northern England that’s quite appropriate at this point, “Where’s there’s muck there’s brass“….put quite simply, where’s there’s crap there’s money!

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