Totally new to Gardening

[OneLove]

So we live in an apartment and don't have anywhere to garden really but I would love to do something...anything really. My mom has some land we could garden but she lives about 10 mins away and we don't really go over there very much...she comes here cause we are allergic to their cats...anyways...

How much work does a simple garden realistically take? If I planted some stuff over at her place how often would I need to go over to take care of it? Would it be an every day endeavor or something I could do 2-3 days a week? Any suggestions?

Thanks :D

[Waterlogged]

:popcorn
i usually kill things. :shifty

[OneLove]

:popcorn
i usually kill things. :shifty

Me too...totally lol But I gotta try...produce prices are going through the roof! :no

[Macky]

You have family 10 minutes away and you don't visit often? My closest family is an hour away and everyone else, including my dad, lives one or two provinces away. You need to do something about that. ;) Definitely plant a garden over there, k.

How much work a garden will entail depends on what you want to plant. Tell us what you want to grow and we can better answer your question. What does your family like to eat?

[Waterlogged]

so i should make about things we like to eat????

i think someone already planted strawberries and chard.

[OneLove]

You have family 10 minutes away and you don't visit often? My closest family is an hour away and everyone else, including my dad, lives one or two provinces away. You need to do something about that. ;) Definitely plant a garden over there, k.

How much work a garden will entail depends on what you want to plant. Tell us what you want to grow and we can better answer your question. What does your family like to eat?


We don't go to their house because I can't go inside...allergic to cats. She comes here to visit us...daily ;)

Probably just some of the basic things...carrot, peppers, tomato, onion...strawberries if that isn't too hard.

Thanks :D

[Macky]

Oh, good. :D

Carrots – You can plant and forget carrots for the most part; the work is in the prep. Before you plant, make sure the soil is loose at least a foot down to allow an easy path for the root. The most attention carrots need is while they're germinating. Carrot seed CANNOT DRY OUT... at all. :no I sometimes have to put a smidge of water on my carrot seeds twice a day because the surface dries out if it's hot or breezy, even if the soil under the surface is wet. Carrot seed isn't planted very deep, so the surface HAS to stay moist. After they germinate, they just need to be kept weeded, otherwise you can forget about them until harvest. How often you need to weed them would depend on the types of weeds you have there. Your only caution is that carrots do not like excessive nitrogen; if they get too much, they develop masses of hairy little roots all over the main orange root (that you eat). The carrot is still edible and tastes fine, but aesthetically, it's pretty ugly and the roots make them difficult to peel and lessens their storage quality.

Tomatoes – Usually set out as transplants, so no extra attention germinating them. I tend to my toms about once a week, tying up to the stake (I don't grow indeterminates, which need pruning weekly). Weeding is done as I can get to it. As long as the tomato plant is bigger than the weeds around it, they aren't as sensitive to their presence. You still have to keep on top of them, though, in general.

Peppers – Same as tomatoes, only they require more heat. For both, don't provide too much nitrogen or you'll get a gorgeous plant but little fruit.

Both tomatoes and peppers are subject to something called blossom end rot. This is usually caused because the plant is deficient in calcium. Most people go out and dump eggshells or some other calcium source around the plant to compensate, but that's not really the issue. There is already enough calcium in most natural soil (I can't comment on container mixes), but the plant can only access that calcium if it's kept evenly watered. Not excessively – you can't overwater and then leave it for two weeks – but evenly moist.

Onions – Newbies should use sets until you're familiar with how onions grow, imho. Seedlings are a lot of work. (I know, I have 192 of them under lights right now. :giggle) The exception would be if you live in a climate with a looong growing season where you can seed directly outside. The instructions will be on the packet of sets you buy, just follow them. Onions are heavy feeders (they need rich soil or lots of fertilizer) and do not compete well at all with weeds. Of all the crops I grow, onions are the ones that are more important to weed regularly. I won't start a discussion on "day length" and how that works, but you should know this at least so you don't get concerned early on. Onions don't "bulb" gradually (swell to full eating size). The goal is to feed and feed them so that the plant is as big and healthy as possible before the day length (number of hours of sunshine in a day) triggers them to bulb up. It happens all of a sudden. The bigger the plant is at the time bulbing is triggered, the bigger the onion you'll harvest. So really, they're like carrots – you only need to tend them as often as you need to feed or weed them, which would depend on your soil.

I don't grow strawberries, so someone else should comment there.

I would personally suggest adding bush beans to your garden, if your family likes them. Green beans are my main crop for winter preservation (blanch and freeze) because they're ridiculously easy to grow and produce like mad. No store-bought bean will ever compare to one you grew. Our girls snitch them by the handful off the counter when I'm blanching them for the freezer. The only thing you need to know about beans is to NEVER handle them when they're wet. Don't even brush by them as you walk through the garden. Disease will strike within hours. Even though beans are awesome companions for so many other veggies, I section them off as a monocrop because I need to be able to work in the garden without touching them when they're wet with dew in the mornings. As far as attention, bush beans need no attention – usually not even fertilizer of any kind – until harvest. When it's time to harvest, you'll have to pick them frequently for about 2 to 4 weeks, depending on variety and how well they "hold" (stay tender) on the plant. My varieties allow me to pick every 2 or 3 days because they hold well in my climate. If you live where it's hotter, you may have to pick every day during that period. The more you pick beans, the more they produce because they keep on flowering (attempting to produce seed) until they're completely spent.

---------- Post added at 09:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:48 AM ----------

Rosanne... ABSOLUTELY!! :) What's the point of growing something if your family doesn't want to eat it? Many gardeners first narrow it down to what they like to eat, then give the most garden space to the things that are either the most expensive to buy at the store or things where the taste or texture differs dramatically from what's available at the store. For me, beans are expensive to buy and taste like junk compared to my own garden ones. On the other hand, frozen peas are relatively cheap to buy and if cooked properly, taste very much like peas I've grown and frozen myself. While I still grow peas, I don't concentrate on them for our freezer for the winter. If we run out, they're not a hardship to buy. Beans are.

[OneLove]

Oh my goodness! Thank you soooooo much for all the info...although I am incredibly overwhelmed right now with the amount of info I obviously need to learn :bag Thank you! I wish you lived nearby and could give lessons :blush

[Macky]

The BEST piece of advice I can give you is to buy a simple vegetable gardening book. Don't just borrow one from the library, buy it. You need to reference something throughout the season. Trying to absorb everything you need to do in the entire season is too much and trying to learn how to garden from an online forum where most of us don't live in your climate is not the best way. Go to a reputable, local greenhouse (not box store) and ask them what book they would recommend for a beginner. Buy it. Such a book should not cost more than $15-20. Stay away from any book that tries to cover too many topics. Just vegetables is what you want... not fifteen different ways to build a greenhouse or design a perennial bed, etc. Honestly, if you don't have someone to teach you gardening in person, you really need a reference book in your hand. :yes Not saying you can't ask questions here... of course! Reading a book, though, will just expand so much more on what we can say here AND give you helpful diagrams and photographs.

ETA: Forgot to ask... does your mom garden or is it just that she has an area for one?

[OneLove]

OK I will start hunting around for a good book :yes

My mom "gardens" by planting some sunflowers and tomatoes in those topsy turvy things lol So yeah she mostly just has space to garden :giggle

[Lily]

Same as tomatoes, only they require more heat. For both, don't provide too much nitrogen or you'll get a gorgeous plant but little fruit.


I'm hijacking - I think that's what was wrong with my tomatoes last time!! :think Gorgeous lush plants and very few, tiny tomatoes!

[tempus vernum]

Spirited Duo, you just told me why my onions failed last year and the year before :tu

AFA driving to garden, I failed at that :O although is your mom willing to help at all? A few years ago, I was :hissyfit over my tiny city garden so we rented a plot in the community garden. It was 12 minutes away and right by our church :tu I thought awesome. Well, it was a disaster. Getting the kids to go so often to weed/water/care for was very hard for us. In the beginning, it was awesome - I went alone alot and they were SUPER excited about their areas so it went well but as the garden got larger and the weeds got bigger, I needed more time there and it didn't work out.

However, that was with a VERY large garden. AND there wasn't anywhere for them to go or anything for them to do really except work or bring toys, etc. I think it is actually doable if you stay small and your kids have things to do there :)

Can the kids hang out with your mom while you work? :think