📝 In This Week’s Nut Hole
This Week’s Focus: Avoiding Common Mistakes When Starting A Garden
Ginger makes her nitrogen deposit (Ginger is one of my cats) curated help
Where The Roots Meet The Soil: 5 Mistakes To Avoid And help to make some of these go away.
Inspirational Stories, there is still good happening in the world!
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🐱 Ginger’s Nitrogen Deposit (Curated Links To Fertilize Your Growth)
Don’t know how to deal with pests? Me either but this book is the one most recommended to me by master gardeners: The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook by Susan Mulvihill
GrowVeg App, that helps you plan what to grow, plant spacing and when to harvest. The have templates, account for your climate and more!
Auk, Makes growing indoors super simple! Includes a complete Auk, packets of seed, coco fiber, and nutrients. Easy-win, weather-safe gardening!
🐝 This Might Suit Your Fancy
Ergo Next Insurance, trusted by business owners of all types! Easy to access, low cost and covers all the insurance to keep your business healthy!
Create your living trust using AI! Download instructions from Constance Carter!
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🎙️Where The Roots Meet The Soil
5 Mistakes To Avoid When Starting A Garden
Growing your own food, isn’t just for people that want to live off grid, it never was. I like to think of the family garden like one of those rooms everyone used to have but modern conveniences allowed them to phase out, like the still room.
Because most of us weren’t taught how to grow our own food at home or school, we go immediately onto the struggle bus. Watering too much or not enough. Not knowing which soil, compost or bed mix to use.
Then you run down to the local big box store and hoping they will help you figure it out. They point you in the direction of compost and seeds. Only to have the seeds not sprout or the sprouts die and then you’re disappointed, left thinking you don’t have a green thumb.
Mistake #1: Not Planning Critical Elements OR Planning With Someone That Doesn’t Know What They Are Doing Either
You don’t know what you don’t know, but starting a garden is a journey taking. Thankfully you don’t need to join a local garden club to figure it out, I tried it recently but didn’t have much luck.
Now taking a class from your local nursery or master gardener is the best way to start since they have had to grow plants in your local climate and soils. But how do you find these people right?
Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and groups searchable online now. But to find a master gardener (someone that voluteered to go deeper on growing stuff and get familiar with growing in your area), look to your local university extension.
Mistake #2: Planting Whatever The Big Box Stores Carry
I’ve found the big box stores rarely have the varieties that grow best in my area but they sell enough plants that can make it that they do well. And in the right season, I was still able to find the fruit trees that I wanted at a reasonable price.
The same local university extension I mentioned earlier will usually publish lists of what you can grow and when specific to your area. Finding a Facebook group for gardening in your area and connecting with other gardeners in classes is really key.
So while I will continue to pick on big box stores they can still be a source of reasonably priced supplies. Building a support system will go a long way to shortening your gardening success journey and helping you figure out what to buy and what to leave.
Mistake #3: Trying To Grow Too Many Different Plants & Too Much Of One
Even if you have help planning out your garden for your whole backyard, finding an area or a patio to start small and learn the basics is better than jumping in all by yourself. Unless you hire someone to come do the setup, planting and tending for you.
I use a plan, test, learn approach. I planned out where in my yard, how much sunlight, how will I connect watering and what do I want to eat that will grow in that season.
Then I don’t plant twenty Roma tomato plants, I plant two Romas, a Pear tomato, San Marzano and at least one other variety. So I force myself to go into test mode, I take it less personally if they don’t make it and I free myself to make mistakes.
That’s right, I’m not seeing if I can grow them, I’m seeing if with the watering I provide, the spot I put them in and the pruning I provide, will they make it. And do I like the fruit they produce if I’ve never tried it. Then I learn, make adjustments and try again.
Mistake #4 Over/Underwatering
Don’t get me wrong, I’m making adjustments along the way to help plants be successful. It’s easy even when you have a watering system setup to over or under water. I water by hand for the first week and I’ll give extra water if the soil is dry.
If you don’t know what to look for or what the plant likes to live in, then all of that won’t matter. Starting with just a handful of plants makes it easier to learn the growing environment they prefer, how to tend and when to harvest them.
Find out if your plant needs well draining soil or likes extra moisture. Can that species grow in soil that doesn’t have a good nutrient supply or likes to be neglected? There are plenty of them out there and they tend to be natives that don’t need a lot of attention.
How to tell, water meters aren’t reliable, you need to stick your finger in the soil knuckle deep and check. If you can’t because the soil is too hard or dry, water. Once you do this every couple of days for a couple of weeks you’ll learn how much water to give.
Mistake #5 Giving Up Too Quickly
The truth is most first time gardeners take it personally, not understanding what went wrong and give up. I don’t want that to be you. I encourage you to try the plan, test, learn approach and find your fellow local gardeners and master gardeners.
The important part happens around the soil, protect the moisture in your soil with mulch that will breakdown adding carbon to your soil and you can use trimmings off of your garden as green mulch. That’s the foundation.
Consider using a watering method like “growing by the foot” so you know your plants are getting enough water. Still check to make sure, especially as the weather changes.
Over time, you’ll find what works for you. And you can focus on planning for next season, what you will do with the food you grow and how you can share the extra with others.
Ready to Start A Garden This Weekend? Grab your free guide here.
“What you do makes a difference — and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
🦋 Stay Inspired
Ways That People Around The World Are Staging Eco-Interventions
How Trees Bring Water: Andrew Millison (YouTube)
Regreening The Desert: Mariah M (YouTube)
Peatlands, Can We Bring Nature Back?: Planet Wild (YouTube)
Till next time,
Elisa Navarette
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