I am literally a “rookie” gardener. I live in Michigan, west of Grand Rapids, about 15-20 miles from Lake Michigan and this is my first year growing a vegetable garden. This all came about in a rather unusual way.

Turning Empty Spaces into Growing Places

My kids, now 14 and 10, had grown tired of the swing set that occupied the NE corner of our backyard and we gave it to a neighbor family with younger kids last fall, leaving a big empty space.

Aside from daily professional career, I coach high school hockey that occupies 6 nights a week from November 1 – March 1. Over Thanksgiving Weekend, while gazing out over the “empty space” I mentioned to my wife that maybe a veggie garden would be a good way to occupy the now empty space in the yard as well as occupy me with a constructive, productive activity in the off season; she was ecstatic (I drive her nuts in the off season with nothing to really occupy my mind and time).

I got a few gardening books for Christmas and began reading and realized that I really should have thought of this last August so I could get the ground ready for a veggie garden… lesson learned. I made a plan, bought my seeds and starting products and set up a small growing space in my basement right after hockey season ended and began starting my tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and a few herbs (the herbs didn’t fare to well) on March 15.

Kids Choose Vegetable Gardening Over Playing Video Games!

Something I immediately realized was the instant curiosity of my kids, I’d be in the storage room working on planting seeds and the kids walked away from the Wii and wanted to help; WOW! This is a really cool family activity, not just “therapy” for the old man!

I’m glad to say that their interest continued through hardening off of the seedlings, transplanting, weeding, maintenance of the space and now into harvest which they (and I) really enjoy.

As the weather finally turned and the snow melted I was able to get outside and begin work on what would become our garden. In looking at things, the swing set space seemed a little too small for what I wanted to do, so my son, daughter and I dug up the sod across the back of the yard, made a sod pile behind the shed to decompose for use in a couple years, and tilled it up making the garden space a bit bigger… I ignored the “start small” theory of first time gardening.

Counting the Failures and Successes of a New Vegetable Garden

I purchased 6 yards of composted top soil from a local landscape supply company and got down to business. By the second weekend in May I had the soil ready and I was able to sow my lettuce, spinach, peas, beans, carrots, dill and a few other things, and by the end of May (after last frost) I was able to transplant my tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and Brussels sprouts into their new homes.

As things began to warm up I sowed my dill, corn, watermelons, zucchini, summer squash and acorn squash. I didn’t have much success with early growing of herbs so I purchased rosemary, cilantro, thyme, tarragon, oregano and several variations of basil from a local greenhouse; my sown dill has far outgrown my purchased dill (different varieties).

I also planted basil from seed a little later and the results have been great… my wife and I made some awesome pesto a couple of weekends ago and have shared it with family and friends.

Sowing Seeds of Wisdom for Other Newbie Gardeners

I wanted to share with you and your readers the fact that gardening can not only be therapeutic and fun, but also a great family activity, and one that really anyone can do if they take the time to learn about it, utilize websites such as yours (Veggie Gardening Tips), make a plan and implement it.

I am really having more fun and getting more satisfaction out of this than I ever dreamed I would have! I really never thought I could have a green thumb! During the hockey season I write for a local blog (West Michigan High School Hockey – HV Blogger) and would like to be able to contribute to your website.

I love to write, sometimes that’s as therapeutic as gardening, and I would love to be able to contribute to your website as an “at home gardener”. I am not a professional/master gardener and know very little about the specific in’s-and-out’s of gardening, that’s why I rely on website’s like yours, but I truly love what gardening has added to my life and would like to share it with others.

Thanks P.J for sharing your family’s wonderful experiences in venturing out into the world of backyard vegetable gardening. I could offer a few tips on starting those herbs from seed, but it looks like you are picking things up perfectly fine on your own… and your garden looks fantastic! You have an open invitation here and I’m sure everyone would love to hear more reports from our “at home gardener!”

So you’ve slaved all summer in your garden, and now you’re reaping its bounty. If you’re a new gardener, or you’ve recently expanded the size of your garden, you’ve probably got more produce on your hands than you know what to do with.

That’s where all of these food preparation and preservation techniques come in. I invite you to experiment with how you eat your garden’s bounty. Try something different.

1. Eat Your Fruits and Veggies Fresh Out of the Garden

The most straightforward way to enjoy your garden’s harvest is to eat your fruits and vegetables fresh soon after you pick them. That might mean making salads, smoothies, soups, stews, desserts, and other meals.

Keep in mind that certain vegetables lose their freshness quickly, so for example you will want to eat string beans as freshly picked as possible because the sugars start to turn to starch after they are picked. That explains why fresh string beans always taste sweeter!

2. Do Some Canning

If it’s your first time canning, you’re in for a lot of fun. Putting excess vegetables and fruits in cans is a great way to preserve vegetables so that you can eat them throughout the winter months.

The process is quite simple, and the necessary accessories are fairly inexpensive. All you need is to buy a box or two of reusable mason jars, find a canning recipe that appeals to you, and follow it until you have dozens of jars of deliciously pickled or jammed produce.

3. Try Dehydrating Extras

Dehydrating your fruits and vegetables is a great way to ensure that all of the nutritional value of your produce is kept intact. To remove the water content takes longer, but if you dehydrate at low enough temperatures all of the enzymes and nutritional contents of your produce will remain intact.

If you have a lot of berries and fruits, consider making fruit rollup’s by blending the fruits and then spreading them to dry on a dehydrator sheet. If you have a lot of vegetables you could make savory dehydrated veggie crackers with flax seeds or sunflower seeds. You can also use a dehydrator to prepare herbs or quickly dry decorative flowers.

4. Freeze What You Can

If you have a big enough freezer, you can enjoy the benefits of freezing your fruits and vegetables. If you plan to freeze a lot of your produce, I recommend investing in a Freezer Vac, which vacuums the air out of plastic containers so that your food remains fresh.

Without air in your containers, the food lasts longer, and this avoids the freezer burn taste. Freezing is another great way to preserve your food, because it can keep the crunchiness or the textures of the food more intact then dehydrating or canning can.

5. Learn to Love Fermented Veggies

If you’ve ever enjoyed sauerkraut or kimchi, then you know how powerful fermentation can be for transforming your average vegetables into a delicious addition to any meal. If you want to undertake making your own sauerkraut or kimchi, you can invest in a fermentation pot, which helps you to keep the ideal environmental conditions for your sauerkraut or kimchi.

The process of fermentation takes roughly 4 weeks, and will yield many jars of fermented cabbage and other vegetables. Fermented products also contain favorable bacteria that improves digestion, so if you’ve yet to try fermenting your vegetables, why not give it a try this year?

If you’re familiar with one of these techniques, why not branch out to a different way of preserving your garden’s veggies and fruits in addition to your tried and true ways. No matter which way you choose to preserve the fruits and vegetables that you harvest, I know that I you will learn a lot and enjoy the process. After all, we need to enjoy each step of being a gardener, from seed to harvest. And that means enjoying every bite.

Bio: Nathalie Lussier is known as The Raw Foods Witch because she takes the spookiness out of eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. You can sign up for her free weekly publication called The Cue, where you’ll get tips to live an enchanted life with more raw food and easy recipes.

Those gardens were located in Patzcuaro, Mexico, Northern Virginia, Teakettle, Belize, and Tennessee. Today’s report comes to us from another southern grower…

I just ran across your site, and vastly appreciate your insight, generosity and vast knowledge shared with fellow GARDEN enthusiasts!

New Home, Growing Garden Addiction

My name is Bobby, I’m a 43 year old ‘white dude’ in Decatur, Georgia, and I share many of your interests. Primarily though, that of a relatively new homeowner (I’ve owned my first home for two years now, 3rd veggie garden though, woo-hoo!) and possessed Garden Lover.

Ohhh the trials and tribulations of cultivating in the South! Heat and pests and critters and the list just goes on and on. We’re blessed to have an incredibly long growing season (it’s late June and I will be planting ‘late summer’ rows of beans and tomatoes July 4th weekend).

Plus I’ve put in a few sweet potatoes with hope that they’ll be flourishing by September. I’m not well versed in Fall and Winter crops yet (I get my green thumb from my Mom also, whom I describe as having an ‘Emerald’ thumb to everyone else!), but I’ve been branching out.

Nothing Can Stop a Determined Veggie Gardener

My first year literally a week after closing on my house, I put some boards up and created about a 15×20 raised bed garden, having no means of turning the notorious Georgia red clay but absolutely knowing I wanted to harvest something, ANYTHING to eat.

It was a LOT of hauling bags of dirt from Home Depot to finally fill it all in. This actually turned out to be a well earned blessing, as the next year (last year) the dirt I had worked so hard to import was the perfect enhancement when Dad came over to till the ground for me.

I discovered the magic of heirloom seeds, started every single one of the tomato seeds (16 varieties!), and I’ll be danged if nearly every one of them didn’t grow to be a beautiful plant.

Sharing the Joy and Blessings of a Good Tomato

I had literally 100 fledgling heirloom plants, so many I was giving them away at work, church, potluck group, my family reunion, you name it I showed up with a foot tall tomato plant in a cup waiting to be put in the ground!

Needless to say, my enthusiasm brought a wonderful taste of summer and my heritage to many last year, as I still have people telling me how great those tomatoes were… I feel like a proud parent almost!

I need to stop for tonight, but I’ll write again soon with updates for this year and some other stories of the trials and tribulations, but also the joy, Joy, JOY of harvesting. I’ve attached a few pix, hopefully they’ll come thru. Yours in dirt-digging, Bobby.

Hey Bobby, thanks so much for visiting the Veggie Gardening Tips website and for sharing your experiences and the photos of your garden. Hope things continue to grow well for you there in Georgia as the summer progresses.

I would love to have a growing season as long as yours and encourage you to experiment with a little fall vegetable gardening. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were veggies that you could grow in Decatur throughout the winter months!

Today’s post is the continuation of Fern’s interview and provides more gardening information and recommendations for the home gardener.

Kenny Point: I noticed that your revised book, The Illustrated Guide to Gardening is now “All Organic!” What went into the decision to shift the focus to growing organically, and how difficult was it to incorporate these techniques into the book?

Fern Marshall Bradley: Making the change to all-organic was a reflection of the Reader’s Digest Company’s commitment to promoting healthy living. More and more evidence shows that use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in home landscapes is contributing to serious environmental problems such as groundwater contamination, and these issues relate back to human health.

Since I’ve always been an organic gardener, I applauded RD’s decision to make the book “all-organic.” It was not difficult at all to incorporate organic methods into the book. Basic organic gardening techniques, such as composting and encouraging diversity, have always been part of good gardening practice. And nowadays, most garden centers stock a full range of organic fertilizers and organically acceptable pest control products.

Kenny Point: What are some of your favorite organic solutions to problems around the garden and how do they compare with the typical non-organic approaches in terms of effort, cost, and effectiveness?

Fern Marshall Bradley: I’m very impressed with the quality of leafy greens and cabbage-family crops when I take the simple step of draping lightweight row cover over the plants right at planting time and leaving it in place. The cover keeps out pests such as flea beetles and cabbage worms that can ruin foliage. Purchasing the covers may be more expensive to start than buying a pesticide, but they’re reusable for a few seasons if you take good care of them, and they’re easier to use and more effective than sprays.

I’ve also found that watering my plants with compost tea, or spraying it on the foliage of young plants, promotes healthy, vigorous growth. I just don’t have many pest problems in my garden, and I think that compost tea is one of the main reasons I don’t.

I also visit my garden frequently, and I’m not squeamish at all about handpicking and squishing pest insects. If you don’t like the idea of squashing insects, simply carry along a small bucket of soapy water and a pair of tweezers or chopsticks. Use the tweezers to pick the pests off the plants, and dump them in the soapy water to drown.

Kenny Point: Is it realistically possible to raise high quality tree fruits such as apples, pears, plums, and peaches in the home landscape using organic methods and without complicated spray schedules?

Fern Marshall Bradley: It is realistically possible, but it takes a lot of commitment to first building high-quality organic soil, to choosing disease-resistant varieties (rather than the old favorites), to keeping plants properly pruned and trained, to using as many preventive techniques as possible (such as putting small individual bags around developing apples to prevent pests from laying eggs on them), and to accepting the fact that your fruits probably will end up with a few minor holes and blemishes.

Kenny Point: Do you place much emphasis on adding an ornamental quality to your vegetable gardens, and if so how do you pull off creating an edible garden that is also attractive?

Fern Marshall Bradley: In my eyes, vegetable crops are just as beautiful as flowering perennials and annuals, so I have to admit that I don’t put much emphasis on trying to add ornamental quality to my vegetable garden. However, if I were so inclined, I’d have no trouble creating a veggie garden that’s as attractive as an ornamental garden.

First, I’d interplant lots of annual flowers among my vegetables, especially ground-hugging sweet alyssum, which attracts lots of beneficial insects. And I’d interplant nasturtium vines among my squash, and set aside a bed for perennial herbs like sage, oregano, and lavender, which have beautiful foliage as well as wonderful scent. Then rather than the ad hoc plant supports I tend to use, I’d choose bamboo poles for making trellises, and I’d also craft plant supports out of flexible saplings and grape vines.

Kenny Point: Thanks Fern for setting aside time from your busy schedule to stop by and share your expertise with everyone here at the Veggie Gardening Tips website!

Fern Marshall Bradley, co-editor with Trevor Cole of The All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening: Now All Organic!, is a writer and editor whose favorite topics are gardening and sustainable living.

A co-author of Reader’s Digest’s Vegetable Gardening, she also conceived and edited The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control, and The Experts Book of Garden Hints, among others. Bradley is a former gardening books editor for Rodale.

Fern wrote a previous article here about ways to Save Money by Growing Organically, and is back to offer more of her great insight and to answer a series of questions regarding her organic gardening techniques and recommendations.

Kenny Point: How long have you been involved in gardening and how did you get started?  How did you gain your professional knowledge and experience in the areas of gardening and landscaping?

Fern Marshall Bradley: I became fascinated with the diversity of plants while taking a college botany course, and then grew my first garden as a college project. I’ve been hooked ever since. I have a Master’s Degree in Horticulture from Rutgers University, and I worked for several years managing gardens on an organic farm.

I started working in garden publishing about 20 years ago. As a garden book editor, I’m continually learning new things about gardening, and I’m still a dedicated home gardener.

Kenny Point: What are your favorite fruits or vegetables for growing in the backyard garden, and are there any exceptional or rare varieties that you particularly love to grow or recommend to home gardeners?

Fern Marshall Bradley: It’s hard for me to think of a fruit or vegetable that I don’t like to grow! But some favorites are carrots, peas, turnips, asparagus, raspberries, arugula, and spinach. I like to grow these because it’s very hard to find store-bought or even farmer’s market sources of these foods that are as crispy and tasty as fresh-picked from the backyard.

My favorite variety of turnips is ‘Hakurei,’ which is a small white turnip that has a wonderfully sweet, rich flavor. And last fall I had great results with ‘Lombardia’ spinach.

Kenny Point: Are there any critical but common mistakes that you see home gardeners making over and over that often lead to serious problems or wasted time and effort out in their backyards?

Fern Marshall Bradley: One common mistake is trying to cultivate a lawn under shade trees. Lawn grass isn’t happy growing in the shade. It’s much easier and more sensible to allow moss to naturally take over the shady areas under trees, or to plant a shade-loving groundcover such as pulmonarias, Solomon’s seals, or sweet woodruff. Leave an unplanted, mulched buffer area around the tree trunks to help prevent trunk rot and avoid excess competition between the trees and groundcovers.

Kenny Point: What tips would you offer to the inexperienced or first time gardener who is interested in raising and harvesting delicious homegrown produce from their own vegetable plot? What about those gardeners who only have a small area to garden in?

Fern Marshall Bradley: Search for the sun if you want homegrown produce. Most food crops need at least 6 hours of full sun daily in order to produce a bountiful harvest.

So find that sunny site, and start small—a plot that measure 8 feet by 10 feet is plenty the first year. Limit yourself to three or four crops, and pick at least a couple that are easy to grow (beans, lettuce, tomatoes, turnips, peas, kale, Swiss chard).

If you have only a small area, plant in containers, which you can move around to follow the sun if need be. And grow crops vertically on trellises or other supports. Cucumbers, peas, and beans are very productive when trained on a trellis.

Kenny Point: What are your secrets to building a rich, fertile, and healthy soil? Is soil testing and adding outside amendments each year an essential necessity?

Fern Marshall Bradley: Adding compost to your soil and keeping the soil covered with a layer of organic mulch (grass clippings, straw, shredded leaves, etc) are the simple secrets to building a rich, healthy soil. Yearly soil testing is not necessary unless your garden just isn’t succeeding.

As for adding outside amendments, that depends on what it is you’re growing. For an established perennial garden, for example, yearly mulching may be all the soil enrichment that’s needed. But for strawberries or roses, you may want to pamper the plants a bit with extra amendments.

Kenny Point: This interview will continue tomorrow when Fern discusses the shift in focus of the Illustrated Guide to Gardening towards organics, and shares more tips for growing a productive garden in your own back yard.

Fern Marshall Bradley, co-editor with Trevor Cole of The All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening: Now All Organic!, is a writer and editor whose favorite topics are gardening and sustainable living.

Here’s her mulch question followed by what may come as a surprising admission regarding the application of mulches in the vegetable garden:

“I love your blog I only wished I had discovered it in January and not April… I would have done things differently. I noticed that you thoroughly mulch your beds and was wondering what you recommend and use for mulch.” – Cameron

Much Ado Over Mulches

And now I’ll come clean on the subject: I’m not fanatical about mulching the vegetable beds and despite the appearances I really don’t apply a lot of mulch. My veggie patch is never a foot deep in mulches in the manner of those gardening systems that pile heaps of organic matter onto the surface of their growing beds.

Organic mulches can tie up soil nutrients as they decompose and usually get in the way when it’s time to plant or germinate seeds in the garden. Any mulch will also provide a place for pests and critters to hide and take refuge behind the scenes. Then there’s the expense and extra effort during application or when they need to be removed in order to work the soil.

Mulches insulate the ground and tend to keep the soil cooler or hotter depending on the season and the type of mulch that is applied. Sometimes that’s a good thing and can be used to the gardener’s advantage, but it can also backfire and make growing conditions less than favorable for the crops. You should also inspect mulches covering perennials in the spring to ensure that your plants are able to grow through them.

Using Mulches in the Raised Bed Veggie Garden

I’m not at all opposed to using mulches just a little selective in their application. Mulches will help conserve soil moisture, restrict weed growth, hold soil and nutrients in place, and in certain situations they can also help reduce the spread of diseases. So while you generally won’t find deep mulches covering my raised bed garden, there are specific situations where they definitely come in handy:

• First off, the fall planted garlic and potato onion beds are always mulched with a thick layer of shredded leaves. This treatment will protect the garlic plants during the winter and suppress weed growth come springtime.
• During winter, any vacant growing areas are covered with shredded leaves. This mulch serves as a temporary cover and seems to help build up the earthworm populations. What’s left of the mulch is removed or lightly cultivated into the soil by early spring to allow the bed to breathe, dry out, and warm up.
• An inch or two of mature and sifted compost is always great applied as a mulch or just barely mixed into the surface of the garden’s soil. This will help condition the soil and introduce organic nutrients and beneficial microbes for your plants to work with.
• It’s not exactly sustainable and a big no-no in some organic gardening circles, but I do use a little plastic mulch in the garden for some of those heat loving crops like tomatoes, eggplants, and melons.
• One of my favorite uses of mulch is to spread straw on the paths between my raised growing beds. This keeps the weeds down, makes for a cleaner trip through the garden, and best of all it just looks good and dresses up the beds.
• And I will use a thick mulch for crops such as Fingerling Potatoes that seem to enjoy and benefit from the extra depth and protection from sun scald that a deep mulch affords.

That’s about it for the mulches that I apply, and as you can see they aren’t spread indiscriminately through the garden without first giving consideration to what is growing. Next time I’ll share a strategy for a different mulching practice, one that most gardeners take advantage of to some degree without even realizing it… and it may just be the best garden mulch of all!

“After reading your site, I have determined I could handle a few bush green beans, and some lettuce. I will plant zucchini in a couple of separate deep containers, but really want to plant some potatoes and onions.”

“I did plant some green onions in a pot plant container. Thank you for having such a well done site, full of needed and helpful information.”

Organizing and Arranging the Small Veggie Garden

You’re very welcome Allyson, and I’m glad that you found this site useful and informative in growing your first garden, and hopefully many, many more! There are plenty of vegetables that are suitable for planting in a container, EarthBox, or even the tiniest back yard garden.

If space is at a premium then I would focus on crops that grow lower to the ground, that way you can keep the entire growing area open to receive full sunlight and avoid shading any of the limited growing space that you have available.

Check the path that the sun tracks across your garden and arrange taller plants along the rear or edges of the garden where they won’t block sunlight from reaching the shorter veggies. Situate your spreading and climbing plants where they can grow up a building, across a path, or spill over onto adjacent lawn areas.

Selecting Vegetables to Grow in a Limited Amount of Space

Leafy greens such as kale, spinach, and mustard will do well in a small garden and provide you with good production over an extended period of time. Another leafy vegetable that would work great is lettuce, especially the loose leaf varieties. The greens can be kept harvested to confine the plants to a smaller growing area.

Beets and turnips would make good selections as they don’t take up much space and would perform double duty by yielding a harvest of nutritious greens in addition to the delicious roots that are dug as the plants mature. Carrots and radishes are other great options when space is in short supply in the vegetable garden.

Other veggies to consider for a small garden area include: Swiss Chard, shallots, potato onions, celery, oriental vegetables, arugula, tatsoi, and even garlic. If there are empty gaps here and there throughout the garden you can fill them in with individual herb plants or edible flowers such as calendula, borage, or nasturtiums.

Tips to Double Your Garden Space Overnight

There are all sorts of herbs that can be planted in containers and moved around as you please. And a lack of space doesn’t mean that you can’t grow some fruit or berries. Try raising strawberries in a strawberry jar, plant a fig tree in a container, or grow a compact blueberry bush in place of ornamental shrubs.

Irish and Fingerling Potatoes tend to sprawl and take up too much precious space, but some gardeners will stack tires or make a cylinder out of fencing and continue to fill in these make shift containers with additional soil as the potato vines grow taller. Once the vines mature and die back remove the tires or fencing and harvest loads of spuds.

Take advantage of any opportunities that you may have to grow vines and climbing type plants skyward, or along the side of a structure. You’ll get more production in a small area by growing pole beans than you would from bush beans if you have a way to trellis them. And growing vertically may also provide the opportunity to grow cucumbers, melons, and other space hogs in a garden that is cramped for growing room.

Probably the best way to put your small space garden to more efficient use is to grow it in a raised bed type pattern rather than to sow your garden in the typical row format. Using raised beds or planting in a grid format allows you to grow plants closer together and to utilize more of your growing area, instead of losing precious garden territory to pathways and empty, unproductive space between rows.

I’m sure there are plenty of empty containers and pots around the house that would work very nicely to create your own edible garden on the patio or deck.

Growing Vegetables in Containers

I just wanted to share the results of a window box container that I planted with various vegetable plants earlier this spring. The window box is ten inches wide, twenty-eight inches long, and contains about seven inches of light potting soil and compost mixture.

The container is loaded with edible goodies; three heirloom eggplants, a sweet bell pepper plant, a couple of cucumbers, and even a watermelon vine. All of the organic veggies are growing nicely and the cucumber has already begun yielding fruits.

If you’re careful to keep the plants watered and give them an occasional dose of an organic fertilizer, the container gardener can harvest fresh produce just as easily as the gardener growing crops in the ground.

Great Choices for Edible Container Gardening

With a proper container and a little ingenuity there’s no limit to the types of vegetables, fruits, and herbs that you can cultivate regardless of whether or not you have a backyard or garden. Other edibles that will grow well in containers include: tomatoes, Swiss Chard, kale, strawberries, lettuce, radishes, leafy greens, and squash.

Then there are the herbs and edible flowers that will be perfectly content and make themselves right at home in a simple pot or container. Rosemary, chives, thyme, bay laurel, nasturtiums, parsley, basil, sage, and others will all flourish in containers. The smaller herb plants can be grouped together in a pot or strawberry jar, while the bay and Rosemary will stretch out in a planter of their own.

With a little more effort and care your patio garden can even include fruit trees such as figs, dwarf pears, citrus fruits, dwarf peaches, and columnar apples that are suitable for container culture.

If you’re interested in learning more about edible container gardening pick up a good gardening book such as; Edible Container Garden, Little Herb Gardens, or McGee & Stuckey’s Bountiful Container, which all focus on the details of raising edible plants in containers.