Garden #2

This is the other garden I have growing in my FIL's backyard.  There's several varieties of tomatoes that I hope will be ready in June.  There's also some green beans and Anaheim peppers coming up. 

I've been growing flowers in this garden and especially love sweet peas.  They are in full bloom right now and fill the garden with fragrance.

It really doesn't take that much to grow vegetables.  Seriously.  You do need to have some ground space that gets a lot of sunlight.  The more the better but 6 hours of direct sunlight a day is the minimum requirement.  You can also grow in pots on your patio, but your yield won't be as good.

I've tried all kinds of ways to grow plants, from pots to poor clay soil so let me tell you the minimum you can do to grow vegetables with the least amount of investment.

1. Find a sunny spot.
2. Build a small raised bed (3 ft x 6 ft x 8 inches high) out of wood scraps.
3. Fill it with soil and free mulch.
4. Add a couple of bags of steer manure @ .99 a bag.
5. If this is your first time gardening, go to your local Home Depot and buy some tomato plants and some cucumber and bean seeds.  They will have the varieties that grow well in your area.  You won't be able to grow a lot in this one box, but it'll be enough space for a couple of tomatoes, cukes and pole beans.  You can add more boxes as you go.
6. For fertilizer, start collecting your kitchen scraps, especially coffee grounds and vegetable and fruit peels.  No meat products, just plant products.  Also, collect garden waste like leaves.  You can make a compost pile which is great stuff but takes some doing, so for this exercise, just start burying it in your soil around but away from your plants.  The worms will come and when you've got worms you've got good soil.
7. If things start eating your seedlings, go out early in the morning and check the plants for small green caterpillars, snails or slugs and pull them off and dispose of them.

There you go.  You have an organic vegetable garden! 

So between the two gardens, I expect to have the following harvest able vegetables in June:  zucchini (the plant that can end world hunger), broccoli, cauliflower, daikon, stir fry greens (collard and kale), pole and bush beans, tomatoes and some strawberries.

It's just a fraction of what I used to grow, but the point is that I've done the minimum of garden work this year and will gain a lot of vegetables.  So get started.  Gardening is the most rewarding hobby on this planet.