Is your dream to go from this kind of yard:
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| Right after cutting down the Arborvitae hedge that separated the front yard from the side yard |
To this kind of yard?
But you have never grown anything more than a
houseplant. Or had patio tomatoes once
or twice. But you want to be serious
about growing your own food and utilizing your outdoor space (rented or owned)
to do so. How do you do it?
Last weekend one of my young neighbors saw me out in the
yard planting some starts, and called out to me, “How do you grow all this?”. She said they had tried to plant a few things
the year before, but the plants all died, or were dug up by an animal, and
nothing worked. We talked for a bit
then, and she came over the following weekend and spent some time with me. I realized talking to her how difficult this
all might seem to someone who has no background in gardening.
I was fortunate to have parents and grandparents who
gardened, canned and preserved produce, and received a lot of my training
growing up. I had children who were also
interested in eating fresh vegetables and fruit, who did school projects in
hydroponics, grew their own herbs, studied books about permaculture, food
forests, and other terms I am not familiar with – who I have learned from.
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| Hydroponic lettuce (in gutters) |
But my neighbor was asking me basic questions like, “how do
you know how much to water?” What kind
of soil should I use? Should I build
raised beds or not? There is no easy
answer, because it depends on your own particular situation. Do you own or rent? What is the PH of your soil? What kinds of plants do you want to
grow? How much should you grow? Enough to just eat fresh, or enough to eat
fresh and can too?
You can spend several hundred dollars on buying gardening
books ( or wait in line for them at the library). The books my son needed to purchase for his
permaculture certification alone were several hundred dollars. Then you need to read through all of them,
digest all the info and apply it to your situation. You can get a soil test kit, or send away for
a soil test, but then you have to interpret the results and figure out how to
make the changes that need to be made.
Or, you can hire a gardening coach to do an assessment and
help you create a plan for what you want to do.
If you don’t have prior experience in gardening and are serious about
growing your own food, you will ultimately save a lot of time and money by
doing this. If you live in the Western Washington State, I can recommend a start-up company that does
this. I have to admit that they are
related to me – they are my daughter, her husband and my son. They all have other jobs, but they are so
passionate about helping other people to be self-sufficient in growing their
own food, whether they live in town or the country.
My son-in-law has a degree in Forest and Land
management with a specialization in Agroforestry, soils and plant propagation.
My son is a Seattle-based permaculture
designer with a focus on water management, native plants and wildlife gardens
and urban food forests.
My daughter is
the result of multi-generational gardeners – experienced in home food gardens,
preserving foods, cooking from garden to plate – if it can be grown, she can
figure out how to use it.
They have
experience in hydroponics and soil gardening and greenhouse management.
They are currently advertising on Craigslist in Skagit
County: http://skagit.craigslist.org/
So if this is the year that you want to start to do
something like this, before you run out and start buying books, or plants –
consider getting yourself a coach. Think
of it like this; if you were totally out of shape, and needed to start a
fitness regimen, you would get better results and lessen the risk of injury by
hiring a fitness coach. Same thing
here.
I am fortunate that I had the benefit of their expertise to
help set up my garden. My daughter and
son-in-law lived with me for two of the years he was going to Oregon State for
his forestry degree. I had both their
help in setting up my gardening area.
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| My son-in-law removing boxwood hedge |
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| Hedge replacement - great fence, and everbearing Raspberries |
My
son has blessed me with his expertise in permaculture and done the pruning of
my fruit trees.
My daughter has been a constant help to me with planting, picking, canning and someone to bounce ideas off of.
So when you look at
pictures of my garden in this blog, this isn’t something that I have just done
on my own. I have had three of the best
garden coaches there are to help me.
I love my garden! It is an inspiration to my neighbors, feeds my family, friends and neighbors, and is a constant source of satisfaction, wonder and delight!
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