Brand New to Gardening Outside

[akivalocal]

Hello Everyone,


I'm brand new to gardening outside, and I have no idea where to start. I'm hoping to grow some broccoli, onion, squash, maybe some kale. Anyone have suggestions for where I should start? A bit about my climate: I'm in Minnesota and seem to have good soil (plenty of flowers and one rhubarb plant from the previous homeowners that takes over the garden in the summer). 

Do I need to till before I plant? (And how do I till?) Suggestions for where to get seeds? I know so little, but I very much want to get started. I'd appreciate any advice! 

Thanks!
Akiva

[Sher]

Welcome, Akiva!

That's a very big question that is very difficult to answer briefly. I can't think of a short answer.

My advice would be to start with a small, manageable size garden that would be easy to tend and learn as you go.

I have had the most success with Square Foot Gardening.  It produces a tremendous amount of food in small spaces. Corinne and Shawn love growing in Earthbox containers.

But you need some instructions on how to build good soil and provide all the nutrients and conditions the plants need to be successful. And how to manage pests that would destroy your crop.  For instance, your fairy tale eggplant will be attacked by flea beetles outside. So you need to decide whether to grow it to maturity in your Bounty, or how to take care of it outdoors.

Take a look at this article. If you like the sound of it, then I would highly recommend that you buy the book and go that route. It's as close to foolproof as you can get.

gardenerspath.com/how-to/design/guide-to-square-foot-gardening/

We can help you with Aerogardening and transplanting individual plants from there to containers outside. But I doubt anyone here could answer your questions on how to start an outdoor garden from scratch.

So glad you are here.  You are starting on one of the most rewarding pursuits that I have known.

[akivalocal]

Hi Sher!

Thanks for the resource! I'm looking through it, and I like the idea a lot, but I'm hoping to plant directly in my own soil outside, and it seems like the square foot gardening method requires raised beds? 

I'm definitely not going to bring my fairy tale eggplant outside; I'm way too scared of pests for those delicate little babies. I'm trying to do a few things in indoor Aerogardens (right now I've got eggplant in one Bounty and bell peppers in another), and then do what I imagine are more "robust" things outside. Of course I have no idea what I'm doing and am frantically googling as I go along.

I looked at the Earthboxes, and those seem interesting! Have you ever used them yourself?

[Sher]

Have I ever used Earthboxes?

I bought 10 of them over 20 years ago and have 7 on my front deck and 3 out of my back door right now. They have been outside in the weather year round. They are a little scuffed up, but as strong and as sturdy as when they were new.

I used the whole Earthbox system for a couple of years. It is phenomenal! But I really like just using them as self watering containers. They are like mini square foot gardens. I VERY highly recommend them. That's where I transfer my Aerogarden starts.

I use a mixture of 1/3 container potting soil, 1/3 coco coir (you could also use peat moss, but coco coir holds water better) and 1/3 Black Kow compost in each box. Then I mix in a good granulated fertilizer for immediate feeding, some organic fertilizer for healthy soil (optional), a little Epsom salts (magnesium) and a little horticultural lime, although with my soil it's not essential. Then when the plants have been growing a while, I add a little liquid fertilizer when I water to give them boosts as needed.

It's kind of expensive, but when you figure in the cost of fresh produce and the sheer joy of gardening, it is so worth it.

For several years I canned, froze and dehydrated almost all of our vegetables from three 4'x4' square foot gardens and the 10 Earth Boxes.  And I raised my own chickens. I loved it!

I only stopped because we got a camper and started  traveling extensively. Then I was diagnosed with COPD, and am really slowing down.

The Earth Boxes would be an ideal introduction to dirt gardening the first year.  You could learn so much. Then you could transfer that knowledge to a real, honest-to-goodness yard garden.

[Shawn]

Welcome to the forum!

I can not help you one bit in outdoor gardening.  I have a black thumb with that.  Ok I seems to be able to grow flowers in pots only LOL

I read you have a Bounty and are growing fairytales.  I have not grown them. However do a search on the forum to see if others (besides Dianne) have grown and how their projects went.

I look forward to seeing your garden grow and hearing from you more on the forum

[akivalocal]

Thanks for the info on Earthboxes, Sher! It's good to hear that they're so durable. After investing in my Aerogardens, though, I don't have that much to put into new outdoor gardening equipment beyond what I already have (plus a few small things, like a rain gauge). The Earthboxes will sadly have to wait for another time. 

And hi Shawn! I will definitely do a search and check for more on the eggplant. I'm also growing peppers in another Bounty, and waiting on my Harvest to arrive so I can start some lettuce. As you can see, I'm all in in growing things. It's giving me projects to do and things to look forward to right now, which is what I need. 

I did spend about 2-3 hours in the garden today! Mostly getting rid of dead things. My garden was so insane that you'd believe it if someone told you it was where they filmed the original "Grey Gardens."

I forgot to take a "before" picture, but just imagine the "after" picture...except that there are about 8 elm tree saplings, lots of very spikey brambles, and dead weeds 5 feet high. So it's still not much, but it's a big improvement! (Just don't look at neighbor's neat little plot behind the fence).

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You can see my rhubarb over on the left, behind the bowling balls (which my spouse insisted on having as "décor"). The rhubarb has grown every summer ever since we got the house, but I've never harvested any because I dislike rhubarb so much. A friend is coming to dig it out on Tuesday (a safe distance from me, of course, who will watch encouragingly from the porch). 

Later this week I plan to rip everything else out - except the flowers growing in the back - and hopefully plant my new veggies! I'm hoping to get some seedlings from the local gardening supply place. 

I'm feeling...cautiously optimistic?

[Sher]

What a lovely, lovely garden spot!

When you said you wanted an outdoor garden, I was picturing a huge garden like my Dad used to grow with rows and furrows.

You can do this!  I am cheering you on!

[akivalocal]

Thanks, Sher! What a heartwarming thing to read. I am quite pleased with it as well. Of course there's still a lot of work to be done, but you could actually imagine it becoming  a real garden, so that's something!


Yes, it's a small area to start; about 10 x 10. There's another area the same size on the other side of the path, but I'm not tackling that this year. I certainly have no ambitions for a garden like your father's, though it does sound amazing!

[Shawn]

Nice area to get your garden going.  I wish I was able to do that.  I tried a few times in my life and they never worked LOL.  I guess I do not have my great grandmas touch.  She had a huge garden in her yard tht I would help her with.  That gene I did not pick up

[akivalocal]

Thanks Shawn! And you clearly don't have a black thumb: look at how well you tend to your Aerogardens!

I'm lucky that there's no online school today (I'm an elementary school teacher), so I've spent some time researching different kinds of gardens. I've decided to go with the Three Sisters method. This is a traditional Native practice for growing corn, beans, and squash in Minnesota, so I figure it'll be well-suited to the soil I have. You can read more about it and watch a video on The Old Farmer's Almanac.

Today/tomorrow/Wednesday I'm planning to create my mounds. So I'll have to rip out everything, turn over the soil, and mound it. I'll post a picture when I'm done!

[Shawn]

Thanks but outside gardens I still stink.  LOL  AG's I do much better with.

I look forward to seeing how your sisters method comes along.  Keep us posted.

[akivalocal]

Updated pictures! Today I spent a good 2 hours after work out there mucking around. I'm not really sure what I'm doing, but I figure clearing out the weeds and turning over the earth can't hurt. I thought I'd be able to get everything done today....ha! But I feel like I made some good progress. Or maybe I didn't! I have no context for any of this, haha. 


Take a look at my old post for some context...and then here it is after a few hours of work today!

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Sher, how does it look to your more expert eyes? I'm hoping to clear the rest out tomorrow. I'll leave the flowers growing in the back; they become pretty little tulips every year. But hopefully I'm doing the right thing?

Shawn hope you're doing well, too!

[Sher]

Akiva, you are doing a fantastic job. When you finish it, you will already have the dirt turned over.

Then you can rake it smooth, add a layer of compost, sprinkle on fertilizer, spade it in lightly, and you should be ready to plant anything that strikes your fancy!

I am really surprised and thrilled with your progress!

[akivalocal]

May 5, 2020 19:53:24 GMT -5 Sher said:

Akiva, you are doing a fantastic job. When you finish it, you will already have the dirt turned over.

Then you can rake it smooth, add a layer of compost, sprinkle on fertilizer, spade it in lightly, and you should be ready to plant anything that strikes your fancy!

I am really surprised and thrilled with your progress!

Thanks Sher! I'm so happy you think I'm doing well. It's nice to talk to someone about this project, especially since no one I know in real life knows much about gardening. Thanks for the tips about what to do next! I'll have to see about getting some fertilizer from the local store. 

I was actually surprised how much fun it was to attack things with my shovel. And I felt very pleased when I finally vanquished The Giant Elm Tree Root. Took me forever. You can see it sticking up by the bowling balls in my first picture. And now...I have finally vanquished it! It's sitting on a pile of other roots, twigs, and dead plant matter I pulled out.

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I can only hope the weather holds up the rest of the week! It's summer everywhere else, but with Minnesota you never know!

Hopefully I'll have another update soon.

[Sher]

There is something about working in soil, wrestling its challenges, and creating a garden that can soothe anxiety and tension and give a sense of accomplishment that no other activity can do, I believe.

Maybe something in our genes that says, "This is a good thing."

My mom says it's because we were created to live in a garden.

Good luck with that Minnesota weather!

[akivalocal]

Thank you, @cornne! I ordered some on your recommendation. Thanks for the tip! If you have any more, I'm all ears. 

On to today's garden update! Another 2-3ish hours well spent. I dug up the rest of the garden and decided to expand it a bit, too. And thanks to Shawn, I now know how to embed photos so show you all the journey thus far. (Hopefully I'm doing it right!)

As a reminder, here's what it looked like after I pulled out the 5 foot weeds (really wish I'd taken a picture of that).



And here it is today!



I even decided to expand it past the bench you can see on the right. So here is a view of the entire garden! (Complete with a very exciting view of my garage).



I can thank Sher for tomorrow's project: check over everything to make sure I didn't miss any plants, tear those out, and rake, rake, rake. After that I'll see about getting some compost and fertilizer like you suggested, Sher. I have no idea what I'm doing there, either. Any tips?

Also today: I bought seeds! I've been doing a lot of research on native Minnesota plants. I found this amazing place: Prairie Moon Nursery. They sell Minnesotan prairie plants that you can't find anywhere else, and that also help protect our local prairie environment. I'm very excited. After some research, I ordered:

- Prairie turnips (also known as timpsula)
- Nodding Onion

- Showy Wild Garlic

- Wild Strawberry

- Rose Mallow


I also bought some summer squash and amaranth from a different vendor. To round things out, I'm hoping to get a blackberry bush and some prairie onion from my local garden supply store. It's a slight departure from my three sisters idea, but I realized that the corn would give me very low yield for the amount of space it'd take up. So I opted for tall amaranth instead. I plan to plant the amaranth and squash in the longer, thinner part of the garden, and put the rest of the veggies in the bigger plot.

How will it go? No one knows! I've got to read up on seed sowing and spacing. My showy wild garlic is coming as a "bare root plant," so I've got to figure out what to do with that. Gah! So much to do. But it's so nice to have a project. After a long day of teaching school online, I couldn't wait to get outside into the garden this afternoon. And now I feel quite happy and content. 

Thanks for reading, everyone! I'd be so grateful for any feedback, tips, or even just to chat. 

[Sher]

The difference is staggering!  I am so proud of you!

The rose mallow is what we call hardy hibiscus. The flowers are stunning.

I am not familiar with the prairie turnip.  Since I have been interested in wild edibles for years, I will enjoy watching it grow.

I also am not familiar with showy wild garlic. We have field garlic that grows wild in our backyard in spring and fall, then goes dormant in the summer. It has little bulbs about the size of my small fingernail, plus little "pearls" of garlic on the top of the plant when it flowers.

I'm not sure what nodding onions are. I just did an image search and it looks like they have the little bulblets at the top, too.

We have wild strawberries growing at one edge of our yard (edge of a forest). They are darling little plants. They bear tiny little strawberries in the spring that are the sweetest little strawberries I have ever tasted.

I have dreamed of planting a foragers garden for years, but have always settled for the regular old standbys.

I am wishing you the garden of your dreams!

[Shawn]

You have done a wonderful job clearing and expanding.  Looking forward to seeing a very full happy garden.

[akivalocal]

Well, I have a nice big update! Sher, @cornne, and Shawn, would love to hear any thoughts/tips based on my pictures and descriptions!

I've decided to put in some berry bushes to go with my wild strawberries. So here they are! The far one is a raspberry, and the two closer ones are blueberry bushes. (Or at least I hope they'll become blueberry bushes someday).

Sorry for the poor photo quality! Anyway, I got some lovely compost and put that all around the roots and some up top, on the advice of the folks at the garden center. I also gave them a nice watering so they can establish their roots.

I decided to put my wild strawberry patch close to my blueberries. So here they are!

And here's another view of just the strawberries.

Next, I planted some prairie onion next to the strawberries. I decided to go with the prairie onion because I found it at the garden center; my nodding onion requires some special treatment before it will germinate (more on that later). Anyway, here's a view of the wild strawberries with the onions.

And here's a close-up one of the onions.

My other seeds have also all come in! My amaranth, which you can see below, is going to go in the far area of the garden. Hopefully I'll plant those tomorrow! Or maybe I should start them in the Aerogarden? But they supposedly germinate super easily; you just sprinkle them on the ground and top with a bit of compost. So maybe it's unnecessary to do an Aerogarden start/

My prairie turnip seeds have arrived! They are currently chilling out in the fridge because there's some special treatment they need to get.

Sher, listen to this! I think you'll find it interesting. When my prairie turnip seeds arrived, they came with a germination code. It says:

"Seeds germinate after a period of cold, most stratification. Mix with equal amounts or slightly more damp sand, vermiculite, or other horticultural-use medium. Moisten the mixture slowly to a moist but not wet consistency. You should not be able to squeeze any excess out. Place seed-medium mix in a labeled, sealed plastic bag and sore in a refrigerator. Stratify for the number of days indicated in parentheses (10 days for prairie turnips)."

So, I went and bought myself some vermiculite! I plan to get started tomorrow. Needless to say I'm a bit nervous. Have you ever done cold, moist stratification before, Sher? Any tips? Or @cornne, maybe this is something you know how to do?

I'm so excited! Hopefully everything works out the way I want. I can't wait to get my amaranth and turnips in. And my showy wild garlic bare roots are on their way!  If I have space, I might also add some hopniss (groundnut) that I ordered. 

[Sher]

I am amazed at your forager's wild plants garden. I have read of a few people growing wild edibles, but I have never seen such a well- rounded selection.  What a worthy project. Because they are native they should not have to be babied once established.

Wild blueberries grow along our rural roadsides. So do blackberries and wild muscadine grapes. When we first moved here I would forage them extensively. I'n not too big on jams, but blackberry or blueberry cobbler is awesome. We are too far south for raspberries.

I think the wild onion is a better choice than the nodding onion. You should get a better quality eating onion.

No, amaranth should not need an aerogarden start. It, along with lamb's quarters, grow wild here. They are considered weeds by most people.  How tall does the package say yours will get? Our wild amaranth stays fairly small, but some varieties get massive.

And hopniss!!! We also have it growing wild on a streambed about a half mile from our house! It might need more water than the other plants. I don't know. I'm basing that on the fact that I have only found it growing near streams. Boiled in heavily salted water, then tossed with butter and parsley, it is superb!

Yes, I have done stratification. Sometimes they tell you to put them in the freezer. It depends on the plant.

I have eaten wild mustard, but have never heard of wild turnips. That must also be a northern plant only.  Are they cool weather plants and do they go dormant in midsummer, or are they year round?

You are actually doing something I only dreamed of doing!

Great job!!!