I admit that even though it is still bitterly cold where I
live, I have been dreaming of gardening again. Maybe it’s the longer days with more sunlight. Maybe it’s the garden supplies and the seeds that I am starting to see in stores, or my seed catalogs
calling my name on my desk. Maybe
it’s the microgreens that I started growing about a week ago in front of my
living room window. Or perhaps
it’s merely due to the fact that I am just getting tired of the cold and dreary weather
of winter.
Whatever the reason, I am quite ready for Spring to
arrive. It will still be awhile
before I can actually get things growing in my garden, probably about 2½-3
months from now (I envy you, Warm-Climate-Dwellers!), but I can start planning
and preparing for the coming garden season now.
As I was
thinking about springtime and gardening, I thought that I would share with you
some great resources to help you start planning for your garden too. I advocate organic and ecological
gardening methods here at Day by Day
Homesteading, so the following resources have that focus.
1.
Best
Tips for Starting Seeds Indoors from Mother Earth News- This is a great
article to learn the basics of seed starting, and I even learned a few new tips
myself from reading it. To learn more about seed
starting, you can also read my
post on seed starting that I wrote last February.
2. Healthy Soil- I cannot
stress enough that healthy soil is so much more than just a place to hold your
plants. Healthy soil is an entire complex
ecosystem! If you don’t have
healthy living soil, you won’t have very healthy plants. Healthy soil is good for the plants
themselves and for you when you eat those healthy plants. Restoring Your Soil:
Tips to Make Your Garden Greener from Gaiam Life gives many good tips on
how to improve your soil for a healthy and more productive garden.
3. Sheet
Mulching (also known as “Lasagna Gardening”)- Sheet mulching is a great way
to build healthy soil quickly using layers of different organic
materials. To see great
examples of how easy it is to use this method, watch these videos. A tip: If you have a choice to use hay or
straw as one of your layers, I recommend using straw instead of hay. The difference between these is that hay contains seeds,
which you don’t want in whatever mulch you will be growing in.
4. No Dig Gardening-
A good gardening method to dramatically reduce weeding, and increase soil
fertility and productivity.
5. Straw Bale Gardening- This gardening
method can be used to grow plants just about anywhere- even on rooftops! I personally used this innovative gardening
technique to grow
my very first garden, and it worked beautifully! I highly recommend that if you would like to explore this
gardening technique that you buy the book Straw
Bale Gardens by author Joel Karsten to use as a reference.
6. Herb Spiral- permaculture
(video)- I really love my
herb spiral! With an herb
spiral, you can grow many plants in a small space, and it allows you to take
advantage of microclimates that exist within the spiral to grow a variety of
plants that have different growing requirements.
I especially enjoy growing herbs in mine, but you can
certainly grow a variety of plants in an herb spiral, including lettuce and
strawberries! One of the many
great things about an herb spiral is that it can be constructed in less
than a day.
7. Making a keyhole
garden bed- Keyhole beds are nice because the design allows you to reach everything
from either the center of your garden or from the outside, as well as reducing
the amount of space that you would otherwise devote to paths. Many folks are even creating raised versions of these garden beds so that they don't need to bend over when they work in their garden or harvest.
In Lesotho, they are building the raised bed versions to help families grow their own food despite the drought conditions that often occur there and to prevent soil erosion as they grow crops.
Check out the
keyhole bed that I created last year.
8. Hugelkultur- An interesting name, but a very cool
concept for building a raised garden bed!
The concept involves burying a pile of wood logs and then growing your
plants on the sides and the top of that “mound.” The result is a raised garden bed that holds moisture extremely
well, and creates a very productive growing space.
This is something that I haven’t tried yet, but I have a
tree in my backyard that was trimmed last fall (with all of the logs just
sitting back by my garage right now), so I am thinking that this would be a
perfect way to use at least some of that wood!
9. Small-Space
Gardening- I am a firm
believer that everyone can grow something,
no matter how much space you have.
Even growing microgreens, sprouts indoors or herbs in pots on your windowsill is still something that
you don’t have to buy from the store and that you will know how it was grown. And, it will actually be fresh when you eat it, unlike most of
the produce in grocery stores that was harvested days ago (if it’s even that fresh). I have a lot of interest in growing things in smaller
spaces, since I don’t have the largest yard, but I am also interested in how we
all can make our lives more sustainable wherever we live, including in urban
areas.
10. Permaculture- Ah permaculture, how
do I love thee? Permaculture is
what helped bring me from a doom and gloom outlook to one where there is hope
and empowerment to help change the world (although I still do have my moments
of frustration with the status quo from time to time). Yes, it involves gardening techniques,
such as many of those that I have described above, but it is also an entire
design approach for living more in harmony with nature.
Our world today is wrapped up in a lot of fear mongering,
and many times, we are tempted to feel powerless to stop the horrible things
that are happening. Permaculture
offers many practical solutions to help us meet many of our challenges that we
face in today’s world. To
learn more, I highly encourage you to check out the permaculture link above, as
well as the post that I wrote about Why
Permaculture is Truly Awesome.
Are you inspired yet?
I can’t wait to start planting, can you?
No comments:
Post a Comment