By Christian Warren Freed
Ah, spring. Doesn’t it feel like we were just in the depths of winter? Suffering from the freezing temperatures and wondering why the entire county shut down for a little whiff of snow? Don’t get me wrong, I may have been born in Buffalo but there’s a reason I live down here now. So, I say, “Goodbye, winter,” and get ready to plunge into the planting and growing season.
Truthfully, if you haven’t already thought about which crops you want to grow and have not planted your seeds yet (for those of you who don’t cheat and buy the plants from Lowes or a garden center…ahem, like I used to), you’re a little behind the eight ball. Never fear though, North Carolina’s great weather usually means a growing season that lasts throughout the better part of the year.
To plant a simple vegetable garden, start with these two important questions: What do I want to grow and what is the best way to grow it?
Gardening has seen a rise in popularity over the past few years and many folks dive in without proper preparation. I reached out to Brian and Stephanie Lee of Homegrown By Lee’s Homestead for a little advice. This husband-and-wife team are raised garden bed masters who are spreading their knowledge across southern Wake County one customer at a time.
Getting Started
If you’re like me, and I think some of you are, you envision those big ole planter boxes in the backyard overflowing with abundant crops to alleviate your monthly grocery bill. Or maybe you prefer the simple, ground-level beds. Either way, cultivating the right combination of what to grow, the best soil to use, and ensuring your crops flourish is more than just a little hard work. It’s a labor of love requiring attention and flexibility.
The first step is knowing what hardiness zone we are in and what grows best. I’ll give you the first part. According to the USDA, Wake County is in zone 8a. A bunch of scientists routinely evaluate temperatures in winter and averages, so this fluctuates every few years or so. Regardless, we happen to be in a pretty fertile area with a long growing season.
The most important thing to remember is to keep it simple. Raised beds are great, but they need to be placed for maximum sun exposure and take a lot of maintenance to keep out the weeds over the course of the growing season.
Containers work fine and are great for individual crops. Plus, they can be perfect for small spaces and can be moved around as needed. In a container, you have complete control over the soil whereas a raised bed still sits on the ground, so you may find weeds to be an issue.
Hardware stores and nurseries sell dirt to go with your plants. Nurseries will be a little more expensive, but the people are more knowledgeable than if you go to a big-box store. Choosing the right dirt, or soil, is based on what you’re growing. Fortunately, this information is easily accessible.
Determining Which Crops to Plant and When
Before we get too deep into all this, there are a few more things you need to consider. First is the need for pollinators. I know bees can be a nuisance, but they are vital to ensuring cross-pollination between your crops. You can go to any local nursery and ask which plants or flowers are best to attract these little heroes. We personally like to use Lamb’s Ear.
Next, you need to research what can be planted next to each other and what should be separated. Some vegetables absorb a lot of water and if you plant them too close together you risk killing your crops before they produce. Cucumbers, for instance, require much more water than tomatoes or peppers.
Growing seasons differ based on location. I usually plant my seeds in small containers and grow them inside or in the garage under a heat lamp starting in early February and transfer them out to the garden once they’ve grown substantially and the danger of frost has passed. (This part is tricky since we always seem to have that one nasty week this time of year to remind us that our winters are seldom bad.)
Just like pruning back your roses should happen around March 1, try planting your garden after Easter. This ensures the bad weather is gone and the worst you have to worry about is the dastardly yellow clouds of pollen spiking antihistamine sales.
Ultimately, deciding what to plant should be based on what you like to eat, and which crops are, reportedly, easiest for new gardeners to grow. And that leads us to your next consideration.
Seeds or Plants?
Whether you choose to start from scratch with a packet of seeds (knowing some won’t sprout) or purchase developing plants — seedlings — is an individual choice based on your confidence level. With certain crops, you stand a better chance of success starting with seedlings because they are stronger and have an established root system.
Plenty of crops are easy enough to grow from seeds, however. These are your basic lettuce, carrots, green beans, and peas. Tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and other climbing/vine vegetables are easier bought already growing—unless you have a proven green thumb. Peppers are also fairly easy to grow from seedlings and are the gift that keep on giving. For vines, be prepared to rig up some sort of climbing apparatus. This can be as fancy as tomato cages or as simple as a string line or nearby fence.
Protection Against Pests, Drought, and More
Protecting your garden is a bigger chore than you might imagine. With the plethora of pests and wildlife in the area, and more being displaced thanks to the endless new construction, we find more deer, rabbits, and rodents than ever before. If you don’t have a fence to keep out the critters, you can try using store-bought deer and rabbit repellents; plant marigolds or garlic; or sprinkle the area or perimeter with black pepper, chili powder, pepper flakes, even human hair clippings. Some say these strong smells are enough to deter hungry yard visitors.
Of course, these won’t stop the onslaught of bugs. We go the safer, more organic way with things like Neem Oil or, even easier, boiling orange peels and spraying the liquid on our plants. The more you are in the garden, the faster you will notice when the bugs come to town. (Last year we found about a four-inch-long tomato hornworm hanging out on one of our plants. That thing could have eaten the entire plant if we didn’t catch him.)
Count on most of your garden needing six to eight hours of sunlight every day, and water according to the requirements of the crops you’re growing.
Caring for a garden is some work, but it keeps you rooted with the world and outside when so much of our time is spent behind a screen or keyboard. Gardening isn’t an exact science, so ask questions. As we were reminded by the Lees, every farmer or gardener has good seasons and bad seasons; that’s simply a fact. But the more time you spend cultivating, weeding, checking the soil moisture, pruning the dead leaves, and harvesting your ripe vegetables, the more knowledge you will gain.
You’ll know you did it right when you dig into that homemade salsa or taste that salad laden with freshly picked produce and relish the fact that it’s better than anything you’ll find in a restaurant or grocery store. We even grow a few herbs that not only taste great, but we dehydrate them to keep their freshness. And they are so much better than anything you can buy. What if I told you freshly dehydrated oregano isn’t brown…?
Resources
Still lacking the confidence to tackle this on your own? Check out our friends Stephanie and Brian: www.homegrownbyleeshomestead.com. If you are ready to dive in, here are a few resources I picked up from the bookstore to get me rolling:
Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet: Inventive Ideas for Growing Food in a Small Space, available through Penguin Random House
The Kitchen Garden: A Month-By-Month Guide to Growing Your Own Fruits and Vegetables, by Alan Buckingham
