Hello and welcome to Crest Gardens Blog/Journal,
This post gives me a chance to share my passion of gardening and writing. I hope this spring awakening finds you all in great health and looking forward to growing your own food and outdoor entertainment and pleasure!
I'm learning that there are a lot of people who don't have much experience gardening but would like to start. So, I'm sharing my 8-step process to planting salad vegetables (always the first crops of the spring season)! Salad vegetables germinate quickly, grow and mature quickly, and are relatively simple to care for.
So, here was my brainstorming for this article along with the spot I had in mind:
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These eight steps assume you have a place to plant a garden. My area is a fenced in garden spot I've grown vegetables in for two years now. It is in an ideal location - gets between 6 - 8 hours of direct sunlight per day throughout the growing season. If you don't have a garden spot, you may also use
planting boxes or pots on your driveway, porch or patio. These are the vegetables I selected to start
I've taken snapshots of each of the eight steps from my mind-map (made in above picture with sticky notes) Prior to beginning the first step, you should have all of your tools available. The wheelbarrow picture with all of my tools was taken after I emptied out the compost. If you don't have a compost pile/heap, I highly encourage you to start one today - the organic matter placed back into the garden helps nourish your vegetables and is a better alternative than chemicals. :
STEP 3 - Fold the Cover STEP 4 - Mix Vigorously STEP 5 - Drop Seeds (Spacing)
In step 1, I use a heavy garden rake to pull the top three to four inches of soil back. Step 2 involves
using your shovel to distribute your compost (if you don't have a compost heap you can buy compost
at local retailers). In Step 3, 'Fold the Cover' is just using the rake to pull the soil you removed back
over the compost that you spread over the open bed. In Step 4, I use my blue 'claw' tool to mix the
soil cover with the compost layer. I used the length of my shoe as the width to press the soil down between the areas I intend to plant seeds to give me room to walk in between the rows and harvest.
STEP 6 - Cover Wisely STEP 7 - Water In STEP 8 - Mark Row or Document
In Step 5 - you need to pay attention to the size of the seed (and future size of each plant--identified
on the seed packet) to know how to space the seeds. In Step 6 follow the packet instructions to
know how much soil to use to cover cover the seeds. Some seeds come with a protective pelletized
covering (that includes some fertilizer to help the seeds germinate and grow). The seeds in the
picture in Step 6 are lettuce seeds. After covering the seeds, I using a hose or watering can to give
these promises of hope their first drink of water. You'll want to make sure that you keep the seed
beds moist until you notice the seeds have sprouted. Be sure to stay aware of night time
temperatures, and make sure the soil has a chance to dry out before nightfall if temps dip at or below
freezing. Lastly, in Step 8, make sure that you mark the rows or document as you plant each row so
you can keep track of your planting date. I have an electronic device called a Remarkable I use to
document my gardening projects so I can keep track of dates, days to germination, watering
schedules, and first harvest information. I use all of this information to judge which seed companies
to order from the following year. I also rarely keep seeds for longer than three years before buying
fresh seed.
In my next blog post, I'll cover my indoor seed planting and small greenhouse planting processes so
you can get an idea of the steps I take to ensure the more heat-loving vegetables get an early start to
to the growing season.
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