New to gardening? Do not worry. Gardens have been around since the dawn of humanity. There is always a fancy new tech toy coming out, but one thing that has always stayed tried, and true... A GARDEN. In this week's post, we are going to walk you through the foundation of every garden. Most of us connect gardening with having space to do it in, but from a window sill, to acres of land, we are going to spell out the simple steps to growing where YOU live.
Lets take a look at some of Mother Nature's Rules:
1. Sun
The first step to growing where you reside is sun. The sun is the main principle to growing. All plants require sun, water, nutrients, and care. But some plants require less water, nutrients, and care... But the one thing they cannot live without is sun.
Plants need the sun for a number of reasons; but the two main reasons are:
- Germination
- Photosynthesis
*Now... a quick note: Do not confuse direct sunlight, for daylight. Most plant's require a certain amount of daylight, but NOT necessarily direct sun.
The sun is an abundant resource, one that does not require acres of space to use. So, as long as you have the sun, we can proceed to the next step of having a garden.
2. Soil
Now that we have gone outside, and seen that the Sun is still there, we can move on to our next rule.
Do you have soil? Well... if you an apartment dweller, that answer may be NO! But, have no fear. We can still grow. If you happen to live in a house, condo, or have acreage, you more than likely have soil. But our city dwelling friends, may not. The most important thing here is: IS YOUR SOIL HEALTHY? If you have an apartment, or land, you actually are at an advantage. You can control the quality of your soil. Those with land to grow on, must take extra steps to controlling the quality of their soil. If you are apartment living, your soil will come in the form of container gardening. This can be an old milk jug, to an elaborate system of pots, and containers. No matter what you choose, anything that contains soil will do.
If you happen to have land to grow on, again, healthy soil is key. Just throwing seeds in the ground will work, but you may not be happy with your yield. The Earth is teeming with tiny microbes, constantly feeding on organic material, turning out a Carbon rich environment for healthy vegetables, fruits, and herbs to grow. This rich environment that is produced, helps create optimal growing environments for these bounties to grow. So make sure you have healthy soil, by adding compost to your soil. You can find a previous blog post on compost here: Our Proprietor explains Compost
ONWARD!!!
3. Water
We are going to all assume you know what water is. There are a few quick keys to cover, when explaining water. First, we want to conserve water. So at Artisan Farm Company, we suggest harvesting rainwater. More importantly, when watering, you want to water infrequently. Overwatering can create an environment for root rot, and a host of all other diseases. So it is best that you water when needed. This helps your edibles root system "Dive", and grow healthy, disease free root systems. We know you have access to daylight, and we are positive you can find a container to grow in, but water is becoming more scarce these days. So if you have access to water, we advise being smart with it. By taking one less shower per week, you can save all the water you would need for your month of gardening. We can save the debate of city tap water, versus filtered water for another day. Assuming you have water, we move forward.
4. Food (Nutrients)
You wouldn't workout without putting food back in your body? Your plants have the exact same needs as you. There are many ways to feed your plants.
- Organic Fertilizers
- Compost Tea
- Vermicomposting
But the easiest way to give your plants their much needed boost of energy is by using compost in your soil. This is as easy as buying a bag of compost, and adding it to your soil. To keep you informed, we will cover all types of composting in the near future. But, to make it easy, and correlate with the ease of city growing, just add compost to your soil, that is rich in organic material. For our apartment friends, do not fret; good compost is odorless. So if you are growing on a window sill, there is no need to fear of the "farm" smell.
And that is it. You have now completed Garden's 101. We have been growing since the beginning of time, so do not worry. It is in your D.N.A. to grow. Just put your hands in the Earth. Your intuition will help you the rest of the way. We are here for any questions you may have. And we look forward to sharing more with you next week. You can find great resources on our social media sites, and do not forget to sign up for our newsletter, which covers great tips, and secrets to having a flourishing "FARM-SCAPE"™