Recession Gardening: Starting A Garden Anywhere

The first thing to do is to make a list of what type of fruits or vegetables your family eats the most.

The next thing is to establish your lifestyle: This helps determine how much time you have to devote to maintaining your garden. Include other people in your household: children partners etc. Talk to them about your intentions and the benefits of gardening. Let Farmophobes know that they need not cringe. Get them to do simple stuff like spray organic insecticides or water the garden if they rather not get their hands dirty. If your farmophobe is a kid, ignore their protests as the benefits will not be reaped until they see the end results.
Kids have the most to gain both health wise, educationally and mere social consciousness. I know this because i have three two of which i battled with and one who simply joined our flow when it came to gardening.More importantly i am a working mom who has only been doing this for 2 years!
Make a seasonal schedule e.g one that includes only the months in the season. Add the names of the participants. Define what each activity involves at the back so all the participant has to do is turn the sheet over and they know what to do when their "turn to tend" comes up.
E.G Watering(W) could be described as: "Water and soak garden patch once weekly. Thyme & rosemary need not be soaked"

Get an old plastic container and start stockpiling all your fruit and vegetable scraps only. Please do not add any dairy or flour based products.

Choose a spot: Do you have ground space or container space? I do both because healthy eating is something that cannot be forced it is a slow process and a habit that is formed over time. Also having both is just more convenient.
Sunshine is key so find a sunny spot.

How Much Can You Spend? Spending more does not necessarily mean your garden will yield more; You must spend wisely initially to get a good yield hence the term you reap what you sow. Plan to spend the most on the soil and natural pest & weed prevention and of course organic fertilizers.

The Quality of your soil is key: Fast draining rich soil is essential(not too much sand/clay). Organic nutrient rich top soil is a VERY important investment.

Plant or Seeds? Seeds are great if you have time, kids or handle disappointment well.:-). For folks with kids, it is an invaluable learning process; Their little hands can feel the texture of the seeds, plant and watch the growing process. They can even photograph and keep a log. My 2nd & 5th grader aced this part of science recently just because of this learning experience. Also they learn the life skill involved with dealing with disappointment: Not every seed will sprout which is another disadvantage but seeds are by far the cheapest route. Later i will give you tips on which plants almost always sprout from seeds.

Plants / Seedlings provide instant gratification if like me you don't have time or patience or you are a beginner. They cost more but the success rate is higher by far. The smaller the plant the better. Once you transplant it, the plant adapts and thrives better.

My next entry I will introduce myself & the reasons that led me down this road...

qkajhng8eu

Recession Gardening