5 Steps to Beginning Your Own Vegetable Garden
April is the month we celebrate Earth Day. Soil is key to life on Earth. Food growth and compost are a natural life cycle that often gets disrupted by large agriculture using harmful chemicals to produce food as fast as possible. Buying organic is a great way to use your purchasing power, but you can also grow your own food at home! Here are Ferm Fatale’s 5 steps to beginning your own vegetable garden:
1). Look at your sun exposure: You need 3 hours of direct sunlight or consistent dappled sun throughout the day.
Know which veggies will thrive in different amounts of sunlight.
Here is a list of veggies that do best in partly shaded areas:
Lettuce
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Peas
Beets
Brussel sprouts
Radishes
Swiss chard
Greens
Beans
And here’s a list that thrive in full sun:
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Eggplant
Peppers
Squash
Corn
2). Look at your space. You might assume you do not have the space to start a veggie garden, but there are plenty of low-space options:
Container
Vertical
Ground (use fencing or chicken wire to keep out pests)
Raised Beds
3) Water—If it makes sense with the weather in your area, collect water in a rain barrel. Otherwise, you will want to use a hose or watering can. If you have a large garden, make sure you have a hose that can access all of your plants. Irrigation is obviously a great idea and more sustainable options are emerging.
Water your veggies twice a week early in the morning or later in the evening so the water does not evaporate off in the sun.
4) Plant—Before you plant, you will want to water your soil so it’s moist. If you are using seeds, it’s better to plant them in an egg carton and allow the seedlings to grow a little before transporting them to the larger bed of soil.
5) Nourish—Take care of the soil you are growing your veggies in! Create your own compost with food scraps using vermiculture (worms). Composting is classic fermentation at it’s finest. The natural fertilizer’s nutrients help hold water and air without the harmful chemicals AND your veggies will be less prone to pests and disease.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says food scraps make up 28% of household trash. When vegetable matter breaks down in a landfill, it leaks methane (a potent greenhouse gas) into the air. Composting is our way of fighting climate change beyond eradicating harmful chemicals which have destroyed modern agriculture and the collective environment.
So after you have fermented your veggies for healthy, delicious more bio-available food as medicine, put the scraps in the compost and restart this natural cycle of rot and growth while supporting the future of our planet Earth! Happy Earth Day friends. We hope that the rebirth of Spring brings you inspiration, growth, and passion…3 necessary nutrients to keep the soil of your Life abundant and fertile.
XO,
Julie