It’s Never Too Early To Start Planning Your Backyard
Garden
by Liz Wertz
The skies are grey. The air is crisp. It was not too long
ago that I was immersed in a holiday agenda full of parties with friends in
crazy sweaters, a Hannukah dinner with fresh potato latkes and a few Christmas
celebrations with gag gifts ranging from an expired canned ham to jade plants
and a selfie stick. After I celebrated the New Year with a massive midnight
balloon drop in the lobby of a 21-story hotel, it finally sunk in--2016 is
officially here. While many might associate this time of the year with
dedicating your lives to those New Year’s resolutions you made, making
reservations for Valentine’s Day or planning your kids’ spring break trip, it
is also time to start thinking about your spring and summer backyard gardens!
Now you may ask, “How did she know it was time to start
doing some garden planning?” No, I haven’t been calculating moon cycles, I
simply received my copy of the latest Johnny Selected Seeds catalog in the
mail. Thank you USPS for reminding me that growing season is right around the
corner!
This will be the third year I’ve grown produce in raised
beds in the backyard of my Fall Creek Place house. After the end of each year,
I’m always a little mad at myself that I wasted some important growing time by
not being organized. Rather than take advantage of seeding cool weather crops
in early (like radishes and carrots) spring or starting some warm weather
loving veggies from seeds in my makeshift grow lab in my guest bedroom, I’m too
overwhelmed with the mere task of organizing my brain to organize my garden.
Have no fear! I am here to remind you that it’s never too early to plan. Even if you claim yourself as someone who
“can never keep a plant alive, ever!,” I dare you (nay, double dog dare you!)
to test your hand at gardening this year. Here are a few things I’ve learned in
my minimal backyard gardening experience:
Dear Diary… Keep
a Garden Journal. I dropped the ball on this my first growing season, but did a
few entries this past summer. I dated each entry and listed what seeds I put
in, wrote some notes about the current weather and commented on how each plant
was growing throughout the season. This year, I’ll use my 2015 notes to determine
what plants to grow again, which ones to ditch and change up the layout of my
raised beds. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just something you can
reference from season to season. Any notebook or pad of paper will do, but you
should consider treating yourself to a handmade notebook from local artists
that can be found at Mass Ave shops like Silver in the City and Homespun.
To seed or not to
seed. Some things are worth growing from seed, others are not. If you’re a
beginner gardener, there is no shame in buying starts (plants started by seeds
from others and then sold once they’re big enough to transplant into the
ground). Growing Places Indy, along with other vendors, will be selling a wide
variety of starts at the Indy Winter Farmers Market, which relocated to the
Near Eastside in the Circle City Industrial Complex (1125 E Brookside Ave,
doors G10 and G11) in April. If you do want to dabble with growing some plants
from seed, check out local places like Pogue’s Run Grocer, Good Earth and
Habigs for non-GMO seeds. You can also buy seeds online. Growing Places Indy
uses Johnny’s Selected Seeds and also recommends vendors like Seed Savers
Exchange, Bakers Creek and FedCo.
· Note:
For those interested in ordering bulk starts (25+) from Growing Places Indy,
please contact Farm Manager Tyler at tyler@growingplacesindy.org by
March 15, 2016.
Start small. The
first season I grew veggies, I started with just a few plants (two tomatoes,
one cucumber, one jalapeno, one kale) and some herbs. Gardening is great, but
for beginners, can sometimes feel overwhelming. By focusing on just a few
plants when you are starting out, your plants are more likely to receive the
care they need and thrive by giving you a bountiful harvest.
Have fun! Will
every single thing you plant in your vegetable garden grow and flourish?
Probably not. Will you have fun, especially if you involve your family,
planning, planting, pruning and picking said veggie? Yes!
With all that being said, let’s get started on what we
should be doing NOW for those interested in growing backyard goodies this year.
1)
Scout a sunny
garden location. Whether you are ripping up grass, building a raised bed or
simply using some containers, it is important to scope out what area in your
yard gets the most sun.
·
Note:
The bare winter branches will have leaves that could potentially block sunny
spots in the spring/summer.
2)
Get good
soil. Soil is a living, thriving community and is crucial for healthy
plants. To determine if you can plant directly into the soil in your yard, it
is important to do a soil test. These tests include sending a sample of the
soil from your chosen future garden location to a lab where they will test for
harmful chemicals like lead. It is important to amend your soil with plenty of
organic matter filled with nutrients. Compost, leaves, manure and seaweed are
all additions that will greatly help soil thrive.
·
Note:
Manure added to your garden needs to be appropriately aged so it does not “burn”
seeds and starts and to kill potential pathogens. Cow, horse, rabbit and goat
are the best and safest choices to use.
·
Note:
For more information on getting your soil tested in Indianapolis, here are some
contacts Growing Places Indy recommends:
3)
Build your
bed. Did your soil test come back lead-positive? Raised beds and container
gardens are an excellent, lead-free option for growing vegetables. Raised beds
can be filled with top quality, chemical-free soil mixtures that you mix
yourself or buy from local landscaping companies. Raised beds can be created
from a variety of materials: cinder blocks, big landscaping rocks, hay bales
and wood. When using wood to build raised beds, it is important to buy
untreated wood only. This ensures your wood has not been pressure-treated, aka
there were no harmful chemicals sprayed onto the wood.
·
Note:
Laying down cardboard (plain, not fancy colored pieces) or newspaper is an
efficient way to kill grass in the area you wish to grow your garden. Added
bonus, the cardboard or paper will eventually decompose creating a layer of
compost. Compost = happy plants!
·
Note:
If you are incapable of building a raised bed, or if you want to try out
something new, consider doing a Google search for “lasagna gardening”. This is
a layering process that Growing Places Indy uses at our U-Pick site located at
the Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center and on our Public Greens site along the
Monon in Broad Ripple.
4)
Order
your seeds. If you plan on buying your seeds online, you can start ordering
them as early as now. Once you have a collection of seed envelopes, organize
them by sow date. Sowing simply means planting your seeds in the ground. For
reference, Growing Places Indy plans on sowing seeds (i.e. sugar snap peas,
radishes, greens like kale, mustards and spinach) directly into the ground as
early as the first week of March. If you want to dabble in growing your veggies
from seed this year, this is also the perfect time to start doing that. For
example, our GPI farm staff will be busy in the greenhouse seeding broccoli,
cabbage, celery, leeks, herbs, fennel, and greens throughout the month of
February that will be kept indoors, safe from the winter elements. Once the
threat of frost has passed (usually around Mothers’ Day), these greenhouse
seedlings will be transplanted outside.
While I am no expert, I hope this article helps all the
wannabe future urban farmers out there to close your laptop, pause the Netflix
binge watching, and silence your smart phones. It’s time to start planning your
garden! Growing your own food is an affordable, therapeutic, healthy and fun
way to bond with your family, neighbors and community.
“Growing food was the first activity that gave us enough
prosperity to stay in one place, form complex social groups, tell our stories,
and build our cities.” –Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Vegetable Miracle
Make sure you “like” Growing Places Indy and Indy Winter
Farmers Market on Facebook to stay up to date on the gardening workshops we
have planned throughout 2016.
Liz Wertz, a former Growing Places Indy apprentice,
currently works for GPI and the Indy Winter Farmers Market as their social
media strategist and Eat Well Coordinator.
