GROWING FROM SEED OR SEEDLINGS
Growing your own food and eating “garden to table” not only tastes better, but it is more nutritious as you are consuming the plants immediately after harvesting (vs. days or weeks later for supermarket greens). This is because plants start to lose their nutritious value once harvested, with some losing it faster than others. Jo Robinson’s Eating on the Wild Side provides an in-depth guide on the types of fruits and vegetables to eat fresh, which has been helpful for us to determine what foods to plant vs. buy.
“SIMPLE/QUICK”: The simplest and easiest way to grow fresh greens is to not have to grow them at all - but to forage! Not only are wild greens cheaper (free), but they are much more nutritious vs. domesticated greens primarily because they produce more phytonutrients, which are necessary to help them survive in an unprotected environment (so if you compare wild dandelions to domesticated dandelions, the wild variety will inherently be more nutritious). In addition, you also lose less nutrients because the time between harvest and consumption is typically much shorter (assuming you will consume same day or within the week) as compared to supermarket greens which may be traveling from another country. For more information on plant nutrients, we recommend Jo Robinson’s book Eating on the Wild Side.
We currently mostly forage greens from our own property (where we know it is safe and pesticide-free), to supplement produce from our garden and what we purchase from local farms and supermarkets. See our EAT section for 10 common, easy to recognize plants that you can start with, and recommended uses such as dandelion pesto.
“Slightly more involved”: If you are more comfortable eating from a conventional garden, then purchasing seedlings or transplants is one easy way to start a garden. Where possible, we purchase organic seedlings; however, we feel it is not critical to buy organic as long as we grow organically by using our own compost or purchased organic compost or soil (currently we use a mix of both as we are not producing enough compost). Plants that we purchase as seedlings are basics that we most often use in our dishes/cooking and teas:
Herbs: Basil, Mint, Thyme, Rosemary, Sage, Parsley, Dill, Cilantro.
Vegetables/Fruits: Kale (Red Russian, White Russian, Lacianto/Dinosaur), Swiss Chard, Mexican Sour Gherkins (grows easily and abundantly!), Tomatoes
What plant you select should depend on what you enjoy or will consume the most, how much space you have, and how much sun you have access to.
We use a combination of garden beds and pots, both of which serve specific purposes and are easy to set-up:
Pots: We started with planting herbs (e.g. basil, mint, thyme, rosemary) and edible flowers (e.g. nasturtiums) in large pots, because it was the quickest and easiest way to start planting and get immediate satisfaction - we could immediately feel good about using herbs from our garden, and there are few things as effective as potted plants to give a house a facelift. In addition, it makes it easy to bring plants indoor over the winter. However, drawbacks with using pots is the need to water often especially in hot weather (as soil can dry quickly) and as the plant grows it can develop rootbound which is unhealthy for the plant.
Garden beds: Although it sounds like a lot of hard work and digging, the “no dig” method makes creating a garden bed very easy. With virtually the same amount of work as it takes to plant in pots, a garden bed provides more benefits especially if you are looking to grow food as it allows you to grow more and larger plants. The “no dig” method implies just that - there is no digging! Simply determine where you would like to place the garden, place recycled cardboard (e.g. used shipping boxes) on top of the bare ground or grass, and poor soil or compost on top - and you’re ready to plant! Here are some videos that got us started, which shows a few approaches and helpful tips:
“All in”: Growing plants from seed gives you access to a broader variety of herbs and vegetables (that you may not find at the supermarket) and is more economical vs. purchasing seedlings or transplants. Therefor growing plants from seeds can be quite satisfying. However, you may hit a few common beginner pitfalls, which can feel discouraging from trying again. We know, because it feels like we’ve hit them all! But we kept trying, and found that the trick largely came down to 3 fundamental requirements: sunlight, warmth and airflow. And also consideration for whether the current environment or season is appropriate for what you want to grow - Urban Farmer offers a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide for when to plant in a given month, as well as by state and zone.
We’ve shared below what has worked for us so far, along with references we’ve found helpful - but if you have any suggestions please share with us, as we are still learning!
Start with Microgreens: The benefit of microgreens is that they are simplest to grow and fastest to harvest (can be ready to eat in a week or so!). As microgreens can be grown indoors, you can basically have access to fresh greens all year-round provided you have a sunny window (if not, consider investing in grow lights). However as you are essentially eating much smaller version of the more mature greens, it means that you need more volume, which means you need more seeds. Therefore the tradeoff is that you spend more money on seeds but less time, vs. less seeds and more time if growing plants to maturity. Here’s a helpful video from Epic Gardening to help get you started.
As we like to get a tray or two of microgreens going every week or so, we usually buy these seeds in bulk or use edible cover crop seeds to make it more economical (and we opt for organic if available). Types of seeds that have been successful for us include: field peas, white or red clover, radish, and alfalfa. However, almost any edible green can be harvested as a micro or baby green, such as arugula, spinach, kale, beet, Swiss chard, and sunflower. We grow our microgreens in recycled plastic salad boxes as the lids are handy for maintaining the moisture condition conducive to germination, and makes it easy to stack/travel!
Direct sow seeds: You can sow seeds directly into pots or garden plot outside if the weather/temperature is appropriate for your seed variety (this guide is helpful in determining what to plant when). Note that some variety of seeds (such as peas) may require presoaking before planting. If you want to maximize your season, you can start with cool hearty plants such as peas, kale, Swiss chard, spinach and beets (all leaves are edible on these plants). You can also start seeds for warmer weather plants indoor to get a head start, but as mentioned above, make sure you have a spot with adequate sunlight and air flow.
OTHER BASIC TIPS:
Before determining the location for your pots or garden, take a day to observe where sunlight hits on various parts of your property throughout the day, and for how long. Most plants that you grow for food will need plenty of sun, therefore it is important to pick a location that gets plenty of sun throughout the day.
Make sure you match the plant’s needs to your immediate environment. Read the information on the seed packet or plant tag to understand sun/shade, soil and water requirements, and how tall or large the mature plant will get in order to determine where to best place it. And if like us you have spots on your property that tend to accumulate water, use plants that thrive in wet soil (e.g. water mint, marsh marigold, Japanese primrose).
When it comes to shrubs and trees, we tend to purchase plants native to our area so that no special care is required as these plants are already acclimated to local temperatures and weather.
OTHER REFERENCES: