Beginner Food-Growing Tips from Sixteen Garden-Industry Professionals
You don’t need a lifetime of gardening experience to grow fruits and vegetables in your garden…but getting advice from those with experience certainly helps! To get your edible garden off to a successful start, we’ve gathered tips from sixteen expert members of Garden Communicators International.
If You’re Just Getting Started
“For beginners, I suggest starting small. For the best success, I recommend getting certain plants from the garden centre rather than growing from seed: plants like tomatoes and peppers. Grow what you and your family like. If no one likes kale, don’t plant it.”
Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp is a garden speaker, writer, designer, and coach at The Hoosier Gardener.
“Start easy and quick with crops like radishes. Then invest in some perennial food crops (e.g., blackberries and asparagus) and fruit trees (e.g., figs).
Kathy Jentz is the editor and publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine and the host of GardenDC Podcast.
“I’m a big proponent of No Dig Gardening. It’s a great way to create a raised-bed garden with less weeds and watering, more production, and less work. The steps are simple. Mow down the area where you want to build a raised bed. Lay down four to six layers of newspaper (not glossy). Then alternate layers of untreated grass clippings, chopped leaves, hay, straw, and chopped kitchen scraps until you fill the bed. It’s also called lasagna gardening. Top with four inches of compost if you’re building it in fall. Add six to eight inches if you’re building it in winter or spring. Plant right through the compost and you’ll see how productive the garden becomes.”
Charlie Nardozzi is the author of The Complete Guide to No Dig Gardening.
“‘Beans, beans—the magical fruit!’ I recommend growing beans to beginner gardeners because they are so easy and cheap to grow. I just plant the seeds directly into the soil. They’re also very productive. My garden produces enough beans every summer to last me until the next year’s harvest begins. You can preserve them for year-round use by freezing (my preferred method), canning, or drying. I also recommend beans for their nutritional value. Green beans contain protein, vitamin C, iron, and calcium. There are many varieties to choose from, too. I grow mostly green beans and wax beans (my husband’s favourite), but it’s also fun to try purple beans and speckled varieties. Two years ago I started growing some black beans for drying.”
Debbie Rea at The Gardener Wife helps people grow things and use what they grow.
Growing in Small Spaces
“If you don’t have room enough to designate one area to grow food, consider growing in containers. There are now many varieties of vegetables and fruits that thrive in five- to ten-gallon containers. Incorporate the containers into sunny spots among ornamental plants in your yard, or on a deck, porch, or balcony.”
Phyllis Gricus is a speaker, writer and ecological landscape designer.
“Start with something small regardless of the size of your available growing space. Use a container for lettuces and greens that are high in nutritional value (like kale and collards). These don’t do well in heat and drought, but depending on where you live, they can be grown in the spring and fall or all through winter.”
Nancy Taylor Robson is a Master Gardener, writer, author, and editor.
“In a small garden, just plant one of each tomato. Zucchini is a plant that will continue to produce fruit all season long. One plant is sufficient for a family of four. Two plants for a family of five to seven. If your garden is larger, consider donating to the local food bank.
Growing beans? Grow them up on trellises or on a fence. Do the same with cucumbers and peas. This will give you more space in the garden.”
Denise Schreiber is a garden speaker, an All America Selections Trial judge, a retired arborist, and the author of Eat Your Roses, Pansies and Lavender and 49 Other Delicious Flowers
Low-Effort Food Sources
“Focus on what I call ‘factory vegetables’ that can be harvested continuously over a three- to four-month period: lettuces, mustard greens, Swiss chard, kale, spinach, and tender herbs like cilantro and parsley. They take up little space and keep giving throughout the season if you harvest the outer leaves instead of the whole plant.”
Christy Wilhelmi is the founder of Gardenerd and specializes in small-space organic vegetable gardens.
“Don’t forget all those tasty ornamentals you already have in your garden! Spruce tips add great flavour (and vitamin c) to ice cream and custards, Malabar spinach is an excellent heat-tolerant leafy green, and Dolgo crab-apples are every bit as crisp and tasty as your favourite tart apple. Not to mention hosta shoots, dahlia tubers, daylily buds, Jerusalem artichokes, serviceberries…”
Ellen Zachos is an author of popular foraging books who helps adventurous foodies cook with wild plants at The Backyard Forager.
“Plant lots of fruit trees! When we talk about growing edibles, we often forget about fruit trees. Fruit trees are far easier to grow than vegetables. You plant them once, fertilize and prune on occasion, spray once a year when dormant, water as needed, and reap the rewards. Depending on your climate, you can grow everything from apples to apricots, pomegranates to pears, and so much more. Fruit trees do double duty as beautiful garden plants as well. An apple or cherry tree espalier adds a touch of elegance to any garden. Guavas have gorgeous bark. Persimmons hanging on leaf-less branches look like bright orange ornaments. Citrus make wonderful evergreen screens that perfume the air when they bloom in spring. There’s every reason to add fruit trees to your garden.”
Nan Sterman grows gardens and gardeners at WaterWise Gardener.
For Cooler Regions
“I live in a short-season area. It’s critical to check how many days a plant takes to reach maturity and make sure your growing season is at least that long. The best heirloom tomato won’t cut it if the tomato takes 80 days to ripen while the heat season is only 70 days.”
Patricia Munts is a garden coach, columnist, and co-author of the Northwest Gardener’s Handbook.
“Collecting and trapping the sun’s heat will let you get a jump start on germinating and eventually harvesting your food crops: Turn an old plastic tote/ storage bin upside down and you’ve got a mini greenhouse. Or make a temporary low tunnel with rebar, PVC, and some poly covering (2-6 mml). You can also grow in a cold frame, which is a permanent structure and usually holds in more heat than a low tunnel.
Each layer of cover, be it a bin, a low tunnel, or a cold frame, will help focus the sun’s rays, heat the soil, and trap that heat in longer every night, slowly raising the temperatures so you can start seeds or transplant seedlings out weeks to a month earlier.”
Michelle Bruhn is the founder of Forks in the Dirt, an online information source for growing your own food.
“Since we don’t get a lot of summer heat, we use lots of Wall-o-Water season extenders to get our tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants started earlier in the spring. We have two cold frames for early- and late-season greens.”
Mark Turner of Turner Photographics has been photographiing gardens for books and magazines since 1994.
“A simple home-made hoop house can extend your growing season further into the fall and give you a head start in the spring. If your climate permits, employing these all year will allow you to grow different crops and varieties than you might otherwise because of the added warmth.”
Debby Ward is a Professional Organic Coach, Speaker, and Trainer at Prior Unity Garden.
Finding The Right Information
In the United States
“All gardening is local. Locate your county extension agent for agriculture in your area (search by entering “extension agent” and your county name). The county extension agent is responsible for answering gardening questions and providing local gardening education. The person also manages the master gardener program where volunteers provide free services to the public such as plant clinics, a help desk or help line, an informative website, and events, lectures, and webinars.”
Peggy Riccio writes pegplant.com, an online resource for gardening in the Washington DC metro area.
In Canada
“To grow perennials that come back every year, you need to know your Canadian hardiness zone. Search for your town name + ‘hardiness zone.’ You can grow plants that are hardy to your zone or to one with a smaller number. The United States’ zones are calculated differently, so beware of imported plants in garden centres that say ‘USDA zone,’ because they might not be exactly right for you. Check the conversion here. For local advice (which is always the most helpful advice in gardening), search for a horticultural society or Master Gardeners group near you.”
Erin Alladin helps people grow food in ways that are good for our bodies and the earth at Earth Undaunted and co-hosts the Plants Always Win podcast.
