- Step by Step: Gardening Instructions
- Be sure that your garden or balcony has full day of sun (minimum 6 hours)
- Select "crops" - based on what you and your children like to eat: most popular are tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, green beans, zucchini, basil
- Start small - 10' x 10' maximum at first
- Get basic tools: shovel, rake, garden trowel, watering can (or hose with watering head)
- Decide whether to start from seed or to buy plants already started (beginners often have more success starting with plants - see cost comparison attached)
- Know the "Frost-free date" - May 15th in Chicago, the average date of the last frost of the season = safe to plant
- As soon as the ground has thawed and drained - cut the grass (sod) off of the surface of soil (better than digging it into the soil)
- Use a shovel or garden fork to turn over the soil, breaking the clots of soil up, rake smooth
- Plan where the plants will go in the planting bed based on the mature size of each plant - most require 2-3 square feet, placing the tallest ones on the north side decreasing in height to the south (the sun is shining from the south during the summer- avoid shading the short ones)
- Plant the vegetable plants into the soil, watering well after planting
- Water every other day for the first 6 weeks as the roots get established, watching the rainfall - plants need 1" of rain at 75 degrees F each week add an additional ½ inch for every 10 degree increase in temperature
- Fertilize monthly with a good quality fertilizer
- Remove weeds in between the plants and put mulch around them to prevent more weeds.
- Plants produce flowers first and with pollination (usually by insects) the crops develop
- As the crops develop, harvest when small and tasty, continuing throughout the growing season. If any get too mature, hormones are released that will stop the flowering and end the production
- Most cost effective = cheapest, with moderate success
- Start from seeds, 5 packets of seeds at $2.49 each =$12.45
- Use plastic egg cartons as seed starting trays , see example with holes cut in the bottom of the cells for drainage = cost of a dozen eggs $3.50
- Fill with seed starting soil mix = $8.99
- Window with sunshine 6-12 hours per day
- Plant starter fertilizer liquid = $12.99
- Use paper cups to transplant seedlings before planting into garden
- Shovel, garden fork, rake, trowel
- Watering can and rain gauge
- Yard with garden area in sun for minimum 6 hours
- Fertilizer like Garden-Tone = 4 pound bag $7.99
- Approximate cost to start $35
- More expensive = also more success
- Start from seeds, same as above 5 packets at $2.49 each = $12.95
- Seed starting trays with ready-to-use water absorbing cells, 12 pellet at $6.99,
- 25 pellet at $9.99, or 36 larger pellet size at $19.99
- Same tools as above
- Plant starter fertilizer liquid = $12.99
- Plastic 4" pots to transplant seedlings into 12 at $1.49 = $17.88
- Watering can and rain gauge
- Yard with garden area in sun for minimum 6 hours
- Fertilizer like Garden-Tone = 4 pound bag $7.99
- Approximate cost to start $55.00 to 75.00 (many items are re-usable)
- Best for beginners = highest success rate (selection is not as great)
- Buy already started plants in 4" containers; 3 tomatoes, 3 peppers, 1 basil and start the green beans and cucumbers from seed (plants $2.99 each, basil $4.79, seeds $2.59 each = $27.73
- Same tools needed as above
- Fertilizer is Garden-Tone - 2 bags for the season at $7.99 each = $15.98
- Approximate cost to start $45.00