Resources for Gardening and Growing Vegetables
I've been wanting to take up gardening for a long time—in particular, growing some of the veggies I use in my everyday cooking. This is both a health thing, a sustainability thing... and just a nerd thing. There's a lot about the idea of growing crops that appeals to me... and better done in the real world than in Stardew Valley. 😛
I'm just about a total newbie at this, but I signed up for a plot in my local community garden (as a bit of a forcing function!) so it's time I actually learned... how to garden.
I'll keep track of useful resources here as I learn pretty much from scratch.
Tools
- ✅ Gardening gloves
Potential Crops
- Garlic
- Onions
- Bell peppers
- Herbs
- Basil
- Mint
- Spices?
Articles to Read
General Gardening
- Gardening - How to Get Started
- How to Start a Garden
- How to Measure your Soil pH Cheap and Easy
- When to Water Vegetables - Watering Chart - The Old Farmer's Almanac
Crop Specific
- Growing Garlic, Harvesting Garlic, Planting Garlic, Garlic Scapes
- Onions: Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Onions - The Old Farmer's Almanac
- Growing Onions in a Home Garden
- How to Plant Onion Sets - Spacing Matters: 4 inches for Full Sized Onions - MFG 2014
- Planting Onion Sets: What to Watch Out For
- Growing Bell Peppers: From Planting to Harvest - The Old Farmer's Almanac
- Bell Pepper Plant Care: How Do I Grow Peppers At Home
- A Complete Guide to Planting Blueberry Bushes: Acidity & Two Varieties are Key!
Journal
Onions
- Got some onion sets. Sounds like plant them 4 inches apart to get full bulbs (takes up a lot of space), or 2 inches apart to harvest greens. I might do both styles in different sections, since I have a lot of sets...
2020-04-09
- Put the blueberries, onions, cilantro, and mint that I managed to get from the garden store into the plot yesterday and watered them in. Need to find out of there a hose/tap near my plot because trying to fill a can from the rainwater reservoir takes forever—and it hasn't been raining, so that supply is probably running out!
- I left room for a second blueberry plant, because I hear you get better results if you plant two different varieties near each other so they can cross-pollinate. Also heard you need acidic soil for blueberries, but one thing at a time: let's see what I can grow at all, I'm not trying to optimize yet.
- I'll need to look up how often everything needs watered. It's gotten warm, I don't see rain in the forecast, and if I don't make myself a watering routine, I'm gonna forget about those poor plants and they'll dry out...
2020-04-16
- I've been thinking I need to water the garden a lot (like maybe every day) because it's been hot and dry for days. But reading a bit about watering (added an Old Farmer's Almanac link in the General Gardening section above), just watering all the time is probably not necessary or a good idea. Instead, I should check what the plants look like closer to dusk (instead of mid-afternoon)—they should look less wilted then. Plus, take a trowel and dig a few inches down and see if the soil is moist. Ultimately, you want water at root depth, not just on the surface, and you don't want it hanging around on the plants themselves, as that leads to disease. So dumping water over top of the plants every day is not going to be the right move.
It would be interesting to build a little irrigation system that I could top up from some kind of reservoir (since I can't have, like, my own hose hookup in a community garden)... 🤔