Key to starting a successful garden is a plan

At this junc­ture in the year, we resolve to make changes. Gym park­ing lots go from ghostly unoc­cu­pied in Decem­ber to double-parked mania overnight, weight loss com­mer­cials abound, and your close friend who invited you to the cookie exchange three weeks ago is now preach­ing her new calorie-cutting lifestyle. 

It seems funny how much weight we give res­o­lu­tions for the new year — but we all, myself included, do it. And sur­pris­ingly your gar­den can play a huge role in aid­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of these changes for 2012. Whether you have resolved to lose weight, eat health­ier, save money, become more active, live greener, or even become closer with friends a gar­den can be the key. Even though it is the begin­ning of win­ter, hav­ing a plan makes every­thing eas­ier. Some options, how­ever, are avail­able right now like grow­ing micro­greens on a win­dowsill to make an easy, fresh, and very nutri­tious salad. Susan Liechty, another Mas­ter Gard­ner and fre­quent Gazette con­trib­u­tor recently wrote an arti­cle all about the prop­a­ga­tion of micro­greens. it can be eas­ily looked up on the Delaware Gazette’s website.

As I often stress, the key to a suc­cess­ful gar­den is simple—a plan. Start think­ing about which veg­eta­bles you pur­chase most often, which you avoid pur­chas­ing due to price, and which veg­eta­bles would you enjoy that may not be available. 

There are approx­i­mately four months until plant­ing is safe in our zone so there is plenty of time to track down all your favorites. Also an advan­tage of plan­ning at this time of year, when there is snow-cover you can plan your gar­den beds by spray­ing their out­lines with spray paint right on top of the snow. This allows you to walk around them and feel if your pro­por­tions will work. An advan­tage no draw­ing can offer. If ’green’ is an ini­tia­tive for you in 2012, grow­ing organic herbs and veg­eta­bles is a very easy way to make an envi­ron­men­tal dif­fer­ence. It may seem hard to believe, but even just grow­ing your own toma­toes over the sum­mer has a pos­i­tive envi­ron­men­tal impact. Any liv­ing plant goes through pho­to­syn­the­sis, of which oxy­gen is the end result. Despite how minis­cule the dif­fer­ence may be from a few tomato plants here and there it is a dif­fer­ence regard­less and you should feel good about it. Another res­o­lu­tion addressed by a veg­etable gar­den is fit­ness. Dig­ging, lift­ing, kneeling,—all the rel­a­tively mun­dane tasks of gar­den­ing take on a new life when regarded as a fit­ness regimen. 

Yet another enjoy­able result of a veg­etable or herb gar­den is sav­ing money. Some­thing to remem­ber when pur­chas­ing veg­eta­bles in a gro­cery is just how many com­po­nents are reflected in the retail price. Grow­ing, har­vest­ing, pack­ing, pack­ag­ing, ship­ping, and the grocer’s profit are all included. Spend­ing $10 includ­ing soil for one tomato plant is an incred­i­ble bar­gain when you con­sider how much you would spend for its’ har­vest in a gro­cery store. Another even eas­ier and green way to save is sup­port­ing the fab­u­lous Delaware County Farmer’s Mar­ket. Prices are much lower than gro­cery stores because there is no middleman.

In our soci­ety all func­tions, social or fam­ily, seem to revolve around food. This can be dif­fi­cult when try­ing to lose weight. The answer is not to become a social recluse, but to plan health­ier meet­ings with your friends. Meet up with friends at the Farmer’s Mar­ket and pick out ingre­di­ents together to cook for your gath­er­ings. Changes have a much bet­ter chance when they are fun to implement.

It seems dif­fi­cult to fathom that the hol­i­days have come and gone and we are headed into a new year. While years and res­o­lu­tions seem to come and go as well, when your res­o­lu­tions include fun with friends and pos­i­tive envi­ron­men­tal impact I believe they are a lit­tle eas­ier to keep. As always, if you have any ques­tions on grow­ing veg­eta­bles, or plan­ning your gar­den for the sea­son please con­tact our Mas­ter Gar­dener Asso­ci­a­tion at mgdelco@gmail.com. We are here to help. We wish you a happy and healthy new year!

Stephen Jones is an OSU Exten­sion Mas­ter Gar­dener Volunteer.

Posted by Master Gardener on Dec 31 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.