Spring Gardening

Hello, welcome to spring gardening!

CoVid-19 has spurred different interests in people and we started to find time to pursue our hobbies. Here is mine - Gardening. I had several people visit my garden and were amazed by the produce, asking for tips and suggestions, that made me think that I should share my experiences! Seeing my garden grow and yield is my stress buster. While working from home, I take a stroll through the garden often, to refresh and energize myself.

Everyone can start their own organic garden, it is not a magic. We can start putting together a plan in place as early as mid-February, have everything ready to start the garden in March and we can harvest until late summer to early fall.

I had a lot of day-to-day use veggies in my garden, about 20 of them and I would try my level best to explain how to grow each of them, starting from seeding process, transplantation, care, pruning methods, pests, pollination, fertilizing, crop maturity, etc etc. Every stage have their own challenges and pests make them worse! Here is the laundry list of my crops this year. Don't forget to click on the links to learn more about each of them!

• Some regular crops like tomatoes, mint, pepper, bell pepper. Believe me they are much needed motivation boosters!
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Bottle Gourd
• Bitter melon
• Okra/Lady's Finger
• Watermelon
• Cantaloupe
• Cucumber
• Banana Pumpkin Squash
• Beans - French & broad
• Eggplants
• Some unsuccessful/low yield ones - radish, carrot. I'll try to list out my mistakes.
• And the most expensive curry leaf plant!!

What's needed?

• A patch of ground with decent soil. Seriously! No fancy stuffs! 
• Seeds and/or store bought veggies/pantry items.
• Seed starter tray and seed starting mix.
• Some basic gardening tools - spade, pruning shears, scissors.
• Stakes, twine and netting for support.
• Miracle grow plant food - optional.
• Some basic ingredients to make organic pesticides - vinegar, baking soda, oil, dish soap.
• Of course, water, motivation, time and enthusiasm :)

This blog is from a novice gardener, listing out some tips, do's and dont's, with very less monetary investment. I live in the Bay Area, California and I'm writing this out of the experiences I had in Summer 2020. If it doesn't work for you, I'm sorry :( Remember, plants are also living beings; they need your time and love!

This is a work in progress - I would get all the details before the start of next growing season :)

Happy gardening!!!

Links for further reading

Click here to know more about my seed sources.