“Dig-In” With the Texas City Garden Club By: Bridget Buffa

 Longer days and the first new flowers poking through – spring is here! This is the perfect time to plan for our next growing season. If you’re new to gardening that is great, you’re about to embark on a journey that’s equal parts challenging, rewarding, mystifying and uplifting. 

    Growing your own vegetables is both fun and rewarding. All you really need to get started is some decent soil and a few plants. Dream big, but start small and expand as you gain experience. 

    But to be a really successful vegetable gardener you need to understand a few basics of what it takes to keep your plants healthy and vigorous. 

    “Feed the soil” is like a mantra for organic gardeners.  Although various fertilizers and mineral nutrients can be added periodically to garden, but the most useful substance for building and maintaining a healthy, well-balanced soil is organic matter. You can add organic matter to your soil many different ways, such as compost, shredded leaves, manures or cover crops.

    Organic matter improves the fertility, the structure and overall health of the soil. In particular, organic matter provides a continuous source of nitrogen and other nutrients that plants need to grow. It also provides a rich food source for soil microbes. As organisms in the soil carry out the processes of decay and decomposition, they make these nutrients available to plants. 

        Lots of people dream of having a big vegetable garden.  If you have the room and even more importantly, the time and energy needed to grow a large garden well, go for it. But vegetable gardens that make efficient use of growing space are much easier to care for, be it small containers or small raised bed, this is the best choice for beginners because they make the garden more manageable.

    Another good idea to practice planting in succession. All too often gardeners will plant all at one time.  While there is nothing wrong with planting a garden this way, wouldn’t it be easier to plant a few at a time, throughout the course of the growing season.

    After all, a job almost always becomes easier the more you divide it up. Plan to plant something new in the garden each week of the season.  As you begin to harvest the first plantings, soon the next ones will follow. You also don’t end up with more than you need at one time.

    Just how common is home vegetable gardening? Who’s doing it? Why? 

    In 1971, 25 million households or 39% of American families, were raising some of their own vegetables. That number quickly rose, by 1981, 38 million – 47%, or almost half – of our nation’s households were gardening. Then, however, the numbers started to drop. By 1985, 33 million households – 37% – were growing vegetables.

What happened?

    To put it simply, the worse the economy, the more people garden. In 1981, interest rates were 20%, the nation was stuck in a deepening recession, and people were growing food primarily to save money. (And gardeners do save money). 

    As a matter of fact, in keeping with our increasing national interest in nutrition and health, the number one reason people garden today is fresh vegetables, and number two is to get better-tasting, higher-quality food. Even gardening for fun beats out saving money as a motive.

    Well, that’s why people garden, but what about the non- gardeners? Why aren’t they growing?  The leading reason people don’t garden is lack of space. Lack of time comes in second and then in third place comes the opinion that it’s too much work.

    Hopefully, you are not one of those who think it’s too much work ~ give it a try!  Once you pick your first sun-ripened tomato, you’ll be hooked.

Briana Griffin Etie ~ Galveston County Master Gardener gives a presentation on Greenhouses to the Texas City Garden Club

~ Gardeningis amedicinethat does not need aprescriptionand has no limit on dosage ~