Beginner Gardening Tips for a Successful Garden - Grow Your Own Food!

Hello everyone,

Rob Greenfield here in the garden.

And today, I am going to share my

tips for beginner gardeners.

So if you are out there feeling like

you have a black thumb,

feeling like whatever you plant dies,

and you are dreaming of

having a green thumb,

dreaming of growing

an abundance of food

and having that fresh food

on your table to eat,

then this is the video for you.

[music]

I actually feel like I am in a really

good position to be able to share

these tips with you.

The reason why is it is not that

long ago that I was a complete

rookie gardener myself.

Go back just 3 years ago

and I had grown very little food

and then I launched into

a year long project of attempting to

and successfully growing and foraging

everything that I ate for an entire year.

During that year, I grew over 100

different foods in my garden.

So I quickly went from a beginner,

who had grown very little,

to a pretty experienced gardener,

who has spent hundreds of hours

in my garden and other people's gardens,

both in the United States

and in other parts of the world.

So I am in a place where I can still

remember the nights of frantic
searching online,

and calling friends, and seeds not
sprouting,

and plants dying and just that fear.

To now having the confidence

and really being way beyond that
beginner stage.

So that is why I am really excited

to be able to share this advice with you.

From a recent beginner to a now,

pretty decent gardener.

So my 1st tip is a really simple one,

and that is to start small.

A lot of people have this dream

of turning their whole yard into a garden

and growing and incredible amount
of food.

That is a wonderful dream to have.

I completely support it.

But what a lot of people miss out on

is the fact that it does not happen

over night that you go from having

very little gardening skills,

to all of a sudden this paradisical
garden.

Everybody has to start somewhere.

For a lot of us who do not have

gardening in our background,

our parents did not garden,

where we are starting kind of

from scratch as adults,

starting small is one of my absolute

key places for beginner gardeners.

That could mean a small raised

bed in your front yard.

It coud mean some plants

on your balcony or on your windowsill.

Do not put yourself down for

any amount of food that you grow.

Any amount of food you grow

is a really positive step forward.

So start small and each season,

you can add on more and more and more.

This will also build your confidence

one step at a time.

If you start with way more

than you can possibly handle,

often it gets away from you,

you become overwhelmed,

and then you just kind of lose it all.

So, if that is the case for you

and you do not think you can

go big right away,

absolutely start small.

Now, if you have so much free time,

and you really think

this is what you want to do,

I am not discouraging you from
going big,

but definitely, one of my

number one tips is start small.

If you feel like that is what is

needed for you at the time.

Next up is keep it local.

Really try to seek out the local
resources.

The truth is that the gardening

knowledge is almost everywhere.

It is often that we pass it up.

We do not realize that anybody

gardens in our area

because we are not looking for it.

We do not realize it.

But everywhere around the country

and around the world,

there are local resources

that really know that area well.

Seek out local nurseries,

local seed companies, local gardeners.

If you are driving around your
neighborhood,

and you see a garden

in someone's front yard, knock on
that door

and say hello and talk to them.

A really great way to go local

is community gardens.

Join a community garden

so that you can learn what plants

are growing well there, get support
from them.

Another thing is local classes.

If you can find classes that are in
your area,

that is a great way to get the knowledge

that is based on your area.

And then books, as well.

Check out your local library.

Often they will have books that are

based on your region or your state.

For example, when I was in Florida,

I got Robert Bowden's book,

which was Florida Fruit and
Vegetable Gardening.

It was geared exactly towards my

area and leaves out so much of the

information that I did not need.

It focuses on the information that
you need.

Keeping things as local as you
possibly can.

And then that moves into the next one.

They are pretty much tied together.

That is garden as a community.

Garden together.

There is no reason to do this alone.

If you are at home alone,

doing this all by yourself,

and all you are doing is looking

on the internet, facebook groups,

things like that, watching Youtube videos.

Sure those things are helpful,

but it is easy to feel

really overwhelmed and unempowered

when it is all by yourself.

So get involved with others.

When I had my garden in my front yard,

I would have people drive by

and I would see them stop and look.

I would encourage them to stop by.

One time I even had someone

knock on my door and he very timidly said,

"I know this is awkward,

but I have been dreaming

of starting to grow food with my kids.

I just had to knock on the door and ask."

I walked him throughout my garden,

sent him home with a bunch of food.

Gardeners love that.

Gardeners love to share their time

and their knowledge.

So get involved with local people.

Joining a community garden

is one of the simplest and easiest ways

to do that if you can.

Another thing you can do

is volunteer at local organic farms.

There is a website called WOOFing,

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.

It is www.wwoof.net.

That is a great way to just emerse

in local food growing.

You can also travel and do it as well,

so there is no need to do it alone.

The resources are out there.

The knowledge is out there.

The community is out there.

Gardeners welcome people in.

So do not do it alone.

Do it with community.

Now keeping on that theme of local,

but moving into actual plants,

moving into the planting.

Where do you source your seeds

and your plants?

For me, it is all about local varieties.

So seeking out local seed companies

and local nurseries that have been growing

these plants in your region

for years or even decades.

How that works is if a plant is

designed for that area,

it already knows the insects

that are going to attack it.

It already knows the weather patterns.

This is a plant that is designed

to grow in that area.

So if you can buy your seeds

from local seed companies

that produce them in your area,

as well as nurseries,

this drastically increases your

chance of success.

Whereas going to the big box stores

and buying the plants that have
been shipped

from who knows how far away

from some sort of centralized
distribution center.

Those plants might not be

designed for your area.

For example, where I did a lot of my

gardening in Florida, big fat juicy
tomatoes,

like beefsteak tomatoes, do not do
well there.

What does really well is the

small everglades tomato.

With the everglades tomato,

a person with a black thumb...

Boom! Green thumb,

and tomatoes in incredible amounts.

But if you are trying to grow those

big ones that are not adapted

to that area, black thumb.

It dies, molds, gets tomato blight

and you do not get anything

and you walk away feeling like a failure.

So seeking out your local seed companies

and your local nurseries is a huge

step in the right direction.

When a lot of people start planning
their garden,

they start planning what they want
to plant.

What they do is they think about

what their favorite foods are.

They even walk down the grocery

store isles and think,

"Ok, these are my favorite things to eat,

so this is what I am going to plant."

Sure, that can be beneficial,

but here is the downside of that.

If you are doing that, most of our

grocery stores are based on globalization,

where food is shipped in from all
different regions,

where it does really well in this area

and not well in that area.

If you do it that way, you will often

end up planting things that just

are not going to do well in your area.

So I think the best thing to do,

instead of going to the grocery store

and asking what you like to eat,

talk to people in your community.

Ask them, "What grows so rediculously

well that you cannot even kill it?"

What grows so well that it

becomes a problem because

there is so much of it?

Plant those things.

For example, here in this garden

that I am in, mint is taking over like
crazy.

I just made a video about

easy plants to start growing.

This is one of them.

Plant what has the fewest pests.

What grows really easily.

Then, once you have mastered

those easier plants, then you can

start to get into the more difficult ones.

Maybe you love blueberries,

but they grow in acidic soil.

So if you do not have acidic soil,

you do not want to start there.

But once you get more experience,

then you can work with changing

the pH of your soil.

That is a little bit more advanced
gardening.

So again with the grocery store.

We have become disconnected

with the seasons.

Being able to get most things

at any time throughout the year,

but one of the absolute most

important things is to plant the right

things at the right time.

If you try to plant tomatoes early on

in the spring when it is still very cold,

and the soil temperature is very low,

you are going to have a hard time.

Because in colder climates,
they like heat.

Same goes for basil.

That is going to be later on.

Early things, for example,

kale can be started earlier and actually,

in very hot places, it does not

do well in the peak heat,

because it likes the colder temperatures.

It is really important to plant

the right things at the right time.

You do not have to figure out

each individual plant.

What you have to do is simply

find a planting schedule.

You can check at local universities.

Often their extension program will

have a planting schedule.

Some community gardens will have them.

You can also just go online and

search for, for example, if you live
in New York,

"New York planting schedule"

This will help you to plant the right

things at the right time.

By doing that, ensure

the success of those plants.

As far as the details,

like how far apart do you plant

each different thing,

like tomatoes or kale or arugula.

How deep do you plant the seeds?

And should you transplant,

as in starting from pots in a greenhouse

or in your house, or direct sow

the seeds in the ground.

For that, I recommend following

the instructions on the back of the

seed packs that you get.

And really importantly, getting a book

for your area, which I mentioned at
the beginning.

A lot of these books that are based
on your area,

they give you those details,

so you do not have to seek it out

for each individual one.

So in this video, I am not going to

go into those details because they

are based on each area.

Instead, get a local book for your region

and follow the instructions from the
seed companies

where you buy those seeds.

There are a lot of other details,

for example, sun and water and soil.

You could talk about that for hours

and hours and hours, but I want to give

just a few tips on that.

As far as sun goes, for beginner
gardeners,

I generally recommend full sun.

Now if you are in a shaded area

like I am right now, that is really
difficult.

There are plants that can grow well
in shade,

but generally, most plants need a
lot of sun.

Make sure that you are not under
the shade of a tree,

or where your house casts

shade for half of the day.

So before you plant your garden,

keep an eye on that spot

and remember that the sun

changes throughout the year.

So planting in full sun.

As far as water, one of the basic

ways to tell if you are watering enough

is when you grab a handful of that soil,

ideally, it should stay in a clump

that breaks a little bit.

It is basically the consistency

of a wrung out sponge.

Watering in the morning

is the best, before the heat.

If not the morning, then the evening.

Not in the middle of the day.

Another way to test if you have
enough water

is you stick your finger down into
the soil,

and if it is moist when you get your

finger down to about your second
knuckle here,

then that is another sign

that you have enough water.

If it is dry all the way down,

it needs to be watered.

So soil varies all over the place.

And how you are watering;

whether you are in the desert,

or in a very fertile area
like southwest Wisconsin,

or in Florida, where it is mostly sand.

It is going to vary a lot,

but those are a few tips with water.

Again, local resources are key,

because they are going to know your soil.

Then, another one is healthy soil.

A lot of people, they only focus on
the plants.

When they see problems,

they think about the plants,

but the truth is, one of the most

important things is having healthy,
living soil.

Take care of your soil.

Take very good care of your soil.

Your soil is your lifesource to have

that healthy and abundant food.

My next tip is to make it convenient.

Now, what I mean by that is putting

your garden in a location

where you naturally go.

If you put your garden in a ten

minute walk on the other side of
your property,

where you cannot see it,

it easily becomes out of sight,
out of mind.

It is easy to neglect.

So, put it in an area where you

naturally go every day.

Maybe your front yard,

right next to your front sidewalk,

where every day you have to walk

past it to get to your car.

That way, every morning and night,

you are naturally drawn to it.

The same goes for water.

Making sure that you have your

water source near your garden, ideally,

whether that is a long hose

or if you do not have a hose,

right next to the spigget where you

have your buckets or your rain
water harvesting.

Designing it so that it has a relative

amount of convenience will make it

easier to get out there.

Do not put a whole bunch of

obstacles in the way.

This is really important when

you are getting started.

And you are not used to it.

You do not have that habit

of getting into the garden.

You have a habit of just going to
the grocery store.

It is easy to neglect it if it is

out of sight, out of mind.

Deisgn it to be relatively convenient.

When you are just getting started,

and you have an incredible amount

of information out there.

It is really hard to choose which is

the right information.

It is easy to be infiltrated

by chemical mindsets.

The idea that you need to spray things,

that every insect should die,

that the soil needs these massive

amount of fertilizers.

My tip is do not fall into

the chemical mindset.

In my year of growing and foraging

all of my food where I grew over

100 different foods, I never used

a single pesticide, not even organic ones.

These pesticides have only existed

for a tiny, tiny fraction of all the times

that humans have lived off of

the food that they have grown.

You can grow without all of that.

Without needing to have all this

money and these outside resources.

And be able to grow in an organic

and in a sustainable manner.

Next I want to talk a little bit about
mindset.

Focussing on a mindset of abundance,

rather than scarcity.

Because when you think in scarcity,

it often creates scarcity around you.

But when you design in abundance

and you think in abundance,

it can actually help create that
abundance.

A really important part of that is

remembering that in order to have

an abundance, you have to have death.

Death is a part of the gardening
experience.

So do not be afraid to kill plants.

In fact, when you kill plants,

think of that as part of your lessons,

part of your learning to becoming

a successful gardener.

In that way, it is not a failure,

it is a part of the success.

Even more imporantly, remember,
plants die.

It is not like...

Especially annual plants like carrots,

and kale, and collards, and broccoli.

All of these only live for a period of
time.

They have to be harvested

and then they die.

Do not think of death as a failure.

Think about it as a part of the

cycle of the gardening.

Another thing that I mentioned just now,

I mentioned annuals.

Annuals are plants that basically

you plant every single year.

You harvest and you have to

replant every year.

Perennials are plants that you plant once

and they come back for a very long time.

Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries,

strawberries, fruit trees like apples,

pears, and plums, nut trees,

Jeruselum artichoke, rhubarb, all of

these foods that come back year

after year are perennials.

I recommend working with perennials

as much as you can because they

generally take less work.

They have a lot fewer pests.

They take less nutrients.

They keep on coming back

year after year after year.

Many perennials thrive on neglect.

Focussing on perennials is definitely

a big tip that I would move towards.

It is often great to start with annuals.

For example radishes.

They produce in 30 days.

That is one of those easy plants

that I mentioned, that can give you

that boost of success,

and that confidence to move forward.

But as you get better and better,

I recommend moving more away

from those annuals and moving more

toward the perennial system.

So there you have it.

Those are some of my most important

tips for beginner gardeners.

There are a lot of other ones out there.

If you just start with those ones

Remember to start small,

start simply, maybe start with just

5 easy plants that you are excited about.

If you do 5 the next year,

and you do 5 the next year,

within a few years time, you can be

growing dozens of different species.

Make some goals.

Make some of those smaller goals.

Make some of those bigger goals.

Use those smaller goals to chip away

at that ultimate success

of your giant front yard just

dripping and oozing with food

absolutely everywhere.

I hope that you gained a lot from
this video.

If you did make sure that you subscribe.

If you have friends who are
beginner gardeners

that consider themselves to have a
black thumb,

make sure to share this video

to help them if you think it would be
helpful.

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I love you all very much.

I will see you again in the garden
real soon.