Organic Gardening: Planning

Now that you have all the data from Your Own Herb Garden and the 1st and 2nd Organic Gardening blogs you have some idea of what needs to be done to start growing your own food and you can start planning to take those ideas and put them in action.

Basic Plan:

1. Get a large Notebook or Journal. Gardening is about what is successful for you and your garden. It might not be the same for anyone else really. Nobody else has exactly the same circumstances as you, not even your next door neighbor. That being said, how are you going to know what your successful actions were among all the other things you are doing if you can’t quite remember what you did to what? So it is important to record it while you remember it because it will be a whole season before you know what was successful and most people do not have such a sure complete memory to remember everything well enough to repeat it in every detail. Plus, you want a go-to place to record places where you bought supplies and what you paid for them, etc.  Actually, I suggest you record everything journal style and then have an additional page in the back cover of the book for names and contact info and frequently used information. The first thing you should use this journal for is to plan out your garden before you start doing anything.
2. Observe your area. Draw out your space and record how the sun hits the ground and for how long. This is important because it will tell you the conditions and you can determine what you can actually grow in full sun, partial sun, partial shade or full shade. It is ideal to observe and record this for a full growing season. But I understand if you are wanting to get something in the ground now.  So do both and be sure you record what you do. Trial and observation will take you a long way in gardening as well as the rest of life for that matter.         

Full Sun is defined as at least 6 hours of direct sun daily.

Partial Sun is defined as between 3 and 6 hours of direct sun per day.

Partial Shade is the same as partial sun except that protection from the intense mid-day sun is needed.

Full Shade is defined as less than 3 hours of sun per day. 

 

You need to observe your land and record where the sun is at different times of the day over the seasons and record this in your journal, so you will have a kind of map of where you get what kind of sun and therefore grow certain plants that fit that condition.

1. Find out what your growing season is. In the US we have the USDA Plant Hardiness Zones because different parts of the country experience different climates. Toward the North (The lower numbers of the system) the temperatures tend to be colder and toward the South the opposite. 

My zip code is considered to be in zone 10b. The zones go in 10 degree progressions and the letter a and b splits the zone in half to show if it’s on the colder half of the range (a) or the warmer (b).You can find out what zone you are in by putting your zip code at this site: Planthardiness.ars.usda.gov

It will tell you what zone you are in and the range of the lowest temperatures that your area generally experiences. That way you tell what your growing season by noting the last frost date at the end of the cold season and the first frost date at the end of the warm growing season. The time between is your growing season. For zones 10 and higher, frost is rare or never. Here is a chart to show the important frost dates of the zones:

Zone	Last Frost	First Frost
1	June 1	July 1-30
Zone 1 is in Alaska and the growing season is only a month or two.
2	May 16-31	Aug 6-31
3	May 11-25	Sept 1-30
4	April 16-30	Oct 1-15
5	April 1-15	Oct 16-31
6	Mar 16-30	Nov 1-15
7	Mar 1-15	Nov 16-30
8	Feb 1-28	Dec 1-15
9	Jan 1-30	Dec 16-31
10	Rare or Never	Rare or Never

Understanding this Hardiness Zone system will help you to select plants that will actually thrive in your area. And also the intensity of sun exposure in each zone is different. Full Sun in zone 1 is a lot different than Full Sun in Zone 10.

This system is a general guideline. Sometimes it doesn’t take into account local conditions. I was thrilled to find out that every county in the US has an “extension office” that connects with Universities in the area to give education to people wanting to garden locally as well as other local information. They will even test your soil for you and give suggestions on what amendments work best. Some counties actually run classes that teach the basics where you get to see and feel what is being talked about. They support community gardens where you can actually rent a plot or just go there and get hands-on experience with the things I can only tell you about. I highly recommend this to make it easier to get the physical reality of the info and make it more fun. And I think you will find some like minded friends there to make everything easier.

1. Dig a hole a foot deep, six inches wide in your soil and fill it with water and note the time it takes to drain. If it takes more than 4 hours you have a drainage problem and will need to amend the soil. 

Now squeeze a clump of moist but not wet soil in your hand and open your hand and see what the soil did. If it holds its form a bit but crumbles and breaks slightly when you move or poke it, Congratulations you have the ideal loamy soil. If the clump holds its shape even with the poking and moving, you likely have clay soil. If the clump breaks up when you open your hand you likely have sandy soil.

There is another test you can do called the mason jar test. You fill a clean mason jar half way with your soil sample and then add water leaving an inch shaking room. Shake vigorously for at least a minute to thoroughly mix the soil. Then set the mason jar on a flat surface. When everything settles, which will take at least a day, you will have separated the 3 component parts of the soil so you can see how much you have of each. The sand and rocks will be the bottom layer, the silt will be in the middle and the clay particles slowly rise to the top. The ideal mix is 40% sand, 40% silt and 20% clay. This makes loam. Loamy soil is the standard of good soil and then can be adjusted more closely to meet the needs of individual crops. 

The alternative to doing these tests yourself is to have the soil professionally tested. Your County Extension Office can help with that. Some may even do it for free.

After you know what your soil is like you can go through the soil amendments blog and decide what to do from there.

1. With all of that data you can start to map out your garden as to what you should plant where. Knowing the above you will be able to read the description of plants and be able to tell if you can grow them. Then you can use further information on companion gardening and soil requirements to grow them well.
2. Next is watering and maintenance like pest control and extra boosts to increase nutrition and productivity. 
3. Then the best of all; Harvesting and preserving your wonderful food creations. And don’t forget Eating!  

Well that is the basic plan. I thought it might help to organize what you have learned so far so that all of that data isn’t swimming around in your head confusing you. 

Now you can start learning ways to water and boost growth and other additional things to help your plants grow a lot of nutritious and delicious foods. If you implement these things, you never know, you might become the hero of the neighborhood and we at Herbal Roots will definitely cheer you on.

*This article is intended for informational purposes. The statements above have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.