Terra Cotta vs. Terra Firma

Any day of the week a garden will be healthier and produce better when it's got good ground and ample sunlight; but should either of these be unavailable or severely limited, container gardening can be a great alternative.  There are a few very important differences between growing your garden in the red clay or growing it in red clay pots that need to be understood in order to make your potted garden a great success. 

First of all, whatever soil you begin with in your containers will be all the soil your plants will ever have.  For this reason, use the biggest containers that will be practical for you.  Practicality will be based on what containers might be available to you already or how much money you might be willing to spend on one or more planters.  Consider also if at any point you will have need to move your garden.  If you are planning on moving in July you may not want to start your herb garden in the largest half-barrel you can find! 

You will also want to make sure that your plants have the best soil they can to start out with.  I love using a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of soil conditioner and compost such as mushroom compost.  This mixture provides appropriate drainage and also a lot of necessary nutrients that will be available throughout the season.  Potting soils, unless some sort of fertilizer is included, are often low in nutrients and instead are simply providing a structural medium for plant roots to grow in.  Potting soils are also often made primarily of peat moss, which tends to cake up and repel water when very dry and then hold onto water for too long once it gets completely wet. 

The second characteristic to be aware of with container gardening is drainage and the need for a more consistent water supply.  Any pot or planter must have holes drilled in the bottom or your garden will fail.  Plant roots require plenty of water, but too much water pooling in the bottom of a pot prevents absorption of valuable oxygen and the plant will die.  There is the potential of working magic in a solid pot by adding a thick layer of gravel at the bottom and then putting your planting soil on top of that, but really it's just so much better to have a well-drained pot.  The limited soil area again comes into play with water needs as the less soil, the less available medium for holding moisture.  Potted plants will require more consistent watering.  During the hottest, driest days of summer in Georgia, it is likely you will have to water smaller planters twice each day. 

Then, the nature of good drainage combined with repeated watering brings up the subject of leaching.  Leaching is the process by which essential nutrients are literally washed out of the soil by rainwater or irrigation.  Whereas it is possible to garden directly in the ground without use of any kind of chemical or organic fertilizers, it is nearly impossible to successfully do so while container gardening.  If you are choosing to garden in containers, unless your soil medium contains fertilizers already, you should have in mind early on what slow-release granular fertilizer(s) or what form of water-soluble fertilizers you'll be using.  Granular fertilizers come in the form of tiny round pellets that you sprinkle on top of your plant's soil.  Make sure that any form of granular fertilizers you use are "slow-release" as otherwise they will be too strong and will "burn" your plants, causing your garden to fail.  Water-soluble forms are crystallized powders that you mix with water and then irrigate your garden with it.  Granular slow-release fertilizers can be applied once, usually not more than twice during the growing season; the recommended use for water-soluble forms is usually once every week or two weeks.  Both forms are available in either chemical/synthetic formulas or in organic/all-natural versions, and both should be used as directed on the labels.  We'll discuss the details of N-P-K and other nitty gritties of fertilizers later, but for now - anything sold for use in vegetable gardening would be a suitable choice. 

Lastly, understand that plants grown in containers are generally more susceptible to the elements than plants grown in the ground.  Tall plants like tomatoes will be less stable and will either need a larger, heavier pot to prevent toppling over on a windy day, or some sort of fence or trellis for support.  Whereas the ground works to insulate plant roots from extremes of heat and cold, potted plants will react to these extremes more readily.  If you've started an early spring garden in containers and a cooler night (like our 41-degrees last night!) might be a great time for moving the pots into the garage or against a south-facing wall of your home to help keep them warm.  Extremely hot weather makes a huge difference in how quickly the roots dry out and the heat alone can cause plants to seek dormancy as quickly as possible.  Again, the larger the pot and the more soil available to the roots, the more insulated the roots will be from these extremes.  Conversely, the larger the pot and the more soil available means the heavier the pot will be and so it will be  much more difficult to move quickly should you desire a warmer or cooler location for your plants.

Some basic guidelines overall - here again, start small.  Well, start small in terms of the number of containers and the overall number of plants, while aiming at the largest containers practical.  Make sure water is very conveniently located to the spot you have in mind for your container garden.  As with traditional gardening, invest in your soil from the beginning - give them the best start as you can't replace the soil without damaging the plant once the roots have started filling out.  Wood, concrete, or clay planters work great; plastic containers work fine but are much less durable and insulate the planting soil less than any other material.  A good rule of thumb when deciding the number of plants you can grow in containers is similar to square-foot gardening in the ground: you'll need a full square foot of soil area for the bigger plants such as peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  Four smaller plants such as lettuce or herbs can probably fit into the same area, and the like of carrots and radishes can be grown 6 or maybe even 9 to the same square foot. 

Dig it.

So... sunny spot... check?  Compost plan... check?  Shovel.... check?  Who's ready for
Homework Assignment #3:  Dig your Garden

Step One:  CALL 811 OR 1-800-282-7411 at least 48 hours BEFORE YOU DIG.  Water, sewer, underground power, cable, telephone, gas lines will all run within the right-of-way of your adjacent street  or there's the chance you have what's called a utility easement that would contain utility lines 5-10 feet adjacent to the right-of-way.  Then each of these lines will T-off to connect with your home.  The Georgia Utilities Protection Center (www.gaupc.com) recommends that you call before any type of digging activity just to be sure, but it is required by law to call within 48 hours prior to any mechanized digging.  If necessary, they will send someone out to mark your utility lines with paint or flags.  Usually though, they will only mark the utilities in the right-of-way or easement, and so use some common sense with regards to where your electric meter, water meter, gas meter, etc. are located.  Underground utilities will be located from each meter perpendicular to the street.

Step Two:  Asses your equipment needs. A shovel is a great start, and one with a pointed end can be especially helpful in digging red clay.  I also like to use my spade shovel - it has a shorter handle and a longer, squared blade.  This is great for digging down deep and then lifting the soil up to turn it over, then chopping up the clumps.  A spade isn't a shovel at all but instead is a strong 4-pronged fork tool that will dig in when the digging might be too tough to get the whole shovel blade down deep.  A spade can loosen an area up before going in with some sort of shovel.  And to be honest, you may need to use something called a maddock.  A maddock, at first glance, looks like a pick axe, but instead of a sharp, pointed head, it has what looks like a small axe on one end and a sideways axe on the other.  The head of a maddock is heavy, which means you don't have to exert a lot of effort in swinging it down into the dirt - instead your effort gets exerted lifting it repeatedly and letting it fall.  Make sure other people - especially kids - stand well out of your way when you're using a maddock!!!

You could also use a tiller; however, tillers won't do the best job breaking up a new garden spot if you've got really hard clay.  I'm not a huge fan of tilling because using one repeatedly breaks down the texture of the soil and destroys a lot of the most useful creatures within your soil, like worms.  Probably the best use of a tiller might be after you've hand-dug your garden spot, using it to break up the clumps into a finer consistency.  Rent one for this if you'd like to, then give it back.  And don't rent one again until you're starting a brand new part of your garden. 

Step Three: Plan ahead.  The best time to dig a new garden is after a day or so after a late winter, spring, or fall rain.  Mid-winter and mid-summer the ground is going to be at its hardest.  Rain softens the ground best in spring or fall, and if you wait until the ground is no longer muddy, it will dig most easily.  Never dig your garden while the ground is muddy, as it will actually serve to compact clumps together and destroy valuable air pockets in the soil texture.  I completely ruined a garden spot once by making this mistake!

Step Four: Start digging!  Remember to start small, and don't get discouraged.  The absolute best way to start is to double-dig, but if you need to, just start with dig.  Double-digging is when you dig out all the soil of your garden area to the depth of the head of your shovel.  You take out all of this soil and set it aside.  Then you dig out the next layer of soil to the depth of your shovel - meaning you've got a crater 2 shovel-lengths deep. Then you mix your compost and soil conditioner in with this soil, and shovel it all back in.  Remind me later to tell you about the time, during the slow season, my boss at the plant nursery had us double-dig about a tenth of an acre for a display garden.  Or about that day I got furious with my high school boyfriend and as a result began a new flower garden.  Double digging with a maddock can be very therapeutic.  My mom was afraid I was out there digging his grave! 

So - yeah - one depth of your shovel head or 6" to 8" can be a great start.  And remember - most of what I'm talking about here is worst-case-scenario with hard soils.  You might be pleasantly surprised with how easily your soil will dig up, and you might be willing to make your garden bigger than you originally thought.  Or you might need to scale back to just 2 or so square feet.  I'd encourage you to make the best start that you can - it's better to dig deeper and add more compost over a smaller area then to dig less deep and add less compost over a larger area.

Buy It

And so if you don't currently have a compost pile, and you don't know a horse farmer or anybody else who raises livestock, then you should consider buying some compost.  You can purchase it in bulk from a place like Georgia Groundcover - where you can either pick it up in your own truck or have it delivered.  You will get more for your money going this route than purchasing bagged compost from a garden center, but you might be getting way more compost than you really need and spending more total money that you want.  A possibility here for compromise is maybe to go in on a truckload with a neighbor or friend.

For those looking to buy a smaller amount of bagged compost, you're going to find a few basic types out there.  The following is a description with photos taken while on a recent trip at Lowe's. 

Soil Conditioner: This isn't so much a compost as coarsely-ground pine bark material.  It doesn't add a lot of nutrients to the soil but works wonders to break up the soil texture in order to improve drainage and make it easier for roots to grow.  When I worked at a plant nursery in high school, we would always recommend that when you are digging up a planting hole or a bed that you count the existing soil as 1/3 of your planting medium, add an equivalent amount of soil conditioner as the second 1/3, and use a rich compost for the remaining third. A simple way to think of it is to buy a bag of soil conditioner and either a similarly-sized bag of compost or 2 smaller bags of compost.  Since you should be digging up a minimum of 6"-8" of soil, this amount of soil conditioner and compost would ideally fix up a bed the size of the soil conditioner bag.  This is certainly an ideal situation - if you can't afford that much soil or compost - again, do what you can and add more in the fall or next spring.

Composted Manure:  This is any sort of manure that has already been composted and is ready for direct application to your garden.  My experience with purchasing this type of compost  is that the worse it smells, the better it works in your garden.  I've used some cheap stuff in the past that had no smell and really felt like black sand.  Highly questionable stuff in my opinion - did not seem to do the trick at all. Black Kow and Black Hen are suitable choices, but my favorite has always been mushroom compost.  Mushroom compost is a mixture of manures that was composted and then used to grow mushrooms in.  Apparently they can only grow one crop of mushrooms in the compost and then they have to clear it out and start with a fresh batch - so they sell it off to folks like us.  There are plenty of brands of mushroom compost out there, and here again - the worse it smells the better the compost.  And also the more expensive.  And I guarantee that after working with this stuff, the next time you buy mushrooms - you'll be washing them better than you used to.

Growing Mix:  This would include a wide variety of products, usually having some sort of fertilizer as one of the ingredients.  Like this one shown in the photo, they may be called a "Garden Mix" or "Gardening Soil" or "Potting Soil" or the like.  Many of these are peat moss based, and I'm not a huge fan of using peat moss as a soil amendment here in Georgia. When really dry, red clay tends to repel water; when really dry, peat moss tends to repel water.  When really wet, red clay tends to hold its water longer than what is best for plant roots; when really wet, peat moss tends to do the same thing.  In my opinion, the best use of this type of mixture is either in a raised bed or in container gardening where you're not actually mixing it in with red clay.  Also, if your goal is to garden organically, read labels carefully as often these mixes may include synthetic fertilizers, chemical pesticides or fungicides, and even synthetic compounds that are intended to improve water retention.  

As you're making your decisions about what you are going to add to improve your soil, head out and dig up a little.  The harder and redder your soil might be, the more you should consider investing in some good compost.  Some of you may have a lot of organic matter existing in your soil, and if so, get out there and do a happy dance!  The current condition of your soil will likely determine the size of your first garden effort.  Feel free to start as small as the size of your bag of soil conditioner! 

Shovel It

And yes we all know what "it" is and around here, it's gonna come from a cow, a horse, or a chicken.  Anything else either isn't commonly raised or it's not so good for gardens.  And to have access to this kind of compost, you'll need to first make friends with a livestock farmer, obtain a good shovel, and have access to a truck.  And then have access to a really great shower.

The most important thing to remember when using manure in your garden is that it also needs to be composted.  Fresh manure is high in nitrogen, which "burns" garden plants and can kill them.  The natural processes that occur when manure is composted, aged, or seasoned reduces the amount of nitrogen and makes it very suitable for digging into your soil or spreading on top of your garden.  Manure should be composted at least a month, and longer is better.  If you're going to be growing root crops like parsnips and carrots, you'll want to use manure that has been composted for closer to a year as fresher manure stimulates root crops to fork as they grow instead of producing one strong root.

Chicken manure is the "strongest" of these three, followed by cow manure and then horse.  Horse manure can almost be worked into your garden immediately, but if you have a chance to let it age, that's still helpful.  Horse manure especially is often mixed in with wood chips and so composting helps the chips and manure break down into a more usable texture.  All manures are likely going to include a  good many weed seeds, and composting helps these either break down or sprout and die so that the seeds aren't as much of a problem in your garden.

If you have pets, don't consider their litter to be manure.  Unless you have rabbits - rabbit manure is just fine.  But don't shovel dog litter into your garden or compost pile, and don't dump your cat's litter box into it either.  Just don't.

I Post, You Post, Let's Talk About Compost

Compost is a beautiful thing.  You take stuff that's already grown, plants that have already absorbed nutrients from the soil, and you let them break back down into those basic nutrients, ready for use by new plants.  Some plants first take a detour through a horse, cow, rabbit, chicken, cricket, or whatever and then they become compost.  Either way, it's black gold.  There are 3 basic ways to provide yourself with compost: Make it, Shovel it, or Buy it.  We'll cover these in 3 separate posts.

Making It 
One can make a compost pile or bin as complicated or as simple as you'd like.  The basic principle is that whatever organic matter you put in a pile will eventually decay and break down into a black soil-like substance that is great for your garden.  Getting from A to B fastest depends on how many rules you are willing to follow, how much you are willing to spend on a specially-engineered compost bin, and how often you want to stir up your pile.  We'll likely talk more about all these details in a later post, but for now, here's the basics.

What can go in your compost pile:  Any kind of vegetative organic matter.

Yard waste: raked leaves, weeds that have been pulled up, grass clippings, and shrub trimmings as long as the twigs aren't too thick to break down easily.  With weeds, you'll want to be careful that there are no seeds on the plants as remember - whatever goes into the compost bin will eventually go back into your garden.  As long as the weeds are young plants and have not flowered, you would be fine to include them.  You would also want to avoid including any trimmings from thorny shrubs such as hollies or rose bushes, as you'll have your hands in this stuff later.  I learned the hard way while raising 15 rosebushes that this is a mistake you will regret for years to come!

Kitchen waste: Just make sure no meat or eggs get included as that can introduce a fly (or worse) problem or even allow harmful bacteria to get started in your compost pile.  Egg shells are okay.  Coffee grounds are great, along with the paper filters.  And just for fun - look for new compostable packaging that companies are coming up with these days.  I bought a hot tea from somewhere once with a compostable cup and compostable lid!  Sun Chips now come in a compostable bag.  You'll also want to keep an eye out for seeds from kitchen waste too.  Some folks don't care, as having a butternut squash magically appear and thrive in your cucumber bed can always be fun (and tasty); but I've learned my lesson and I try to dig out those larger, harder vegetable seeds and just throw them in the trash.

Other stuff: Like paper.  Newspaper is great, shredded paper is better.  Paper towels, paper napkins, paper bags, etc.  I'm a little bit judicious in the paper I put into my compost pile - sticking to unbleached stuff without a lot of ink.  Office paper is bleached with unnatural chemicals, and there's all kinds of unnatural stuff that can be found in ink.  But really, even that stuff will break down - it just takes more time - so that depends on your slant on the organic issue.

Maintaining a balance: For compost efficiency, it's best to use a ratio of 2 parts dry ingredients to 1 part "wet" ingredients.  Dry ingredients would include raked leaves, dried up weeds, or  paper whereas wet ingredients would be almost all kitchen waste and anything still green.  Grass clippings would be a wet ingredient, and would need to be stirred in well with other stuff so that it doesn't turn into a green slimy moldy mess.  It's tricky to maintain this balance as in the fall and winter dry ingredients are plentiful, and in the spring and summer they are hard to find.  Again though - this is for the sake of efficiency.  If you can't keep up with the ratio, be prepared to "stir" your pile more often and maybe consider building/buying a bin with some sort of roof or lid to help keep the rain off.

Stirring or Shoveling:  The more you stir your pile (or rotate your bin if you purchase the barrel kind with a handle!), the faster you'll get usable compost.  Stirring distributes the organisms that are working hard for you to break down your compost, aerates the pile which is also helpful, and minimizes clumping of wet ingredients.  It's not a fun job, but it doesn't take long and it's very necessary.

Location and Storage: Ideally your compost pile would be located very close to your home so that you could get to it conveniently. And ideally your compost pile would be located far away from your home so as not to attract critters.  Yeah - so you'll need to find a balance.  Unless you do purchase or build a completely-enclosed composting system, I cannot deny it - critters will get involved.  It's usually not a horrible problem, but you wouldn't want to be attracting the occasional possum or raccoon right out beside your back door.  As far as storage, it's fine to simply have a freestanding compost pile.  That's certainly the easiest type to stir!  (Again, unless you purchase a bin with a hand crank).  But if there does arise a significant critter concern, a more substantial bin or barrel is a good investment.  And really - it's great to have at least 2 piles or bins: one that you are currently adding fresh material to and the other that's basically full and you're stirring and waiting for it to be ready for use in your garden.  

What's my compost bin like?  Our bin is constructed of stacked concrete blocks that we got via freecycle and it's got a piece of plywood as a cover.  We use our compost bin more as a way of disposing of kitchen/yard waste and less as a high-production compost operation.  I stir it once every couple of months.  About once a year I'm able to dig out a wheelbarrow full of the rich black stuff and spread it on our garden.  I've got one close friend and several other acquaintances who own horse farms, and I depend on them for most of my soil enrichment.  But we'll discuss that in the next post.

Let's Talk Dirt.

Red dirt.  mmmmmmm... I have a deep affection for this red dirt.  But I'll save that for another post.  Digging through the family archives to find want I want to share...

But for now, we'll stick with some basics.  In my high school years, as part of being certified a South Carolina Nurseryman, I memorized page after page of what chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and the like were needed in order to make great things grow from this red dirt.  Our red dirt is "too acidic" which ties up certain nutrients that plants require to thrive, so they aren't available to help the plant.  And so you should add lime to the soil to help balance the acidity.  Then to make the soil more fertile you should add plenty of slow-release fertilizers.  Red dirt doesn't drain well and so maybe you should add some sand.  It also doesn't hold water well to make it available to plants and so there's this...stuff.... I'm not even going to bother looking up what it's called, but it's basically synthetic particles that absorb water and turn into a gel-like substance to help hold water in the soil or something like that.  Even as a teenager who had been previously immersed in chemical gardening and landscape production, something just didn't seem right with this picture.  Even among the owners and staff of the plant nursery I worked for then - where we did use plenty of chemicals - something about seeing it all laid out like that in charts with appendixes about all the legal requirements regarding safe usage of these materials... something about that made us a little uncomfortable.

So really, just scrap all that and let's talk compost.
[Enter here my very strong slant towards organic gardening]

It's an Organic Matter
One of my top 3 favorite classes that I took at UGA was Dr. Kim Tan's Agronomy 101 (soil science).  He explained how our soil was full of nutrients, and was teeming with living things that all worked together in a marvelous ecosystem that for the most part, benefited the plants we want to grow.  There was still plenty of discussion about synthetic soil additives, but he always backed it up with the benefits of compost.  Which he then backed up with some suggestions of how synthetic additives harm those tiny creatures that benefit our soil.  I was terribly impressed with his slant, and I sat there wide-eyed every single class time.  


Without going into all the science behind it, I'll share some things I learned:


TRUE: In general, our Georgia red clay drains poorly.  This means that water has trouble working it's way down into the root zone of our plants, and it sometimes has trouble working it's way through and out of the root zone.  It can be a challenge for our plants to get the moisture they need as rain often runs along the surface of the soil without soaking in and then once it does soak in, it stays there too long, preventing access to the oxygen that roots need as well.
Solution:  Adding organic matter to the soil breaks up the soil's structure.  This allows rainwater to easily penetrate to plant roots and allows the excess water to drain away.  


TRUE:  Georgia red clay is often hard and heavy, difficult for roots to penetrate.
Solution: Adding organic matter breaks up the clay-like texture, softening the soil so that roots can grow freely.  


TRUE: Georgia soils are generally rich in plant nutrients, but they are very acidic, which chemically "ties up" nutrients so that plants cannot absorb them.
Solution: Adding organic matter works to dilute the soil acidity and make those nutrients available once again.


TRUE:  Although Georgia soils are rich in mineral nutrients, they are often lacking other more organic nutrients.  (This isn't really correct science to word it that way, but I'm trying to stay practical).
Solution:  Adding organic matter provides nutrients that our soils lack.


TRUE: Georgia red clay retains heat in the summer, which heats up plant roots, causing some to go into dormancy or die sooner than they would otherwise.  Although initially, triggering dormancy will lead to a sudden maturing and ripening of produce, after everything is ripe, the plant will stop producing and die.
Solution: Adding organic matter creates a cooler consistency.  


Solution to pretty much everything when it comes to growing a garden: Adding organic matter.  Even when it comes to pests - it's an established fact that healthy plants rarely have pest problems.  And a healthy plant comes from healthy soil.  Healthy soil - soil that is living and thriving with all of the good things that God made to coexist in our soils.  He made them for a reason, let's cultivate them!  


(And if your head's spinning about not having a compost bin, no worries... we'll talk more about compost and organic matter and where to get you some in the next post.)

Homework Assignment #2: Think about these things

As you're waiting for the sunshine (today is supposed to be cloudy but right now it's very bright and beautiful here!) or as you're walking your yard, think about these things with regards to your potential sunny spots:

Can I get water to this spot by hose or by watering can, and will I be willing to carry a watering can this far if necessary?  Either way, you'll want to make sure you'll have convenient access to a water source - either a spigot, or a sink with a tall faucet or bathtub.  If you're in doubt about how far you may be willing to carry water, fill up your watering can or a bucket and trek around a little, keeping in mind that you may be doing that very thing once every day in the heat of summer!  

How far away is this spot from the door you use most often to your home?  This makes a BIG difference in how much attention your garden will get - After all, we're trying to build a new habit and it will help if you walk past your garden several times each day.  

Think about the areas you might be considering for your garden in terms of other creatures.  Do you have deer in your neighborhood?  A great many squirrels or chipmunks?  Rabbits?  And if you are aware of a persistent pest problem in your existing lawn or landscape shrubs, directly adjacent to those areas might not be the best choice.  

Is your potential garden spot in an area known to be especially wet or dry?  If mildly so, these are issues that can be improved; but if a spot is excessively wet or dry you should probably choose another place.  

What about wind?  Wind isn't a great danger to most garden plants but may require you to stabilize plants better or water more often.  

Think about how big you might want your garden to be.  It may only be 1 square foot, big enough for one tomato, pepper, or squash plant.  4 such plants would require 4 square feet.  You'll need to find a balance between how many vegetables you want to grow and how much area you might be willing to dig up and later maintain.  It is very easy to take on too much garden at first, and end up feeling discouraged because you can't keep up with maintenance, so I suggest you start well within your comfort range.  

Thinking through and answering these questions will help you choose the absolute best spot for your garden.  And if you're okay with it, there's nothing wrong with starting a garden in the middle of your front yard!  You'll likely feel more pressure to maintain it, but if that's not daunting to you, go for it!  And just maybe you'll inspire your neighbors to start a garden too.

Please post questions about any of this as a comment - I'll be happy to answer them!

Step One: Good Day Sunshine!

[The next couple week's worth of posts will be geared toward getting a first-time gardener going: simple steps that shouldn't take much time or money but will get you digging in the right place.]

Homework Assignment  #1:  Identify the sunniest spots in your yard

The patterns of sunlight and shade that bend and kaleidoscope across your spot on the globe are the single most important determining factor in choosing where to dig and plant.  After all, we can modify the soil characteristics, we can irrigate a dry area, we can shield a windy spot, but we cannot control the sun and how it reaches the ground - well, not unless you want to go cutting down a tree.  The availability of sunlight on your ground will determine where you plant, and in the most limiting cases, if you may have to resort to container gardening.

We all know that the sun rises east and sets west, but what goes on in between, specifically between the hours of 10am and 4pm, is what you need to figure out first.  If you've lived in your home several years you may have some familiarity with this, but I still recommend playing close attention.  Again - this is the deal breaker when it comes to gardening.  And when we talk about "full sun," morning sun or late afternoon sun or filtered sun (shining through tree branches) doesn't count.  You'll need a minimum of 4 hours of strong beautiful mid-day sunshine, and much better if you can get 6.

An easy check to narrow down where you'll be looking is to Google map your address and click the "satellite" option.  As north is always straight up on these maps, you can get a good idea of the orientation of your house.  Areas immediately to the east or north of your home, other structure, or tree are going to be too shady.  You'll be looking to the south and west of homes, structures, or trees for the best spots.

Then hopefully in the next few days we'll get a beautiful springlike morning and you can celebrate it by getting out and walking your yard, preferably starting about 10 am.  If you can take another look every hour or so until 4pm, that will be most helpful!  Sketch out the shade lines hour-by-hour if that works for you, or if you'd enjoy a more physical effort, drag out a garden hose or rope and delineate the shade lines then take an hourly picture.  At the end of the day you will have identified the spots with the most sun.  Do pay careful attention though to the areas that are shaded by tree branches.  What today may be a few arcs of shade will in 4 more weeks be completely shaded out once deciduous trees grow their leaves.

If your sunniest spots are found to be at the end of your driveway or on your deck, your new gardening best friend will be Terra Cotta, and you should start looking out for a deal on a few good-sized pots.

Not quite sure where I'm going with this yet...

But I've got so many friends who have expressed an interest in starting a garden for the first time, or learning to garden better, or are just hoping to save a little money at the grocery store by growing your own instead!  I often hear "We need to have you over to see if you can help us..." and because I love to garden, I'd love to share what I know and realized the other day that a blog might be a very practical way to do so.

My goal here is to make gardening simple - to show you that a garden doesn't require you to clear your schedule on a spring Saturday and get to Home Depot right as it opens and then spend exactly $219.54 on tools, fertilizers, soil amendments, seeds, and plants and then spend the whole day digging in red clay that is so much harder than you anticipated, stopping at about 11:19 in the morning, questioning yourself, thinking how much simpler it would be to go buy some Romaine at Publix right now, and maybe a 6 pack of Sam Adams to go with it.  It would rain all day that Saturday anyways.

Instead, I'm hoping to inspire and encourage you into doing some little thing today, and then another little thing tomorrow, then skip a couple of days and maybe go buy 2 packs of seeds the day after that... and slowly and gradually work your way to the most satisfying tomato sandwich you've ever eaten.

I'm not guaranteeing that this will be the year you'll have a spectacular garden, because so much of gardening is trial-and-error.  But if you don't start erring, you're never going to learn what makes gardening work for you, in your soil.  This is about starting your garden - not somebody else's, not the garden you see pictures of on the front of all those springtime magazines at the checkout aisle.  It's about you getting your hands into the dirt and building a relationship with that dirt, and seeing what can grow from that relationship.  (Don't worry... posts will rarely include yoga positions, mantras, talking to or tasting your dirt... rarely.  We're talking practicals here, but you will really need to get to know your dirt.)  Some relationships click very easily, some take more time.

I'm also not guaranteeing that this will be easy, and I'm not guaranteeing results.  What I hope to do is keep it simple.  So that yes, you - YOU, right now, can decide to start a garden.  And if you stick with it for even just a few weeks, I do guarantee that you'll learn something that will make you a better gardener.

My credentials?  I come from a line of gardeners who learned to garden from their farming fathers.  I've learned from my dad, his parents, my great aunt who worked for the Extension Service all her life, and my mom's father who kept a 1/2 acre garden spring and fall every year for 50 years and taught me to garden organically in the last years of that garden.  I worked very hard in a diverse plant nursery for 5 years, and at 17 I was the youngest person to be certified as a South Carolina Nurseryman....or woman.  And I'm a registered Landscape Architect.  I'm not going to claim to know all the answers, and many answers I'm hoping we'll learn together - but these dirty habits have been a way of life for me since... well since I could pick up a trowel.

I'm hoping to keep this light and fun - I might visit garden centers and post reviews.  I hope to visit some of our local organic farms and post what I learn from them.  I hope you'll send me your questions, and I'll try to answer them.  I hope you'll join me and at least give it a shot at building your own dirty habits!