Published: June 30, 2008 09:47 am            

LIFESTYLE: Dig in to self-gardening

First the greens, now the tomatoes. It’s enough to convince even the most urbanized city slicker to consider starting a vegetable garden.

The recent salmonella invasions have tainted a variety of the country’s favorite vegetables, but attacking the tomato may be the last straw.

Tomato lovers — the same ones who consider a bite of a fresh tomato as a gift to their own bodies — may be looking for another way to get their regular fix of the beloved fruit, and they don’t have to look beyond a pot on the patio or that patch of lawn out the back door.

For the least adventurous, a few pots in a patio garden will yield enough produce to provide crunch to more than a handful of summer of meals, according to Richard Dorr, president of Niagara County Produce.

For the more adventurous, a vegetable garden can be simple to create, according to Barbara Stafford, co-president of the Lewiston Garden Club. Stafford, whose club is holding GardenFest this weekend in Lewiston, offered a few tips to those who’ve never had the satisfaction of turning the soil and growing their own fruits and vegetables.

“You can grow a great deal of food in a very small space,” said Stafford, seated in the sunshine at the edge of her own garden. “You don’t have to spend very much money for the amount of food you harvest.”

A simple garden in a 12-foot-by-12-foot space doesn’t even require digging, she said.

Here are some of the basic steps.

• Choose a space that gets the most sun possible.

Six hours a day of sunshine is good. More is better.

• Get some old newspapers and some stones or edging.

“First, you put down a layer of old newspapers,” she said, “about a half inch worth.” Then, build a little wall around the edge of the garden with stones or edging. It doesn’t need to be very high, just high enough to hold in the topsoil.

• Order some topsoil.

“I like to buy topsoil with the compost already mixed in,” Stafford said.

Daisy Moore, a manager at Adams Nursery in the Town of Tonawanda, estimated that a 12-foot-by-12-foot garden would require about a yard of topsoil for about $40, but noted most nurseries don’t deliver such a small amount so you may have to cart it home yourself or buy it in bags. There are about 17 bags in a yard of topsoil, and bags are sold for about $4 each.

• Purchase some seeds or baby veggie plants.

Moore said to remember, “You get what you pay for,” so you might want to skip the seeds at the discount stores — which may be old or too dried up — and buy premium at the nurseries. It’s too late in the growing season for seeds anyway, but some nurseries still have a lot of baby vegetable plants.

• Put a weed barrier down between rows.

Stafford’s garden is striped with rows of dirt separated by strips of black plastic garbage bags, held down by 1-inch-by-4-inch planks. The purpose of the plastic is to keep the weeds from growing.

“You can buy weed barrier, but that’s way more expensive and I’m cheap,” she said, smiling. Mulch in a vegetable garden is even better but it has to be laid thickly to keep the sun out so the weeds don’t grow through it, she said.

• Get some seeds or baby plants.

“I used to sprout my own seeds indoors, but you have to start in February,” Stafford explained.

Now, she only buys seeds for green beans and lettuce. She recommends the beginner buy one pack of lettuce and one pack of green bean seeds, and about four tomato plants for a 12-foot-by-12-foot garden, as well as four strong stakes to hold up the tomato plants as they grow.

• Water regularly.

Keep the dirt moist until the seeds germinate. “That doesn’t mean soak it, just keep an eye on it,” she said. “You don’t want the soil to get dry and rocky.

• Fence it in.

Stafford has a knee-high wire fence around her garden, with spaces too small for the bunnies to get through.

• Forget the garden and get some containers.

For those who find a vegetable garden too high-maintenance, a container garden may be the way to go.

Dorr said that container gardens are for the space-deprived who simply want to enjoy watching things grow.

What can you grow in a pot on the porch?

“Of course, tomatoes are easy to grow,” said Dorr, whose Amherst produce company will opening a new store in Lockport in mid-July. “Peppers and eggplant always grow good in pots.”

He said he has seen cucumbers grow nicely in pots if their long vines are attached to stakes like tomatoes.

“The more sun you provide for them, the better they’ll grow. You’ve got to have a least four hours of sun,” he said, “and you do need to fertilize them to keep them nice and healthy.”

Dorr recommends the type of plant fertilizer that can be mixed with water so plants can be watered and fertilized at the same time. “If it’s really warm, you have to water the plants daily,” he said.

What is the yield on a few containers full of veggies?

“With a tomato plant, you can get between 12 and 25 tomatoes. On the upright cuke plants, I’ve seen them get up to eight nice cucumbers,” Door said.

There’s still time in the season to start a vegetable garden. Those who do may find out that there’s no greater satisfaction than watching a plant grow into healthy food.

Stafford is already using the leaf lettuce from her garden for fresh salads. She’s waiting patiently for her favorites to grow.

“It’s great to get the first taste of lettuce, but not as good as the first taste of green beans or tomatoes,” she said.

Contact reporter Michele DeLuca at 693-1000, ext. 157.

        

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