Starting a Garden for the First Time?

How to Start a Summer Garden

Part One: Clearing the Land

Organic Gardening Video Series

Hello! You have found this post because you are interested in starting a garden. I want to start by saying gardening is a very rewarding hobby. Growing your own food is so satisfying. Starting a project and working through it will add another dimension to your life. It can also give you the confidence to tackle other projects you have been dreaming about doing. Starting from scratch is sometimes the most fun. Whether you have grown your own vegetables in the past or this is your first time. I want to help encourage you to get out in the garden and start working. It can be a scary task and easy to put off, but once you dive in, you will feel so much better. Plus, remember, we are in this together. So that means post video responses of where you are in the process. I would love see other peoples gardening space and watch them develop.

Step One: Clear a plot of land

In this video I show my techniques for clearing a plot of land. At first clearing out weeds and shrubs from your garden may seem tedious, but take it slow, area by area, and before you know it you will have a clear piece of land.

Zucchini Plant Problems: Help! Yellow Leaves, Yellow Fruit. What is wrong?

Growing Zucchini in Container: Zucchini Plant's leaves and fruit turning Yellow

My zucchini plant use to be the star of my garden. I started it from seed about a month and a half ago and now it is easily the biggest plant I have. It is in a 5 gallon container with a soil manure mixture. I water it daily for about 20-60 seconds. Lately I've noticed that the larger leaves are yellow. I had small zucchini coming it. It was so cute and green, but it stopped growing and turned yellow.

This is my yellowing zucchini plant:
Night View:

New healthy zucchini growing in: Poor small pollen deficient yellow zucchini:

The Diagnosis

There are two direct problems with the plant. 1.The yellowing of the zucchini plant's leaves points to nitrogen deficiency. 2. The plant is not being pollinated. I will first address the nitrogen problem.

Zucchini plants are heavy feeders and crave the vital NPK nutrients. N stands for nitrogen. Nitrogen promotes leave growth and vegetation. P stands for phosphorus which promotes root and shoot growth. K misleadingly stands for potassium which promotes flowering and fruiting.

Since my zucchini plant is in a pot it has quickly drained all the nutrients out of the soil manure mix. This is an important lesson for first time container growers. Since the plant has a limited supply of dirt, you must replace the nutrient with fertilizers routinely.

To organically, quickly, and effectively treat my zucchini plant I'm giving it bat guano. Mix about a tablespoon into 1/4 gallon of water (I use an old Gatorade container). Watch as the leaves transfer from yellow into a nice healthy green. Wait 3-4 days and repeat if the leaves are not the desired color. You can see the progress of the zucchini plant as it turns from yellow to green after it's treatment here: zucchini plant treatment

Now I will address the pollination problem. If your zucchini looks like the picture below then it has not be pollinated and you will have to manually pollinate the plant. Zucchini plants have both male and female flowers.

This is a picture of a male zucchini flower's stamen, which holds the pollen:

This is a picture of a female zucchini flower's pistil, which collects the pollen. The easiest way to decipher an male zucchini flower from a female zucchini flower is that the female flower will be attached to a zucchini vegitable:

To pollinate the female flower use your finger or a q-tip to collect pollen from the male flower, then wipe it on the female flower's pistils.

Introducing My First Garden: Apartment Gardening in Containers made Possible

Welcome to My First Garden

Take a look around:

The garden is growing nicely and is really enjoying the hot Chico, California weather. I have planted the typical summer vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, melons, strawberries and cucumbers. I also have some cool weather crops in my garden because when I decided to start the garden I didn't really know what seeds to start, so I just picked out veggies I wanted to grow: kale, swish chard, and broccoli. Join me in my gardening adventures! These pictures were taken about a month ago:

I can't believe how big it has gotten since I have taken those previous pictures. Look at it now (picture taken June 16th):

This is my first garden and these are my experiences. I'm Emily Marie follow me as a beginner learns about growing a home garden. My goal is to be able to grow enough food for my and my boyfriend, so we can eat fresh local organic veggies instead of produce bought from the supermarket. I want to live a healthy lifestyle, help the environment, and eventually become urban suburban survivalist (until I get my own farm land).

I live in an apartment, so the space is limited. This blog will be especially helpful to people who will be growing gardens in small spaces and container gardening.