LAZY GARDENING - Home Grown Food the EASY Way!

Planning ahead makes your garden less labor-intensive. Your site needs SUNSHINE and WATER. Make sure you have ready access to water, and plenty of sunshine.

To measure the amount of sunshine daily for potential sites, you can put pieces of paper around your yard (hold 'em down with rocks, so they don't blow away), and every hour, go out and mark if the piece of paper is in sun or shadow.

Here are some minimum sunlight requirements:

-- Fruiting Vegetables - 8 hours of sun This includes tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and vine crops such as cucumbers, melons, and squash.

-- Root Vegetables - 6 hours of sun Carrots, beets, etc.

-- Leafy Vegetables - 4 hours of sun These are your "greens" such as lettuce, spinach and collards.

Now that you've found your site, start thinking about how to lay out some beds. A good size is 4' by 12', as it isn't too wide for you to lean across, and you don't need to step into it to harvest or weed (you don't want to compact the soil).

Allow space between for walking, and if you're going to be moving, make sure the pathways are wide enough your mower can get through, too.

Raised beds are KEY. They keep the weeds down by using good soil with good drainage, they bring the plants closer to you since they're raised up a bit, and they make it so you don't have to till up the soil (or double dig it!). You can build your own rectangular or square beds, or you can get connectors (sold at Fred Meyer) that you can simply slide lumber into, and they make instant beds with no extra staking or nails.
You can use treated lumber (more expensive) or staple black plastic on the interior to protect against moisture from the dirt leaching into the wood. Be sure to stake your beds if they are on a slope-they'll move!

Put several layers of non-colored newspaper down in the bottom of the bed, or use non-waxed cardboard. This will help kill of the existing grass. Then dump in the soil.

Great soil is another key! You can dig soil from somewhere else, compost your own, or buy it (have it delivered in bulk is much less expensive than buying individual bags).

Even with raised beds, it is still good to have a comfy place to sit-both for working in the raised beds, and to just enjoy your garden. How about a bench for relaxing with a friend, and a small rolling cart or stool you can sit on when you're planting or weeding?

Stooping is painful and no fun. A comfy place to sit will make a big difference!

It is hard to wait for good things to happen, so why do it?

Here are a few ideas to jump start that garden for some instant satisfaction:
--Put in an herb garden, using perennials. You'll have green in your garden year round!
-- Invest in some plants that are already started, available from nurseries

Compost is a wonderful thing, and there are plenty of gadgets and ideas to get quick, gorgeous compost, but they're often a lot of work or expensive. Here's a different idea, if you don't need instant results:

Set up your raised bed where you want it..
Put newspaper or unwaxed cardboard in the bottom
Start dumping in things like grass clippings, raked leaves, food scraps (no meat, bones, weeds with seeds, or grease), manure, a bit of straw, and then sprinkle with dirt or a bag or two of packaged potting soil. Water it in, or just wait for some good rainfall.

This will break down more slowly than the quicker type of compost, as it doesn't depend on heat to break down. Still, if you start a new bed in fall, it will be ready for spring planting (check the PH if you can to make sure it isn't too acidic-if it is, add some lime to 'sweeten' the soil). Potatoes are a good bed for this loose, new soil.

Mulch, a thick covering put on the sides of the plants, helps conserve moisture and smother weeds. What could be better than that! Use leaves or composted vegetable matter. I use straw, bought as a bale and split into 'flakes'. Each flake is about 4" thick, perfect for laying on top of the soil, and still getting enough heat and water through to have healthy plants.

Weeds popping up through the mulch? They're going to have to be pretty tough to try, but spent a few minutes pulling out any weeds when you're in your garden. The bigger they are, the tougher they get, and the more chance they'll release weed seeds into your veggies! Make it easy-weed after you water!

The easiest way to water a garden is a timer, and a soaker hose/drip irritation system. If you're not up to this, try a sprinkler in a permanent site. Check under your mulch to make sure how damp the soil is so you don't over- or under- water.

Be aware that cats may think your garden is their personal litter box, or that your dog will enjoy flinging all that nice loose dirt! Squirrels, raccoons, and chickens are all pests to a garden. Consider having a fence or installing a motion-activated sprinkler

Raised beds are most efficient if all of the space available is used, and that means planting in blocks instead of rows. Less wasted space!

Don't have much room? Many vegetables are grown on types of vines, and are ideal for training UP on a trellis. This also adds a different shape and color to your garden. You can trellis cucumbers, melons (if the melon is supported), indeterminate tomatoes, beans, peas, and many varieties of squash.

Have some garden shoes that are easy and can be easily cleaned! I use rubber garden clogs. A great sun hat helps, too.

For raised beds, there is not a huge list of needed tools. I use a spading forks (usually just a small one), a hand trowel, and a larger flexible rubber bucket to keep all my tools and gloves handy. I use another one for hauling off weeds, carrying harvest veggies, moving dirt, etc.

Having your garden be a place of solace and beauty will help make it more fun to maintain-if you like to be there, it isn't a chore!

--Ornament a gate, or install an arbor
-- Put in sculpture or colorful pottery
-- Windchimes or beautiful row markers
-- Plant some flowers on the edges of the raised beds, or climbing roses up a fence. Scented marigolds are pretty and naturally deter many pests.

Having the family in the garden together makes it less lonely for you, teaches the kids valuable life lessons, and produces more food. Besides, kids who garden tend to eat more vegetables! Don't have kids? Split a garden with a friend!

--Get the kids their own gloves and kid-sized garden utensils
--Let the kids dig in the dirt and play in the water
-- Encourage children with easy veggies-pumpkin or sunflower seeds can be amazing and easy to grow!
-- Have the kids help you make a scarecrow, or put up pretty mylar tape to frighten away birds