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Frequently Asked Questions

 Now is the best time!
 
If you think you'll want to plant a garden in the spring, now is the best time to start.

While my garden is a year round activity, most are not.  From the time my summer vegetables are over for the season until spring planting time, I concentrate on nourishing the soil.  I'll plant beets, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, carrots and such things in about half my beds.  In the other half I'll spread a pound or two of alfalfa, or alfalfa meal, for each square foot of bed.  I'll add the amount of bone meal, kelp meal and fish meal indicated on the package labels, dig it all into the soil and saturate the soil with water. 

After a few days, I scatter legume (beans, peas,  etc.) seeds by hand, and spread a thin layer of straw or shredded alfalfa over that, just enough to cover them and water it down.  They'll grow well through our colder months.  Just as the legumes start to blossom, I'll chop them up and dig them into the soil.  The roots will be laden with nitrogen, and the green legumes dug into the soil will feed the earthworms, fungi, molds and other micro-organisms that are vital to healthy soil.  Then I'll cover the bed with a sheet of 6 mil plastic (available in any hardware store) and put rocks in enough places around the edges to hold it down until I'm ready to plant.  That is a well prepared garden bed! 

How much time does it take per week to have a good productive garden?

You'll be happily surprised.  On a year round average, I don't have to spend more than an hour per week.  If you follow the DVD and the articles in the web site, you should have to spend no more than that if you have 400-500 square feet of growing beds. 

It took time to build my raised beds, fill them with compost and topsoil, and put a water faucet in each bed to attach a drip system in each.  Raised beds and a faucet in each bed aren't essential to a good garden.  I've read that raised beds are more productive than conventional gardens by 4 to 5 times.  I've read that you'll get 50% more production by using a drip system than watering by any other method, and I've read that not walking on your soil, as you wouldn't need to do with a raised bed, you'll get 50% more production.  I think that's all true.

How much does it cost?

Of course your answer is dependent on the total space you want to garden, whether or not you want to put in raised beds and/or a drip system, and how much topsoil and/or compost you need or want to buy.

For my entire gardens, I spend in the neighborhood of $300-$400 per year on my 420 square feet of total bed surface. 

I consider that if I didn't have the vegetable gardens I would have lawn and shrubs, so my water costs are about the same.  I buy either bales of alfalfa hay or bags of alfalfa meal and bales of straw from a local Feed and Grain store once per year.  Legume seeds, kelp meal, bone meal, and fish meal I buy in bulk 20 lb. quantities, which last for 2-3 or 4 years.  Seeds and clear plastic sheeting cost a total average of about $40 per year.   If my tomato crop alone has a retail value of only $2.00 per lb., this years 80 sq. ft. bed, about 20% of my total space, returned over $1,700. in value.  (Actually, in Los Angeles, "organic" or "vine ripened" tomatoes cost closer to $4-$5.00 per lb.)

Is the DVD applicable in my climate?

Absolutely!  The basics of good gardening are universal.  Ultimately, good gardens reduce down to only 3 essentials: Adequate sunlight, adequate water and good soil.  In any climate where plants will grow, you only need to find which vegetables do well in your climate.  I don't know of any inhabited place on earth where some vegetable or another won't grow well.  Some of the biggest vegetables I've ever seen photos of were grown in Alaska.   Many years ago, some very good friends in Stockholm, Sweden, being fascinated with my gardens, built a small raised bed and planted potatoes, following my directions via e-mail.  They had a wonderful crop of the best potatoes they or their friends and family had ever tasted.  Since then they've been growing carrots and several other vegetables just as successfully. 

While doing historical research in college, I read copies of letters and diaries written by some of the first inhabitants of the Dakotas and Kansas.  They told their families and friends back east about the enormous vegetables they were growing in the virgin soil.  That was my first  inspiration to try to re-create soil that hadn't been destroyed by chemicals and all manner of abuse.

If I don't buy a DVD, will you still answer my gardening quetions?

Of course!  Lee loves to teach people anything he can about gardening and responds to every e-mail, usually daily.  You can write via the web site, or directly to Lee at:  ezgarden@hotmail.com

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