Growing Your Own Vegetables At Home
- Because of self-quarantine we've seen a renewed interest in gardening spring up across the US. There have been reports of record demand for seeds and long linesat gardening stores. As many of us have more time at home and more concerned aboutwhere our food's coming from, it makes sense thatgardening is having a moment. I know like me, many ofyou are interested in starting a garden, orsimply growing something. So I wanna know,
This week I connect with my coworker Josh, and we level up our gardening game by talking to an expertgardener, Kevin Espiritu, of the online resource Epic Gardening. Then we'll use his tipsto build our own gardens.
I'm Lucy Biggers, andthis is "One Small Step". Interest in gardeningis having such a moment that people are comparingthis to World War II, The spike in seed sales is also similar to a rise in home gardening that followed more recent catastrophes like 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis. No matter what your motivation there are great benefits to gardening. At least one study has shown that And I think we could all use a little garden therapy right now. Josh is one of the videoeditors who works on this show. He's been in self-quarantine in Brooklyn and has plans to start a garden as well. So what are you planningto grow this spring? -
I'm planning to growbeans, peas, cabbage, beetroot, some kale,some lettuce, turnips, radishes, a bunch of different things. - What's your space like, what's your vision forwhat you're gonna do? - We decided that we'regonna grow in raised beds because the soil is no good,it's like very clay-ey, anytime it rains itjust becomes like solid. - So I'm doing raised beds too because I'm out at myparents in the suburbs and they have a huge yard. And so I was like, okay,I'm gonna do raised beds. - I'm gonna take all of my food scraps that I've been collectingin my compost bin and I'm gonna mix thosewith some leaf mulch that has been left overin the garden from winter.
I definitely don't have enough of that to fill all of my raised beds, so I'm gonna mix that withsome store-bought soil. - What level of gardener are you? - I think I'm pretty basic. I don't really know that much, to be honest, about planting outdoors. -
I think I'm like beginner novice. I did one garden lastyear, and I had containers, and it was nice 'causethere weren't as many pests. So that's one thing I'm worried about, is that having it beactually out in the yard, if it's just gonna be more vulnerable. So I'm really excited to talk to Kevin because he is a greatgardener and teacher.
I think he'll have theperfect beginner steps for us, or even somebodywho's watching this who maybe has lessexperience than us even. Just like the 101 I wanna grow something. What has it been like seeing this newfound interest in gardening because people are stuck at home and it also happens tobe spring in the US? -
The insane growth, obviously I wish it had come at some other cause, but I'm not complainingabout the fact that more people are trying to getin to grow their own food. - I would love to just get your top tips for beginning gardeners. - First thing you have to figure out is what does my space actually look like? Even if you have a balcony, does that balcony face north,does it face east, west? Is there a big building blocking it? Light is the number one thing plants need.
It's like their oxygen in a sense. It's the most importantthing that they need. - Now we're gonna assemble a raised bed. (upbeat music) (hammer tapping) So we've placed our beds. Now on the bottom we're gonnalay a layer of paper bags so that we can kill the grass before we put in thingslike the mulch and soil. Oh yeah, that looks so good. -
After you kind of know how much light and how much space you have, then you figure out what can I grow. And if you've never grown anything what I always say is, number one, grow something that you like to eat. Maybe make a list of fiveof your favorite herbs, or lettuces, or vegetables. And then from there you willgrow the easiest one of those. Right? 'Cause simple herbs arevery simple to grow. Basil, thyme, oregano,these types of things are really easy and you can leave them on and just harvest what you need. So it's continuallygrowing and you can use it in a lot of different recipes. But I mean the basics ofwhat you're gonna need is going to be either seeds or seedlings. Buy the seedlings, it'sa little more expensive, but you're skipping all thethings that could go wrong when you're starting your seed, you know. And that helps a local nursery out.
Then you're gonna needsome kind of container, some kind of soil. - It was so nice to talk to Kevin and get some clarity onhow to start a garden. These are now ready to be planted. And I'm gonna layout thegreens that I wanna do, everything about a foot apart. (upbeat music) Just finished planting,things look a little scraggly and spread out, I mightadd a few more plants in. But I think this is a first good step. I'm gonna see how they act in a few days, and I'll come back. -
The garden is looking really good. All of the plants seemto have really grown. Here are our radishes and turnips. Kale that we bought and transplanted. Tomato seedlings, they'vebeen doing really well. Been using these plasticcups to grow them. And you can see the roots in there, which is pretty cool. And so I think that will help us decide when these seem readyto go into the big pots. - And what are the biggest mistakes that you think you seebeginning gardeners make?
- Let's imagine we havea container of lettuce, and it's growing on our patio, we're gonna go and waterit everyday 'cause maybe we're stuck at home, wehave nothing else to do. We're gonna fertilize itlike crazy, all the time. and we just give themwhat they need to grow. Sometimes we give them too much, so if you give 'em too much water, too much fertilizer, I would say those are probably some ofthe more common problems you'll make, is you'rejust doing too much. -
And how do you learnwhat your plant needs? Is it instructions thatcome on the back of a seed, or just googling it? - Early on, for me, I was doingtons and tons of googling. Like okay, well how doall the brassicas grow, all your kales, and yourcabbages, and your turnips. I'm like, okay, now I know that. Oh how do tomatoes grow? 'Cause every plant,literally, is different. And they all have these differentgrowing characteristics.
So that's why I say,if you grown something you like to eat, and yougrow something simple, it's kind of the double whammy'cause you're invested in it. - What would be your advice for people who are in small spaces, apartments maybe, with not as much light? - Okay, so if you don'thave a lot of light the easiest thing you could literally grow on the planet would be sprouts. And so, sprouts it's just literally exactly what it sounds like. You're buying a ton ofseeds, you put them in a jar, and you just sprout them. - Where would be the best place to order your materials for gardening? - I think right now, if anyone can, it makes sense to support a local nursery.
I mean local nurseriesalready struggle to sustain themselves whenthey're battling against the Home Depots of the world. But if you don't have access to that, or you don't really know,then Amazon's great. There's a bunch of seed companies online that are still shipping. - It's been about two monthssince I started my garden. And I just wanna give you an update on basically how everything went.
The thing I was mostexcited about growing, my peas and my beans,didn't quite work out exactly how I thought it might. The peas, once wetransplanted them from inside they just didn't grow. But I planted a new batch and they're doing pretty well right now. So hopefully in a couple months I will have some peas to eat.
I must've got a bad batch of beans 'cause all of the beansthat I planted outside just didn't grow, so back tothe drawing board with that. But all of the other seedsthat I grew did pretty well. I thought as a way to sort of wrap this up I would make a little microgreen salad. And I just had it, it was really tasty. So it's really been really nice to kind of wrap up this whole thing,being able to eat something that I grew myself. - So it's May 5th, theweather is finally nice, where I live in Connecticut. And I'm gonna give you myfinal update on my garden. We just put in this fence,maybe it's temporary, probably could dosomething a little better.
But this is to keep outany rabbits and deer. Oh boy! And all three beds arealmost in commission. This one actually is seedlings. That you can see are coming up. This is gonna be somespinach, some radishes, these are gonna be some peas. Then these final beds. I actually have thissecond half is gonna be tomatoes and peppers when it gets warmer. And here's what I planted afew weeks ago that I recorded. And you can see therehasn't been much growth.
I think everything hasjust been waiting for the warmer weather 'til itreally has a growth spurt. So this is May 5th, and thisis what my garden looks like. Hope things grow soon. Whether you're just growing some sprouts, or building raised beds like these, I think gardening is oneof the best activities that you can do because it really connects you with nature and gives you a deeper appreciation for our food system. So my one small step for you, this week, is to grow something! Whether it's the smallest thing in your apartment windowsill,or a bigger project like this, it is just so worthwhile. And I cannot recommend it enough.
I absolutely love gardening. I'll see you guys next time. Bye. I mean, I guess, I'll just eatthis little piece of lettuce. (crunches) It tastes really good and I can't wait to eat more when my gardengets a little moving along. (laughs)
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