Hello everyone,
Rob Greenfield here in the garden.
And today, I am going to share my
tips for beginner gardeners.
So if you are out there feeling like
you have a black thumb,
feeling like whatever you plant dies,
and you are dreaming of
having a green thumb,
dreaming of growing
an abundance of food
and having that fresh food
on your table to eat,
then this is the video for you.
[music]
I actually feel like I am in a really
good position to be able to share
these tips with you.
The reason why is it is not that
long ago that I was a complete
rookie gardener myself.
Go back just 3 years ago
and I had grown very little food
and then I launched into
a year long project of attempting to
and successfully growing and foraging
everything that I ate for an entire year.
During that year, I grew over 100
different foods in my garden.
So I quickly went from a beginner,
who had grown very little,
to a pretty experienced gardener,
who has spent hundreds of hours
in my garden and other people's gardens,
both in the United States
and in other parts of the world.
So I am in a place where I can still
remember the nights of frantic searching online,
and calling friends, and seeds not sprouting,
and plants dying and just that fear.
To now having the confidence
and really being way beyond that beginner stage.
So that is why I am really excited
to be able to share this advice with you.
From a recent beginner to a now,
pretty decent gardener.
So my 1st tip is a really simple one,
and that is to start small.
A lot of people have this dream
of turning their whole yard into a garden
and growing and incredible amount of food.
That is a wonderful dream to have.
I completely support it.
But what a lot of people miss out on
is the fact that it does not happen
over night that you go from having
very little gardening skills,
to all of a sudden this paradisical garden.
Everybody has to start somewhere.
For a lot of us who do not have
gardening in our background,
our parents did not garden,
where we are starting kind of
from scratch as adults,
starting small is one of my absolute
key places for beginner gardeners.
That could mean a small raised
bed in your front yard.
It coud mean some plants
on your balcony or on your windowsill.
Do not put yourself down for
any amount of food that you grow.
Any amount of food you grow
is a really positive step forward.
So start small and each season,
you can add on more and more and more.
This will also build your confidence
one step at a time.
If you start with way more
than you can possibly handle,
often it gets away from you,
you become overwhelmed,
and then you just kind of lose it all.
So, if that is the case for you
and you do not think you can
go big right away,
absolutely start small.
Now, if you have so much free time,
and you really think
this is what you want to do,
I am not discouraging you from going big,
but definitely, one of my
number one tips is start small.
If you feel like that is what is
needed for you at the time.
Next up is keep it local.
Really try to seek out the local resources.
The truth is that the gardening
knowledge is almost everywhere.
It is often that we pass it up.
We do not realize that anybody
gardens in our area
because we are not looking for it.
We do not realize it.
But everywhere around the country
and around the world,
there are local resources
that really know that area well.
Seek out local nurseries,
local seed companies, local gardeners.
If you are driving around your neighborhood,
and you see a garden
in someone's front yard, knock on that door
and say hello and talk to them.
A really great way to go local
is community gardens.
Join a community garden
so that you can learn what plants
are growing well there, get support from them.
Another thing is local classes.
If you can find classes that are in your area,
that is a great way to get the knowledge
that is based on your area.
And then books, as well.
Check out your local library.
Often they will have books that are
based on your region or your state.
For example, when I was in Florida,
I got Robert Bowden's book,
which was Florida Fruit and Vegetable Gardening.
It was geared exactly towards my
area and leaves out so much of the
information that I did not need.
It focuses on the information that you need.
Keeping things as local as you possibly can.
And then that moves into the next one.
They are pretty much tied together.
That is garden as a community.
Garden together.
There is no reason to do this alone.
If you are at home alone,
doing this all by yourself,
and all you are doing is looking
on the internet, facebook groups,
things like that, watching Youtube videos.
Sure those things are helpful,
but it is easy to feel
really overwhelmed and unempowered
when it is all by yourself.
So get involved with others.
When I had my garden in my front yard,
I would have people drive by
and I would see them stop and look.
I would encourage them to stop by.
One time I even had someone
knock on my door and he very timidly said,
"I know this is awkward,
but I have been dreaming
of starting to grow food with my kids.
I just had to knock on the door and ask."
I walked him throughout my garden,
sent him home with a bunch of food.
Gardeners love that.
Gardeners love to share their time
and their knowledge.
So get involved with local people.
Joining a community garden
is one of the simplest and easiest ways
to do that if you can.
Another thing you can do
is volunteer at local organic farms.
There is a website called WOOFing,
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.
It is www.wwoof.net.
That is a great way to just emerse
in local food growing.
You can also travel and do it as well,
so there is no need to do it alone.
The resources are out there.
The knowledge is out there.
The community is out there.
Gardeners welcome people in.
So do not do it alone.
Do it with community.
Now keeping on that theme of local,
but moving into actual plants,
moving into the planting.
Where do you source your seeds
and your plants?
For me, it is all about local varieties.
So seeking out local seed companies
and local nurseries that have been growing
these plants in your region
for years or even decades.
How that works is if a plant is
designed for that area,
it already knows the insects
that are going to attack it.
It already knows the weather patterns.
This is a plant that is designed
to grow in that area.
So if you can buy your seeds
from local seed companies
that produce them in your area,
as well as nurseries,
this drastically increases your
chance of success.
Whereas going to the big box stores
and buying the plants that have been shipped
from who knows how far away
from some sort of centralized distribution center.
Those plants might not be
designed for your area.
For example, where I did a lot of my
gardening in Florida, big fat juicy tomatoes,
like beefsteak tomatoes, do not do well there.
What does really well is the
small everglades tomato.
With the everglades tomato,
a person with a black thumb...
Boom! Green thumb,
and tomatoes in incredible amounts.
But if you are trying to grow those
big ones that are not adapted
to that area, black thumb.
It dies, molds, gets tomato blight
and you do not get anything
and you walk away feeling like a failure.
So seeking out your local seed companies
and your local nurseries is a huge
step in the right direction.
When a lot of people start planning their garden,
they start planning what they want to plant.
What they do is they think about
what their favorite foods are.
They even walk down the grocery
store isles and think,
"Ok, these are my favorite things to eat,
so this is what I am going to plant."
Sure, that can be beneficial,
but here is the downside of that.
If you are doing that, most of our
grocery stores are based on globalization,
where food is shipped in from all different regions,
where it does really well in this area
and not well in that area.
If you do it that way, you will often
end up planting things that just
are not going to do well in your area.
So I think the best thing to do,
instead of going to the grocery store
and asking what you like to eat,
talk to people in your community.
Ask them, "What grows so rediculously
well that you cannot even kill it?"
What grows so well that it
becomes a problem because
there is so much of it?
Plant those things.
For example, here in this garden
that I am in, mint is taking over like crazy.
I just made a video about
easy plants to start growing.
This is one of them.
Plant what has the fewest pests.
What grows really easily.
Then, once you have mastered
those easier plants, then you can
start to get into the more difficult ones.
Maybe you love blueberries,
but they grow in acidic soil.
So if you do not have acidic soil,
you do not want to start there.
But once you get more experience,
then you can work with changing
the pH of your soil.
That is a little bit more advanced gardening.
So again with the grocery store.
We have become disconnected
with the seasons.
Being able to get most things
at any time throughout the year,
but one of the absolute most
important things is to plant the right
things at the right time.
If you try to plant tomatoes early on
in the spring when it is still very cold,
and the soil temperature is very low,
you are going to have a hard time.
Because in colder climates, they like heat.
Same goes for basil.
That is going to be later on.
Early things, for example,
kale can be started earlier and actually,
in very hot places, it does not
do well in the peak heat,
because it likes the colder temperatures.
It is really important to plant
the right things at the right time.
You do not have to figure out
each individual plant.
What you have to do is simply
find a planting schedule.
You can check at local universities.
Often their extension program will
have a planting schedule.
Some community gardens will have them.
You can also just go online and
search for, for example, if you live in New York,
"New York planting schedule"
This will help you to plant the right
things at the right time.
By doing that, ensure
the success of those plants.
As far as the details,
like how far apart do you plant
each different thing,
like tomatoes or kale or arugula.
How deep do you plant the seeds?
And should you transplant,
as in starting from pots in a greenhouse
or in your house, or direct sow
the seeds in the ground.
For that, I recommend following
the instructions on the back of the
seed packs that you get.
And really importantly, getting a book
for your area, which I mentioned at the beginning.
A lot of these books that are based on your area,
they give you those details,
so you do not have to seek it out
for each individual one.
So in this video, I am not going to
go into those details because they
are based on each area.
Instead, get a local book for your region
and follow the instructions from the seed companies
where you buy those seeds.
There are a lot of other details,
for example, sun and water and soil.
You could talk about that for hours
and hours and hours, but I want to give
just a few tips on that.
As far as sun goes, for beginner gardeners,
I generally recommend full sun.
Now if you are in a shaded area
like I am right now, that is really difficult.
There are plants that can grow well in shade,
but generally, most plants need a lot of sun.
Make sure that you are not under the shade of a tree,
or where your house casts
shade for half of the day.
So before you plant your garden,
keep an eye on that spot
and remember that the sun
changes throughout the year.
So planting in full sun.
As far as water, one of the basic
ways to tell if you are watering enough
is when you grab a handful of that soil,
ideally, it should stay in a clump
that breaks a little bit.
It is basically the consistency
of a wrung out sponge.
Watering in the morning
is the best, before the heat.
If not the morning, then the evening.
Not in the middle of the day.
Another way to test if you have enough water
is you stick your finger down into the soil,
and if it is moist when you get your
finger down to about your second knuckle here,
then that is another sign
that you have enough water.
If it is dry all the way down,
it needs to be watered.
So soil varies all over the place.
And how you are watering;
whether you are in the desert,
or in a very fertile area like southwest Wisconsin,
or in Florida, where it is mostly sand.
It is going to vary a lot,
but those are a few tips with water.
Again, local resources are key,
because they are going to know your soil.
Then, another one is healthy soil.
A lot of people, they only focus on the plants.
When they see problems,
they think about the plants,
but the truth is, one of the most
important things is having healthy, living soil.
Take care of your soil.
Take very good care of your soil.
Your soil is your lifesource to have
that healthy and abundant food.
My next tip is to make it convenient.
Now, what I mean by that is putting
your garden in a location
where you naturally go.
If you put your garden in a ten
minute walk on the other side of your property,
where you cannot see it,
it easily becomes out of sight, out of mind.
It is easy to neglect.
So, put it in an area where you
naturally go every day.
Maybe your front yard,
right next to your front sidewalk,
where every day you have to walk
past it to get to your car.
That way, every morning and night,
you are naturally drawn to it.
The same goes for water.
Making sure that you have your
water source near your garden, ideally,
whether that is a long hose
or if you do not have a hose,
right next to the spigget where you
have your buckets or your rain water harvesting.
Designing it so that it has a relative
amount of convenience will make it
easier to get out there.
Do not put a whole bunch of
obstacles in the way.
This is really important when
you are getting started.
And you are not used to it.
You do not have that habit
of getting into the garden.
You have a habit of just going to the grocery store.
It is easy to neglect it if it is
out of sight, out of mind.
Deisgn it to be relatively convenient.
When you are just getting started,
and you have an incredible amount
of information out there.
It is really hard to choose which is
the right information.
It is easy to be infiltrated
by chemical mindsets.
The idea that you need to spray things,
that every insect should die,
that the soil needs these massive
amount of fertilizers.
My tip is do not fall into
the chemical mindset.
In my year of growing and foraging
all of my food where I grew over
100 different foods, I never used
a single pesticide, not even organic ones.
These pesticides have only existed
for a tiny, tiny fraction of all the times
that humans have lived off of
the food that they have grown.
You can grow without all of that.
Without needing to have all this
money and these outside resources.
And be able to grow in an organic
and in a sustainable manner.
Next I want to talk a little bit about mindset.
Focussing on a mindset of abundance,
rather than scarcity.
Because when you think in scarcity,
it often creates scarcity around you.
But when you design in abundance
and you think in abundance,
it can actually help create that abundance.
A really important part of that is
remembering that in order to have
an abundance, you have to have death.
Death is a part of the gardening experience.
So do not be afraid to kill plants.
In fact, when you kill plants,
think of that as part of your lessons,
part of your learning to becoming
a successful gardener.
In that way, it is not a failure,
it is a part of the success.
Even more imporantly, remember, plants die.
It is not like...
Especially annual plants like carrots,
and kale, and collards, and broccoli.
All of these only live for a period of time.
They have to be harvested
and then they die.
Do not think of death as a failure.
Think about it as a part of the
cycle of the gardening.
Another thing that I mentioned just now,
I mentioned annuals.
Annuals are plants that basically
you plant every single year.
You harvest and you have to
replant every year.
Perennials are plants that you plant once
and they come back for a very long time.
Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries,
strawberries, fruit trees like apples,
pears, and plums, nut trees,
Jeruselum artichoke, rhubarb, all of
these foods that come back year
after year are perennials.
I recommend working with perennials
as much as you can because they
generally take less work.
They have a lot fewer pests.
They take less nutrients.
They keep on coming back
year after year after year.
Many perennials thrive on neglect.
Focussing on perennials is definitely
a big tip that I would move towards.
It is often great to start with annuals.
For example radishes.
They produce in 30 days.
That is one of those easy plants
that I mentioned, that can give you
that boost of success,
and that confidence to move forward.
But as you get better and better,
I recommend moving more away
from those annuals and moving more
toward the perennial system.
So there you have it.
Those are some of my most important
tips for beginner gardeners.
There are a lot of other ones out there.
If you just start with those ones
Remember to start small,
start simply, maybe start with just
5 easy plants that you are excited about.
If you do 5 the next year,
and you do 5 the next year,
within a few years time, you can be
growing dozens of different species.
Make some goals.
Make some of those smaller goals.
Make some of those bigger goals.
Use those smaller goals to chip away
at that ultimate success
of your giant front yard just
dripping and oozing with food
absolutely everywhere.
I hope that you gained a lot from this video.
If you did make sure that you subscribe.
If you have friends who are beginner gardeners
that consider themselves to have a black thumb,
make sure to share this video
to help them if you think it would be helpful.
If you want to get this out into the
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comment in the comments below.
Make sure to give it a thumbs up as well.
I love you all very much.
I will see you again in the garden real soon.
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