The Starter Garden Handbook: A Cook's Guide to Growing Your Own Food
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About this ebook
Here in one pretty package is everything you need to know to have your garden and eat it, too! Inside, you’ll find tips for greening up all areas of your garden. Learn surprising facts about your impact on the environment and change your habits with do-it-yourself ideas in The Starter Garden Handbook.
Organic gardener, environmentalist, and pop-up chef Alice Mary Alvrez will help you start with small changes, like growing basic herbs, and work your way up to raising bees. Learn how to raise many kinds of vegetables and fruits, and get tips on composting weeds, clippings, and leftovers so you have nutrient-rich soil. Whether you are at the green rookie level, eco-master, or full-on gardening guru, you can learn to grow your own food and help the planet every week of the year with The Starter Garden Handbook.
If you’re a fan of The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, you’ll love The Starter Garden Handbook!
“Nowadays people think they have to quit their day job and toil in the hot sun all day. Not true! Most gardening is in the planning and once you have established your plot, I promise you, it will become your Happy Place. Nothing feels better than serving a delicious dish from plants you grew from seeds.” —Susannah Seton, author of Simple Pleasures of the Garden
Alice Mary Alvrez
Alice Mary Alvrez became a vegan ten years ago after a major health crisis and completely turned her life around. A women's studies teacher, she is also a dedicated gardener, cook and blogger. Alice is on a mission to help more people take charge of their own health through healthy eating. She lives with her family of five in Portland. Oregon
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The Starter Garden Handbook - Alice Mary Alvrez
Copyright © 2018 Alice Mary Alvrez.
Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.
Cover and Layout Design: Elina Diaz
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The Starter Garden Handbook: A Cook’s Guide to Growing Your Own Food
Library of Congress Cataloging
ISBN: (print) 978-1-63353-660-9 (ebook) 978-1-64250-215-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017963042
BISAC category code: CKB086000 COOKING / Vegetarian, GAR000000
GARDENING / General, GAR009000 GARDENING / Herbs, GAR016000
GARDENING / Organic, GAR025000 GARDENING / Vegetables,
HOM022000 HOUSE & HOME / Sustainable Living
Printed in the United States of America
My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.
—Claude Monet
Contents
Foreword
Level 1: Digging In
Take Lots of Notes
Watch Your Frost Dates
Start with Herbs
Perennials vs. Annuals
North vs. South
Windowsill Gardening
Gardening Toolbox
Get a Water Barrel
Watering the Right Way
Mulch
Start Composting
Grow What You Eat
Thin Out the Seedlings
Get to Know the Good Bugs
Natural Pesticides
Level 2: Gone to Seed
Starting Seeds Indoors
Apartment Gardening
Container Gardening
Vertical Gardening
The Art of Transplanting
Testing Your Soil
Support Your Plants
Level 3: Green Thumb
Natural Fertilizers
Heirloom vs. Hybrid
Row or Not to Row
Rotate Your Crops
Successive Sowing
Get International
Adding Shade
Edible Flowers
Think of the Bees
Dealing with Animal Pests
Get Kids Involved
Saving Seeds
Level 4: Garden Pro
Get Started in the Fall
Cold Frames
Raise Up Your Beds
Preserving Your Harvest
Using Row Covers
Pruning and Cutting Back
Use Your Greywater
Microgreens and Sprouting
Companion Planting
Get Cooking
Level 5: Frequent Farmer
Growing Mushrooms
Growing Grains
Getting into Trees
Get Into Grafting
Harvesting
Sell Your Surplus
Think About Chickens
Bonus
Further Reading
Foreword
Gardening is the Key to Happiness
Lawns are very high maintenance and unless constantly mowed and manicured, can greatly reduce your curb appeal. Besides wasting water and taking up a lot of time, grass in your yard doesn’t offer you anything back for all the demands on your time and pocketbook. They also tempt many lawn keepers to use chemicals which are bad for all of us, especially the birds and the bees. Get creative and go at least a little wild. My next door neighbor overturned and tilled their front lawn and planted potatoes, beets, asparagus and squash. They love going into the front yard and harvesting fresh veggies for their daily meals. The squash and pumpkins actually have beautiful foliage and the flowers are stunning and edible, as well. Last year, one of their crops grew to Giant Pumpkin
size and it became the talk of the neighborhood as we watched it grow and grow. Needless to say, they had the best jack-o-lantern on the block and some fantastic pies to boot. I am heartened to see the new gardening philosophy of growing veggies, roots stocks, herbs and berries right beside the roses and lilies. It is gorgeous and supports the bee populations to whom we owe so much.
Gardening, even it is a hanging basket of cherry tomatoes and a windowsill filled with herb pots, is a much more human way to live, grounded in nature and connected to Mother Earth who provides all. It will definitely add pleasure to your life and a sense of calm. When I feel stressed, I go out back and do some weeding. It is my therapy and I can immediately see the profit of my labors. The bigger my compost piles grows with weeds, the happier I am. I intend the same for you. With your garden, you are quite literally growing a bounty of blessings.
Have Your Garden and Eat It, Too!
What veggies do you love? What are your favorite salad greens? The first rule is to plant what you will actually eat and feel proud to serve to guests. Take your book of shadows and list your preferred herbs, greens, vegetables including root vegetables, fruit, and herbs. Now, strike out anything you can buy really cheaply—no sense in using valuable space to for something easily available at a lower cost than it is to grow. Another caution, check out your sold type. Carrots need deep, rich soil to grow well. If your lot is shallow and sandy soil, cross carrots off your list and look to surface crops like potatoes and beets instead.
Easy Peasy Peas and Veggies:
Here are the vegetables anyone can grow, from beginners to pros with their own greenhouses:
Lettuce, peas, onion, beets, potatoes, beans and radishes.
Lettuce leaves for your salads are the easiest edible crop to grow. A few varieties will be ready to harvest in weeks! Choose a seed mix that will give you a variety of leaves for different tastes, colors and textures. For best results, sow in stages so you don’t get loads all at once. Sow a couple of lanes every few weeks throughout the summer to ensure a continuous supply.
Once you are a pro with lettuce, grow spinach and rocket for your salad bowl.
Peas are a trouble-free crop that can handle cooler weather so you can skip the step of starting the seedlings indoors. Simply sow the seeds in the ground from March onwards and watch them thrive. The plants will need support—put in stakes or chicken wire attached to posts and occasionally wind the stems around as they grow. Harvest