24-03-2003, 03:32 PM
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Absolute rank never-done-nothing beginner. Help!
(Rev. J. Toad) wrote in message news:3e807db2.258099250@news...
Hey there folks...
Just in time for spring, a month ago I was diagnosed with type 2
diabetes. Besides getting into an exercise regimen for the first time
in my life, this has necessitated a complete 180 in terms of my
eating. Gone are the days of frozen & packaged food, I cook everything
myself now. It's only been a few weeks, but I feel great.
Congratulations! You will find growing your own food a most rewarding
activity.
Fresh veggies and garden activity greatly improve your physical and
spiritual health. Some advice:
1) as others have said, start small and start with storebought plants
(except perhaps for some salad greens). You will do seeds next year.
2) start your herb garden in your first year. Herbs are something that
will cheer your every meal. And they are perennial (plant once,
harvest every year). For your zone, I'd recommend sorrel, mint, lemon
balm, thyme, and oregano.
3) since you are in the frozen north, next year consider gardening
under cover. I am in Michigan and eat out of my garden 9 months a
year. Without cover, I would eat 6 months. It helps two ways,
extending the season until very late, and also allowing me to
overwinter some veggies for eating in March-April.
4) start with cool weather veggies. They are the most nutritious
anyhow, and some of them are rather easy to grow. I'd recommend chard,
lettuce, radicchio, arugula. Northern varieties of everything are
available at Territorial Seeds. In Michigan, I grow 80% cool weather
veggies.
5) in time you will learn that all veggies from the garden are good,
but some are more prolific, hardier, longer harvest, better suited to
your soil, less work than others. Those will provide the backbone of
your garden as you experiment with a few new varieties each year.
6) mulch, mulch, mulch for simultaneous composting, fertilizing,
weeding, and water-saving.
Books: "Gardening under cover" (Territorial has it), once you take the
step of going undercover, and the New Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic
Gardening. The latter is the best book I have seen, very science-based
and matter-of-fact, not to mention very complete. If you buy this, you
will not need another book. it covers fruits and berries too.
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