The own garden is a welcome retreat for many right now in the Corona crisis. The perfect time to finally put the dream of your own vegetable garden into practice. But that requires proper planning, especially for garden beginners. Eliz Simon, author of "Take care of yourself: The great manual – from fruit and vegetable growing to animal husbandry to your own cosmetics, reveals which work steps have to be observed, which plants need little maintenance and what beginners should bring with them to their own vegetable garden ", in conversation with the news agency spot on news.
What are the steps to take when planting vegetables in your own garden?
Eliz Simon: Fertile soil is the most important thing. Small plants need healthy and also a lovingly cared for environment so that they can grow up and become big and strong. For children, what their parents' house and school is is for plants the nutritious, humus-rich garden soil in which they can put their tender roots.
Humus is a decomposed, organic substance – dead trees that stood on your present garden property a thousand years ago, as well as soil from your compost heap or horse manure from the nearby pony farm. As the humus layer becomes thinner over time, regular replenishment is important – about once or twice a year. However, if you want to see good yields quickly in April, the best thing to do is to use organic fertilizer from the nursery and postpone the basic fertilization until autumn.
A basic distinction is made between vegetables that you plant out and vegetables that you sow. Fruit vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini or cabbage vegetables are often planted because they are very sensitive to frost. With fast growing, insensitive plants, sowing is faster and, above all, cheaper. To do this, the soil is worked with a hoe and a rake until it is finely crumbly (important so that the seeds get ground connection). Then use the hoe to make a groove and sow the seeds. The distances between the individual seeds are noted on the packs. Be a little more generous though!
Which types of vegetables are particularly easy to care for?
Simon: Even if fruit vegetables like zucchini or pumpkins are initially sensitive to frost, once they have reached a certain size they are extremely easy to care for. Courgettes and pumpkins are flat roots and need nothing other than a pot of well-fertilized soil. Then they start to grow quickly, bury everything around them under their green leaves and have a good harvest in late summer.
Easy-care varieties for sowing are: lettuce, radishes, spinach, chard, peas, broad beans and onions. Basically, the faster and easier a plant germinates, the easier it is to care for. Larger seeds such as Swiss chard, peas and beans are also easier to sow and portion.
Which vegetables, on the other hand, require a great deal of sensitivity?
Simon: Care should be taken with all small seeds such as parsley, carrots and various herbs, because these seeds require a particularly fine-crumbly soil. The smaller the seed, the finer the soil should be so that the soil connection can take place. Carrots also have a very long germination time. Some gardeners therefore add a few grains of radish seeds to the carrot seeds, which rise very quickly – at least after a few days you can see where the row is at all.
Some plants are more sensitive to diseases and pests. Carrots in particular react quickly to nematodes, grow together quickly or are wormed. Leek does not tolerate fresh fertilizer, but cabbage and fruit plants need a lot of fertilizer. Tomatoes must be planted in sunny places and cannot tolerate rain.
What weather conditions promote plant growth?
Simon: The old farmers' rules apply here: April cold and wet, fills up the barn and barrel. May rain brings blessings. It should rain in spring. Dry April weather like now is poison for everything that is supposed to grow, because the seed and the young plant need a lot of water. A mild and rainy May is a boon to nature – then there is "wax weather", as people say in agriculture.
How often should you water the plants?
Simon: It depends a lot on the weather. The past two summers were not only very hot, it was also quite dry. On such days, it may make sense to water the garden once a day. It is best to water in the evening so that the water can penetrate and the sun does not dry everything out immediately. A bed should be chopped and loosened at least three to four times during the growing season (i.e. between April and September). This keeps the weeds out, it supplies the roots with air, snails and vermin are expelled and the moisture is stored longer.
Not everyone has their own garden. Can some vegetables be grown on the balcony?
Simon: Of course. A balcony or terrace can become a real refuge and garden paradise if you put them on properly. The balcony has the advantage that there are no long ways, but two steps from the kitchen in the "bed" where you can harvest. You get as many (not too high) planters as you want to place and have space. There are also ordinary plastic buckets from the hardware store, into which holes are drilled so that the water does not jam. Coasters are also important so that the water does not suddenly end up on the tenant's balcony on the floor below.
I recommend filling the buckets in autumn with a mixture of soil from the field (ask farmers beforehand), a few sacks of soil from the garden market and as much leaf mass, lawn clippings, chaff, compost and manure from the farmer. Let the mixture stand for the winter so that the mass composts. As plants I recommend salads, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, peppers, eggplants and cabbage vegetables.
What tips would you give beginners?
Simon: The most important thing is love for nature. This is followed by the love of cooking. If you like to cook with fresh food and also love nature, a vegetable garden is a must.