Question
Hello,

My name is Andreea Fatu and I am a student at White Oaks Secondary School in ON. The reason I am writing to you is because I have an idea for a project in my local community, and I was wondering if you could give me some advice on it. The project is for a philanthropic contest I have entered and the basic idea is to start organic gardens in schools. The initial trial run would involve a smaller elementary school (private or public) that would create a school-wide garden in one of their fields, where kids would buy seeds and the plot space (for one year) from the school, and then would take care of the crop (including planting in the fall and harvesting in the summer) for that year, with the end results being that they could either keep the veggie for their family, or give it to the school to be used in their snack program. There is quite a bit of fine tuning left to be done, but my questions to you are just a few:

1.   Would square foot gardening be a viable gardening method for this project?
2.    What kind of vegetables would be good candidates?
3.    Do the plots need to be in 4扻4?or can they be bigger while still being effective?
4.   Any idea's on fertilizing the soil after harvesting?

Any other advice/criticism would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
Andreea Fatu

Answer
Andreea, attached is my response to those interested in starting a new garden. It covers all of the questions you've asked. Good luck with your project.

My first recommendation would be to not start too big on your first garden.  Gardening requires a certain level of experience which can only be gained through trial and error.  Too many gardeners start off overly ambitious only to become disheartened by weeds, pests, and disease.

I would recommend starting with 10 or less vegetables and one to two flower beds.  Grow only enough based on what your family can consume.  Otherwise, the harvest and weeds can overtake you before you know it. Some easy ones to start with include lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, beets, radishes, and carrots. Squash is also easy to grow, but are highly susceptible to disease and pests. Make sure you also interplant some colorful annuals such as sunflowers, marigolds, salvia, cosmos, and zinnia to attract bees for pollination.

The first basic in gardening is soil preparation.  You want to ensure that you have the proper foundation for your plants to thrive.  This means ensuring proper drainage and nutrients.  Whether your soil is clay or sandy, I always recommend adding as many amendments to your soil that you can get your hands on.  This means well aged manure, peat moss, and compost.  You also need to control the PH of your soil.  PH kits are available at most garden centers.  The proper level is 7.0 for most plants.  If you find your soil is too acidic, you need to add lime.  If it's too alkaline, you need to add gypsum.

Next, you need to decide if you抮e going to use the row or square foot method.  I personally prefer the square foot method because it allows you to plant intensively, meaning more vegetables in a given square foot area.  It also reduces the amount of maintenance necessary in regard to watering, weeding, and pest control.

Once the seedlings sprout or your transplants are planted, you need to water to a depth of at least one inch per week.  You also need to fertilize with a well balanced fertilizer once every two weeks.

Next, you need to monitor the plants for pests.  Row covers are available for young seedlings which protect them from the elements as well as insects.  If you do use them, make sure to remove them once certain vegetables blossom.  You need to do this for pollination. If pests begin to overtake your garden, you need to resort to pesticides.  I personally utilize only organic controls such as pyrethrum and rotenone.  BT or Dipel can be used to control cabbage worms on broccoli and cabbage.

Finally, you抣l need to know when to harvest.  This is not as easy as it may seem, and usually comes with experience.  A good rule of thumb is to always harvest when the produce is young.  Never wait too long or the vegetables turn tough and bitter.

Unfortunately, what I have documented provides the mere basics of gardening and only touches on the subject.  Methods such as seed starting, composting, companion gardening, and disease control are also very important, but too vast to thoroughly cover in this forum.

I would highly recommend getting a good general gardening book.  Usually, these give you ample information on a plant抯 growing habits and characteristics.  I recommend 揝quare Foot Gardening?by Mel Bartholomew.  Another good one is 揟he Joy of Gardening? Many more can be found at your local library or book store.

For your convenience, I am attaching some web sites which will definitely help you in your endeavor.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/vegetables/veg.html
http://www.shepherdseeds.com/tips.asp?5
http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
http://www.fernlea.com/veg/index.htm
http://www.fernlea.com/annual/index.com
http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC1152.htm
http://www.thegardenhelper.com/gardenframes.html
http://www.squarefootgardening.com

Good luck, and please write again should you ever need assistance.

Regards,

Mike