Organic – A Fantastic Chaos

Gardening involves planning, learning, and growing. Literally and figuratively. Tending a garden can be as simple or as complex as you want.

If you have limited space or time, container gardening might be right for you. If you have plenty of time or space, you may want to have a larger garden that you can share with family & friends, or even sell at a local market.

Are you like me and you have a moderate amount of space and time? Then you have options as well. You can maximize space with raised beds and vertical gardening. These types of gardens can also maximize time by cutting down on your area to weed and by keeping the amount of plants you grow small, to make harvest more efficient.

To get you started, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself. I will help you break down your garden planning, with these questions.

Question 1: Why?
Why do you want to start a garden?
To feed your family?
For landscaping?
To sell?
For herbal remedies?

Question 2: What?
What do you want to grow?
Fruit, Veggies, Herbs, or Flowers?
All of the above?
Companion planting?
Pest management?

Question 3: Where?
How do you want to plot your garden?
Big garden? Small garden?
Do you have sun, shade, or both?
Do you want to grow on your property or utilize a community garden?

Question 4: When?
When should you start?
Cool weather crops? Warm weather?
What planting zone are you in?

Question 5: How?
Will you start seeds indoors or direct sow your seeds outside?
Stagger crops to maximize growing season?
Container planting? Raised beds?
Vertical planting?
Plants? Trees? Shrubs? Vines?

Gardening season will be here soon and planning is half the battle. I hope this was helpful in your planning process.

Do you have any helpful tips to add or questions about the outline above?

Comment below with your thoughts!

Well I didn’t hug him, that would have been awk-ward. But I did shake his hand. Why do you care? Why do I care? Well, because I am trying to make healthier, whole food choices for my family.

My name is Christen, and I am a ~~recovering~~ junk food addict.

So back to the farmer. No I don’t live in the boonies. I actually found the most amazing service called Your Family Farmer http://www.yourfamilyfarmer.com. I live in PA, so this exact place may not be available to you, but check out their website or do some googling to find something similar in your area.

You can order organic meats and produce, raw milk, eggs, butter, yogurt, honey, maple syrup, etc. All from farmers who have similar farming practices such as grass fed, no antibiotic, and humanely raised. You can pay online or in person at one of their many drop locations where you pick up your order.

So if this interests you, I recommend you check out RealMilk http://www.realmilk.com and use the Real Milk Locator. Even if raw milk doesn’t interest you, you can still locate farmers with other products. That’s how I found my farmer, and even got to shake his hand. You can’t do that at the supermarket.

Photo courtesy of http://www.yourfamilyfarmer.com