How Does Your Garden Grow? - Let’s get this garden started

How Does Your

Garden Grow?

I am so disheartened by grocery prices that I have been driven to do the one thing that I never thought I would attempt again. I must access my repressed memories and relive the flashbacks. It’s time to dust off my trowel and my rake and get my hands dirty. It’s time to start gardening again.

It’s not that I don’t like gardening, I do! I’ve always been so envious when I drive by someone’s giant garden stuffed full of big, leafy veggies and sunflowers. I’m just not that great at it. Until recently my mom and my sister have referred to me as a plant hospice worker, gently easing my beloved plants to the afterlife.

But in the last few years I’ve started to get a better grasp on the needs of my houseplants and I’m proud to say that my house is full of greenery. My yard is even starting to get colorful. No matter that 90% of my houseplants are the ever-forgiving pothos and that my outdoor plants can all be described as plants that survive in spite of me. It counts.

I’ve made two or three fruitless attempts at a vegetable container garden before giving up and letting the plants rot in their pots, if they ever bothered to show up in the first place. I’d quit because I got busy, or because some mystery bug invaded my space, or because I put the container in a spot where the sun fried my poor little plants before they ever had a chance.

But now I have no choice. With fresh vegetables costing an arm and a leg (don’t even get me started on eggs), my back is against the wall. I’m ready to try again except this time I will give it maximum effort. Why? Because I am cheap.

So that’s what we’re going to do together. We’re going to learn how to be a little bit more self-sufficient and give our wallets a break at the same time. We’re not going to be able to stop buying vegetables completely, but we might make a little dent. It’ll be fun if not a little humiliating on my end when you all discover just how black my thumb actually is. And if we get to the end of the season and your vegetables taste like garbage, you can blame it on that girl at the paper who has no idea what she’s talking about.

My plan is to start a container garden in the back of the Star News office. We have a nice little brick patio that I know for a fact has great sun because I spent two days pressure-washing and pulling weeds out there when I first started working here. If you’re more interested in an in-ground garden, or you’d rather plant flowers instead, a lot of the same information will be useful. I’m also going to plant a container garden at home. I’ll try different tactics at each location to figure out what works the best for me.

Since it’s too early to do any planting, the first thing to do is gather supplies. Container gardens generally require containers to work, so that’s where we’ll start. Having acknowledged that I don’t know what I’m doing, the best place to start is by finding someone who does. I went to the UW Extension website (hort.extension.wisc.edu/vegetables/) which has some great resources for anyone who is interested in gardening.

They suggest containers large enough to support the plant when its completely grown. Smaller plants, such as cilantro and peas, can tolerate a container that is about two gallons and four to six inches deep. Larger veggies, like tomatoes and cucumbers, need a container at least five gallons and 12-18 inches deep. We can get fancy with planter boxes and self-watering containers, but that defeats the purpose here and instead I’m going with the cheapest option possible.

I saw on social media that the Commercial Recycling Corporation had five gallon buckets for sale for $1 a piece, so I bought 30 of the fives; 15 for the office patio and 15 for home. I got them back to the office and drilled five drainage holes in each one and set them aside to wash when it gets closer to planting season. They smelled something fierce and I don’t want whatever job the buckets had in their last life to affect my plants. I’m thinking I’ll plant my own seeds at the office and buy sprouted plants for home. I will confess that I’ve been saving toilet paper rolls for starting seeds only to find out that toilet paper rolls are prone to mold and don’t hold up well, which I should have known. So I’m pivoting and collecting plastic bottles instead. I have a pretty decent stash at the office so I started by putting drainage holes in those with a cordless drill and a 3/16 bit. I used the same bit to put a hole in the top so I could cut about two inches off the top with an x-acto knife. I’m saving the tops to use for drainage, so I threw those in a big tub along with their bottoms and gave them a good soak with a smidge of dish soap and a dollop of vinegar.

I’m also hoarding food safe plastic bottles, containers and aluminum cans to use as an extra bit of drainage in the bottom of each pail. I did this a few years ago and my plants were very happy until I accidentally killed them for one reason or another. Oopsie.

Next week, I’ll know more about which veggies I want to start and when I should start them. Until then, the plan is to keep collecting recyclables and start thinking about soil.

One week down and zero crop casualties. Did we plant anything yet? No, but a win is a win.

Mandee Ellis is a reporter at The Star News. Contact her at MandeeEllis@centralwinews.com.

I used a cordless drill and a 3/16 drill bit to punch five holes in the bottom of each pail. Vegetables cannot thrive in a container without proper drainage. Eventually, I’ll put some of the recyclables I’ve saved in the bottom of my pails to provide further drainage while saving a few dollars.

I drilled holes in the bottom of each bottle and put the bottoms and the tops in a nice relaxing bath with vinegar and dish soap before setting them out to dry.

I used the drill to poke a hole in the top few inches of my bottles to give my x-acto knife a place to start before cutting the tops completely off. I set the tops aside to save for drainage in my containers.