My five step program to growing success! An introduction.

At one time or another, I think anyone who has planted a vegetable garden has probably tried growing some of their crops from seed. The temptation to do this is easy to understand. Seeds are relatively cheap when compared to the cost of starter plants.

I can also remember thinking this years ago, while standing in a nursery looking at the full color pictures of giant cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers that adorned seed packets in a revolving turn style that gee. What could be so hard, I thought, about planting some a few seeds and then reaping a big harvest? I mean how hard could it be? Well, they do say that naivete is bliss, don’t they?

Since that day, long ago, I’ve learned some lessons. One of which was what I call my five step program to raising great vegetables without doing a heck of a lot of work. The five steps are:

Step 1 - Proper planning
Step 2 - Indoor germination and growth
Step 3 - Hardening off
Step 4 - Transplanting out
Step 5 -Controlling pests

Each of these steps is important in its own right. They are all designed to get a plant off to a great start whereby the gardener strives to prevent ‘checks’ to growth. A ‘check’ is anything that briefly interrupts the growing cycle of a plant. Interruptions in the smooth growth curve which can often lead to problems latter on in terms of over all health and productive capacity.

In step one, you might note that I do not spend any effort on addressing direct seeding. I’ll go into some reasons why in my segment on Step 1. Briefly, I will state that unless you are a commercial grade gardener, then as part of your planning you will want to control what when and how your crops are grown. Crops like beans which can be direct seeded are addressed here as are crops that will need all the help they can get early on. A plan, in other words, that is always keeping an eye on overall timing and production you have envisioned for you and yours.

In step two, I will be addressing the equipment you might want to consider for germination and early growth of seeds destined to go outdoors. You won’t need all that much, thankfully, as I like to keep an ever present eye on overall cost. It makes not sense to me to end up growing a head of lettuce that cost three dollars.

In step three, I will cover some concepts to hardening off a seedling prior to its being transplanted into the cold cruel world. This step is one that many of us, including myself, don’t perform properly and which results in the stunting of even death of your plants early on.

Step four is a fun step for me. This is the day that all my planning really pays off. The realization of a crop of whatever which will sometime soon grace my table with wonderful bounty. In this section, I cover some of the pitfalls and tips that I have discovered over time to either avoid or use.

Step five contains some of the not so pleasant realities of growing vegetables outside. It seems sometimes that just about every critter is out to destroy what you have worked so hard to create. There are entire books devoted to just this single topic and I don’t try and pretend I can do this area justice here wither. Rather, I will cover some really simple and stupid moves that can perhaps save you some grief as the season progresses.

So, that’s it. I will be adding these segments in no particular order as the spring progresses. I hope to have some readership and would be excited to hear any comments that my readers would care to make. Gardening is a great outdoor activity that is meant to be shared. It is also very rewarding when the day comes to make a harvest no matter how large or small.