By Jonathan Aluzas

With gas prices rising, taking more money out of our pockets and driving up the price of produce, it’s a good time to start a backyard veggie garden. ?I think a lot of people are afraid to try gardening because of the myth of the “green thumb;” this notion that some people are just born with a magical

Part of my backyard salad bar.

ability to grow things, whereas some people kill everything they touch (the “brown thumb”). ?I have news for you: There’s no green thumb. Successfully growing things has nothing to do with your Mother Earth connection, your genetic link to an agrarian past, or your current relationship with Pan. It has to do with soil, water and light. ?The degree of attention you pay to these three things will determine the degree to which you wow your friends with your backyard bonanza.

SOIL
If you think you can just go out back, dig a hole, drop a seed in it, splash a bit of water on top and grow something, prepare for disappointment. If you’re lucky, you might get a sickly, yellow thing with some sort of wilted ball dangling from it. ?Not all soil is the same.?Do you have good soil; fluffy and fast-draining, rich with organic material? ?No, you don’t. ?You have whatever your house came with; a mixture of clay and dirt, sapped of nutrients, hard-packed like concrete. ?Crab-grass likes that, but crab-grass is a vampire, happily leeching off of whatever is there and slowly gobbling up your square footage. ?Plants don’t dig that. ?They want light, fluffy soil that is packed with nutrients and doesn’t hold on to water (they don’t like “wet feet,” which is when poorly draining soil holds on to water and causes root rot). ?The only way to get rich, healthy soil is to prepare it. ?If you’re planting into the ground, you need to dig up the area in which you’re going to plant, turn the soil over a number of times, break it up, and then add a bunch of compost to it. ?If you’re container gardening, or raised bed gardening, just go buy soil. ?That way you can guarantee yourself maximum quality.
WATER

Believe it or not, most plants die from OVERwatering, not underwatering. ?The roots of plants don’t want to be constantly sodden. ?They’ll rot if

Broccoli and beets in the wine barrel.

they are. Don’t water often (except when a plant is newly planted), water deeply. ?This will soak the soil in such a way that it provides moisture for the plant’s root system for much longer than shallow watering, and will force the roots to grow down, not out. ?If they grow down, they’ll find better, wetter ground. ?Always follow whatever instructions the nursery (I’m partial to Armstrong’s – https://www.armstronggarden.com)?gives you, but the general rules of thumb are:

  • Water new plants every day for a week or so, to establish them
  • Cut back to twice a week or so after that, depending on the heat
  • Water in accordance to the demand of the plant
  • Stick your finger in the dirt. ?If it’s bone dry, water. ?If it’s moist, don’t.
  • Try not to “top-water” plants (shower the plants with water), because it can cause mildew and fungus problems, and much of that water doesn’t get delivered to the roots. ?Either drip-line your plants, so that the water gets delivered directly to the root ball, or soak the ground with a soaker hose or direct water flow. ?Remember; water the roots, not the plant.
  • Water in the morning, not at night.
LIGHT

Are you planting in an area where the plants will get the necessary amount of sunlight? ?For vegetables, the general rule is that they need at least 6 hours of

Hopefully, your tomatoes will start looking like this….

direct sunlight per day. ?I’ve grown them in more, I’ve grown them in less, but as a general rule you should aim for a spot that gets 6 hours of sunlight. ?If you try to grow tomatoes in an area that gets only 3 hours of sunlight per day, you’ll be lucky to get small, sickly, little things that take forever to ripen.

THE BASICS

Growing vegetables is not difficult, you just have to go about it the right way! ?Here’s a step by step guide to growing a few popular veggies in your backyard.

  • Grow it in a pot or container! ?Get a container that you like. ?It can be as simple as a plastic pot that nurseries sell plants in, to a fancy, glazed number or, one of my favorites, a whiskey or wine barrel. ?If you get a terra cotta pot, make sure you seal the inside of it with silicone spray (available at www.armstronggarden.com). ?Terra cotta is very porous, and, in hot weather, the water will be quickly leeched from it if it’s not sealed. ?If you get a plastic pot of any kind, or a glazed pot, that will be fine. ?Ask your nursery worker what size is sufficient. ?For the record: Salad greens can be grown in as shallow as 6 inches, whereas tomatoes need something deep; probably 18 inches.
  • Put the pot in a place where it will get at least 6 hours of sunlight. ?During the hot summer months, you may have difficulty growing greens, because they’re really a cold-weather crop. ?But I’ve had success growing greens during the hot summer months as long as I plant them in dappled sun.
  • Make sure it has at least one drainage hole in the bottom of it. ?If it doesn’t, get a ceramic drill bit and drill two or three holes in the bottom. ?If the holes are more than 1/2 inch in diameter, you may want to cover them with screen or a few rocks, so that the soil doesn’t fall through.
  • Get some good, organic potting soil. ?You should always use potting soil for any container. ?If you’re using a raised bed that doesn’t have a bottom, or planting into the ground, you can use topsoil amended with LOTS of organic compost, but for the purposes of our discussion here, you’ll need potting soil. ?Fill the pot to about 2 inches from the top, then softly pat it down. ?Refill if the level drops below 2 inches from the rim. ?The soil will settle over time. ?I generally go ahead at this point and soak the soil very well, so that the plant will be being placed in moist ground, but that’s optional.
  • For salad seeds: Follow the instructions on the packet. ?Generally this will include poking a bunch of holes about 1/4 to 1/2 inch into the top of the soil and dropping a few seeds in each hole. ?Then cover each hole with the seeds in it with soil and water deeply, making sure that the water pressure isn’t washing away the soil and exposing the seeds. ?Then, lightly water every day for a week, cut back to two or three times in week two, and as needed thereafter. ?Don’t worry about “thinning” the seedlings when they rise, greens do just fine packed tightly together. ?You can start harvesting greens when they’re 4 to 5 inches high. ?Always take the outside leaves first. ?Wash before you eat!
  • For tomatoes: ?Tomatoes like to root deeply, so the best way to facilitate that is to remove the bottom two shoots from the stem of the plant and plant it
    ….and end up like mine did!!

    right up to the first shoot thereafter. ?Water every day for the first week, twice a week thereafter. ?Make sure to train the vines up the trellis, they don’t like to be on the ground. ?Dry not to top-water. ?Leave them on the vine until they are deep red. ?Tomatoes can be taken any time after they are dark green. ?They will continue to ripen when they’re off of the vine.

  • Never use chemicals, and always buy organic products! ?No need to add to pollution and it’s always safer to take in non-chemically treated plants.
  • I’m just a rookie. ?For serious, professional guidance on all things gardening, check out Organic Gardening (www.organicgardening.com) and Sunset (www.sunset.com). ?But don’t be afraid! ?Even rookies like you and I can grow nutritious, money-saving veggie gardens. ?Try it and see.
Jonathan Aluzas is the owner of Arena Fitness, a personal training, semi private training and group exercise facility in Encino, Ca. ?And he loves gardening. ?But he wants you to know he also loves football, Muay Thai and operating heavy machinery.