Grow It Yourself

Grow It Yourself is an Urban Land Army series that answers the question:

How in the heck do I grow food?

Here on the blog, from spring through fall, we will walk you through the steps of growing a vegetable garden that would make your grandma proud, the first time out.

This is going to be a straightforward, stand-up, hard-working, and respectable vegetable garden. You will be able to eat from it through the spring and summer, pass some out to friends, and save some for winter.

Here’s where it gets interesting:

We will be gardening along with you. We have broken ground on a new garden at Urban Land Army Headquarters and, using photos, video, and no-nonsense instructions, we document the growth of this garden through the entire season.

We will show you how to do everything from ripping out the lawn and preparing the soil to deciphering a seed pack, putting the seed in the ground, watering, fertilizing, harvesting, and preserving the vegetables that you grow.

No mysteries here - we’ll cover it all.

The Plan: 5 and 5

To make this garden as straightforward and successful as possible, we have selected 5 vegetables and 5 herbs to grow. These have been chosen for their degree of difficulty (easy), general tastiness (yummy to most), and entertainment value (high).

Vegetables:

Lettuce, Pole Beans, Tomatoes, Green Onions, and Potatoes

Herbs:

Basil, Chives, Parsley, Oregano, and Thyme

Oh, and a few flowers, because flowers are pretty, eh. Violas (edible - put them in your salads) and marigolds (good with tomatoes).

Sound good?

Of course you can choose different plants for your garden if these don’t strike your fancy - we’re not here to run your life - but the instructions will be for growing these particular plants. If you have questions about substitutions, just leave a comment on the blog and we will try to help.

If you’re really lucky you already have a garden bed in place - in which case check out Step 3: Fix Up the Soil for tips on building healthy soil and getting it ready to plant.

If you have a small space like a patio, rooftop, or balcony, and container gardening is your best bet, don’t worry, we’ll cover this too.

Let’s get cracking!

This is going to be good, people.