How to Organize a Home Vegetable Garden: 9 Plants for the Windowsill - A Beginner's Guide, Part 1
What is important to know before buying pots and soil
I advise you to calculate your strength and not to try to plant many vegetables and herbs at once. They all require different conditions, and the plants also release substances that can even inhibit the growth of their neighbors. Start with simple greens or legumes. And if you realize that this is your thing, you can grow a vegetable garden on the balcony.
Be prepared for the fact that at the first attempt, the harvest may not meet expectations. But if you take care of plants as an experiment, creativity and meditation, then any result will bring joy.
How to organize space. Think about the space you will allocate for the vegetable garden. You can put containers of vegetables on the windowsill. Someone takes up the whole loggia or wall and hangs pots and containers on a metal grid. If this is not enough, you can put a rack with additional lighting of the lower shelves.
Ideas for organizing a vegetable garden on the balcony can be viewed on Pinterest and YouTube.
You can hang shelves from a small window. However, the room will be a little darker.
There's a vegetable garden option with rails and two-tier containers.
And you can use a pallet for a vertical vegetable garden and grow spicy herbs even on a small balcony.
Where to get plants. You can buy seeds and sow them. With zucchini, cucumbers, beans and peas, this is easy. And the price of error is low: for example, a pack of zucchini seeds for 0.25$ enough for two years. But to grow a good seedling of tomatoes or peppers to a novice gardener may be more difficult. You need to choose seeds, sow and sprout to a permanent place, as soon as the first "real" leaves appear.
There is a simpler option - to buy ready seedlings in the store, at markets or on "Avito". Of course, there is a risk that they will sell the wrong variety. But with seeds there is the same lottery.
It is good when there are familiar gardeners who are willing to share seedlings. I live in Tula, and there are ecological events and freemarkets where people exchange seeds, seedlings and plants. Check with local eco-activists to see if your city holds similar events.
Quality. Most modern seeds are already treated with special preparations that improve germination and disease resistance. This is usually indicated on the packaging. You can tell if seeds have been treated by their color: they are green, blue or pink. If not treated, they should be soaked for a couple of hours in a special preparation "Epin-Extra" or HB-101. They increase the germination of seeds and plant resistance to diseases.
Follow the recommendations on the package of seedlings and do not plant a lot in one pot. Otherwise, the plants will compete for nutrients and light, and because of the dense planting they may develop fungal diseases.
What's good for the home grower
Ground. House plants are more demanding to soil than outdoor plants, so I do not advise you to pick up soil from the entrance: it may contain toxic substances, such as heavy metals and petroleum products. And the fertility of urban soil is questionable.
In nature, plants help each other: roots exchange nutrients, stems and leaves release useful elements that accelerate the growth of neighbors. And home vegetables are deprived of such a favorable neighborhood and need good soil and feeding. Special soil for vegetables costs about $ 2 for ten liters - this volume is enough for two tomato bushes.
Drainage. It is easier to buy ready-made expanded clay - pebbles, which are placed at the bottom of the container, so that the water does not stagnate. A package for two or three large pots costs up to 1$.
Perlite and vermiculite are minerals that are added to the soil to improve its structure. It becomes more friable, allows oxygen and water to pass through better, all of which are important for root development. Usually both minerals are used: one part of perlite with vermiculite is mixed with two parts of soil. The price of vermiculite - about 0.5$ for two liters, perlite - from 0.6$ for two liters.
Pots for seedlings. You can buy special collapsible containers, mini greenhouses with a lid. Economical gardeners often use any food packaging: sour cream cups, tetrapak boxes from under milk or juice, plastic trays from under meat products.
These are toilet paper sleeves that are filled with soil. The main thing is to place them tightly on the tray, otherwise the soil will float away when watering. I have not used them, but I like the idea of biodegradable cups.
Containers for adult plants. Flower pots, tubs, buckets are suitable - the main thing is to have holes in the bottom so that excess water goes into the tray and roots do not rot.
Ceramic pots evaporate moisture faster than plastic ones: you may have to water more often. But ceramics is stronger than plastic, which becomes brittle and deteriorates over several seasons in the sun.
It is better to choose containers so that it is convenient to turn them over: plants should be evenly illuminated. The size is selected depending on the plants: for lettuce - smaller, for zucchini - larger. Next I will tell you more.
To save money, resourceful people use trimmed five-liter bottles, old buckets, pots, sugar sacks or even polyethylene from delivery services.
Growing in bags was invented by volunteers in Uganda to help local people who don't have their own land to grow some crops. A bag garden takes up little space, but the moisture evaporates faster, so you have to water more often.
Tool kit. A small trowel, ripper, scissors, pruners - these are all things that come in handy at home. The price of the set is about $11.
Leyka. I make do with ordinary bottles for 1.5 liters: I pour the water in advance, so that it is settled, warm and less hard. Vegetables don't like cold tap water. If you often go out of town for a few days, it is worth buying an auto irrigation system. The price is about $26.
Phytolamp. It will come in handy for a vegetable garden on dark windows - eastern and northern. Or if you decide to grow your own seedlings of tomatoes or peppers. They are sown in February-March, when the daylight hours are still short. If you do not illuminate the seedlings at this time, they will be weak and later begin to bear fruit.
Instead of red and blue phytolamps, it is better to buy LED full spectrum. They are more expensive, but more useful for plants during the entire period of development and are not so irritating to the eyes.
Ordinary white LED lamps, that is, "human" lamps, for the vegetable garden will not be suitable, since they give out less red light, necessary for fruiting. The price of a lamp for several plants - from 15$.
Support. Tomatoes and peppers must necessarily be tied, for example, to bamboo sticks. Otherwise, the plants will droop and break.
Cucumbers and peas one stick is not enough, it would be good to buy or make a construction with a net, which will cling to the whiskers. They cost from 0.2$ to 3$ a piece.
Fertilizers. There are universal complex fertilizers like potassium humate and growth stimulants like HB-101, "Epin". They are sprayed on seedlings and adult plants, so that they develop faster and do not get sick. Sprouts are treated once, and adult plants are sprayed two or three times a season.
Preparations for protection against pests and diseases. Proper agrotechnics itself contributes to the growth of healthy plants resistant to diseases. The main thing - do not overcrowd plantings, do not allow overwatering and strong temperature changes. And if there are signs of fungal diseases or pests, it is better to take biological preparations like "Fitoverm" or "Fitosporin". Both cost up to 0.5$. More aggressive substances in apartment conditions will do more harm than good.
