Gardening 101: Plotting, Composting, and Rain Barrels

El Dragón is thinking "garden." Here in El Norte, it’s still pretty chilly for actual garden work, but turning the compost and prepping the beds, I’m starting to feel it. Today’s the day I’ll start the seeds, I think, and press a winter’s worth of little yogurt containers into service.

How about you? Got yer garden on yet? If you don’t know where to begin, here are a few links and videos to help you out. 

First off, the video below is for new gardeners ("How to Grow an Organic Vegetable Garden") who want to dig up a little section of their lawns and start an organic vegetable patch.  The production’s a tad cheesy, but once the talking heads get past the chit-chat, there’s wonderful info for beginners: What tools you need, how to mulch, when to plant, etc.

Designing your garden. A good piece on how to choose a spot for your plot.

Not much space at your disposal for a garden? Check out Square Foot Gardening

Composting is very cool, and this guy offers up a great video on how to do it. I chose this video because of his discussion on 3:1 "green to brown," a good, simple equation to keep in mind when composting. Plus, I love the shot of the steaming pile in the beginning. That is a totally wow compost pile.

Rain barrels. I really want to make or buy a couple rain barrels this year. A great way to reclaim and recycle water. There really should be no such thing as "waste water"; it’s a precious resource. (Here’s the full-on DIY version — this dude is rain barrel loopy!)

About El Dragón

Barth Anderson is chief blogger at Fair Food Fight. He has roughly 20 years experience with the natural foods industry, working as grocery stocker, produce buyer, marketer, and organic certification coordinator at various natural foods co-ops across the country. His two novels, THE PATRON SAINT OF PLAGUES and THE MAGICIAN AND THE FOOL (Bantam) are available through Amazon.com.

One Comment

  1. Hey, thanks for your tips. It is very useful for me. I really like gardening in my spare time. I have a dream of my garden. Yes, I want to add large pond that my garden looks beautiful and fresh. The flowers are planted my wife would feel incomplete if there is a garden pond in the middle.

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