Another great way to celebrate National Gardening Month is to grow your own garden. For beginner gardeners, a small herb garden is easy to grow. Choose herbs that you like to cook with, such as thyme, basil, and oregano. These herbs can be planted together in a container that is at least 4-6 inches inches deep and approximately 6-8 inches wide. Next, you can try growing a salad garden with leaf lettuce, spinach, mesclun, radishes, and baby carrots.
To get started, you will need containers that are 3-6 inches deep for leafy greens, and 6-8 inches deep for carrots and radishes. Gardens can be planted in separate containers, or a few, wider containers. For planting, use a soil-less planting mix that contains a slow-release fertilizer or compost. As potting mix is added to the containers, add water and mix it in, so that the soil is evenly moist, about the same as a wrung out sponge.
Water regularly, making sure that soil does not dry out. When seedlings begin to grow, then can be quite thick and should be thinned out to give the plants space to grow. Radishes and baby carrots should be thinned to give the plants 2-3 inches between plants. Leafy greens can be thinned to give plants 1-2 inches between plants. To thin, either pull the extra plants out or cut the close to the soil with clean scissors.
Harvest baby leafy greens after approximately 30 days by cutting the leaves about an inch from the soil and the leaves will grow back for 1-2 more times. Radishes leaves can be cut and sprinkled over a salad, or the radish roots can be gently dug up after about 30 days. Baby carrots should be ready within 55-60 days. Be sure to wash vegetables and peel carrots before eating. For more information on container gardens, visit: https://extension.umd.e du/hgic/plants/container-gardening
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