Eight Garden Tips for UC Residents

I saw a prompt on the Patch a couple weeks asking for gardening tips.. Here is my response!

I've only been gardening for about four years, so I'm no expert and I don't claim to be. But here are some of the things I've learned through experience and mistakes.. Hopefully you can learn from them.

1. Timing is VERY important.

Certain vegetables can only be planted during the summer months and some will only do well in the winter months. It gets even more trickier because some summer vegetables must be well rooted before it gets really hot. This is true even in a relatively mild climate like the East Bay.

I learned this the hard way. My first year as a gardener, I got lucky and planted all my summer crops (tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant) in the Spring (without really thinking about it) and I got a great harvest that year. My second year, being still a relatively inexperience gardener, I planted everything in early June (because my spring was really busy that year), I was still able to get seedlings to come up, but then the summer sun wilted them all and my harvest that year was not so great.

For summer Union City gardening, I would recommend for most veggies (cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, squash) to get the seedlings in late April (if it's a cold spring, maybe mid May). Doing this way will give your veggies all summer to grow and produce.

2. Know the sun

The sun is your friend.. And enemy! You should know how the sun passes over your house, especially over the parts where you plan to plant stuff.

Here is the thing, most summer vegetables will need a lot of sun (six plus hours), so if you plant in a place that does not get that much sun, then you are in for some unhealthy plants. Example plants are most summer plants, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash. However, some vegetables will not do that well in more than 6 hours of sun a day, if you plant them in a very sunny spot, you get charred vegetation. Example plants are kale, flower, and leafy plants.

So make sure to do the research and know how much sun your plants need and how the sun passes over your garden.

If you want me to sum it up, just pick a place that gets a lot of sun. Avoid the shade.

3. Raise Your Bed

The first few years of gardening, I tried to just take big plots of dirt and plant in them. It worked, but it was hard , because water would drain out, and weeds would grow uncontrollably. this year I got tired of that stuff and decided to build raised beds for the soil.

A raised bed is really simple, it's basically a container for your soil. Mine are about 12ft X 3ft and about 8 inches high. They are great because they keep your plants in a more organized manner, help prevent weeds, and plants have an easier time growing in them because the soil is not compacted.

Another great thing about raise beds is that they are simple to make! You can buy them at Home Depot for $50 or best  yet, if your cheap like me, you can buy the wood and make them yourself. Instead of paying $50 for 1, i paid about $25 for enough wood to construct 6 beds. I also recycled a lot of old wood to build beds. They are really easy to make, just make sure you have enough screws and a good power drill.

4. Be Resourceful and Creative

A little more on raised beds. You really do not need the best wood for raised beds. I have six raised beds in my garden, and only one of them was made with wood I bought.

I made a few out of an old fence that fell down. I just took fence pieces and sawed/screwed them together. Those are solid and will last a couple years.

My best tip is this, people are always giving away stuff in Union City/Fremont. You can check craigslist and you can see people giving away wood or stuff made of wood. You know wooden desks or tables? If you have a circular saw or anything, you can easily cut those things up into planks and use that wood for raised beds. It really is that easy.

I also recommend keeping an eye open when you drive around your 'hood. In my area, people are always "giving away" stuff (by leaving them on the sidewalk), like desks, bookshelfs. Those things are so easy to cut up and turn into raised beds. Do not buy wood.

5.  Compost, Compost, Compost

I love composting because it allows you to take your scraps and turn it into gold AKA black gold .

There are many ways to compost. You can buy a compost bin (ranging from $5 to $100 on amazon) and build your compost pile in that. I personally just like to dig holes in my raised beds and bury everything in them.

It's important to have a mix of material in your compost. I try to get a good ratio of green compost material and brown compost material. Green material includes things like your food scraps (no meat), old vegetables, grass, fruits, stuff like that. While brown material are your dried up leaves, wood chips, stuff like that. It's important to have a good mix.

I usually have a pile of compost, that i keep moist (water helps things break down) and turn every couple weeks to give oxygen (which also helps the break down process). In no time, you will have a nice pile of compost to use.

6. Compost is Free!

More tips on composting.. It's easy to get free compost.

- coffee grinds adds nitrogen to your soil. Most starbucks will gladly give you their used coffee grinds if you go and ask them. I do this all the time!

- My city garbage disposal company gives away compost bags every once in a while. (I think once a year). Go get it!

- There are a couple places in the Bay Area (Berkeley and Menlo Park to name a few) that gives away free compost once a month. You can bring a truck or van and load up as much as you need. This is a great way to fill up your raised beds.

Menlo Park Compost Giveaway

Berkeley Compost Giveaway

Be warned though, if you try to get the free compost, go early and prepare to fight the hordes of other gardeners who want free stuff.

7. Do not be afraid of killing things

Unless you are God's gift to gardening, you will kill some plants. And it's okay. The good thing is that seeds and seedlings are really cheap. Seeds you can get a lot for about $1-$2 dollars. Seedlings on sale you can get from like $.50 to $2..

So don't get all sad and depressed when things die, or don't produce. It's ok. You will not become a master gardener after one year, or two years, or three years. The more you do it, the better you get at it, and the more you learn. Don't get frustrated and give up.

The good thing is, this is not the 1800s (or Africa), if you screw up a crop one year, you will not die or starve, the worse thing that will happen to you is that you need to go to the supermarket to get your food.

8. Have Fun

I think lastly, have fun. Realize that we in Union City are not gardening to survive or for our livelihood, (though if you are, I think there are lots of services out there who can help you) so we can afford to play around and experiment.

So go ahead and be adventurous. Plant new things, come up with creative new dishes. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of work as well, but it is pretty rewarding. The ground is your canvas for you to do whatever your hearts desire.