Things You Need

(This post assumes you've read Choosing Your Plot and Choosing Your Vegetables first!)

Obviously this is a very unusual year: last year there was still snow on the ground at this time, but this year it feels like we're late to get things planted.

So I'll be accelerating the pace a little, and posting more than once a week for a while.

You'll need to prepare the soil in your containers or garden plot, and after that it will be time to plant things like peas, arugula, chard, etc.

But first, you need to make sure you have your supplies. You don't need very much (gardening is not an equipment sport), but there are some inexpensive things you need.

1. Gloves

Getting your hands in the soil is romantic, but unless you want to spend more time scrubbing dirt off them than gardening, you need gloves.

For gardening, don't buy gloves made of knit material: too much dirt goes right through the knit. Cotton cloth is nice because you can rinse them out a bit while you are outside, and then take them in and throw them in the wash.

2. Trowel

You definitely need something to dig and cultivate with. An ordinary garden trowel is good, as long as it's strong - you'd be surprised at how hard you crank on the trowel sometimes.  So look carefully at what you are buying, and try to choose something strong, unless you want to buy another one again soon.

A basic, sturdy trowel the only cultivating tool you really need for basic gardening. On the other hand, I do love my Korean "homi", which has a longer, narrower blade set at right-angles to the handle. It's great for preparing soil and planting, but it's not as good for digging holes or moving any amount of dirt around, so it doesn't substitute for a trowel. I use both. But just a trowel alone is definitely enough.

3. Compost

Compost is nicely decayed organic matter.  It is pretty much odourless, and basically looks like light, crumbly, loose, black dirt.

Compost is the original garden black magic, and you want lots of it in your soil, for many, many reasons. It keeps the soil from clumping and packing into hard chunks. It retains moisture that would otherwise drain away, so plants don't dry out as quickly, while at the same time it also retains air-pockets needed by the micro-organisms in the soil that provide your plants with the nutrients they need. And it feeds the soil organisms and your plants.

So you must have compost, lots if it. It is the main easy in easy gardening. Every time you plant anything, you put more compost into your soil.

How much do you need?  If you're keeping things as small as I've recommended (a square metre or two), then one large bag should be plenty - and a smaller bag should be okay if you're going really small, like just a few smaller containers. Up to a point, more is better. All the vegetables on the short list will be happy with lots: for example, 25% compost, 75% soil would be just fine.

Toronto city compost is free, but you have to pick it up yourself. Soon (March 31st), the Toronto neighborhood environment days will start up (schedule here), where you can fill your own bins or bags full of compost for free - your own food coming back to you full circle, isn't that beautiful? But an environment day event in your area might come too late for you if you're starting with early spring greens, so check the schedule, and if necessary, buy a bag of compost now, and pick up more when there's a conveniently located environment day event near you.

4. Seeds

Hopefully you've already decided what you are going to grow, so you can buy seeds now. If you haven't quite decided, I suggest going back to the posting on planning your plot, and working that out soon!

Personally, I mostly buy from Urban Harvest in Toronto. Besides their great selection, the people are friendly and knowledgeable, and they carry only organic, open-pollinated seeds, which also means you can keep seed from most varieties to use next year. (They also happen to be convenient for me because they come to my local farmer's market.) Also, talking with someone who knows the varieties is very helpful when trying to choose which type to grow. But there are also lots of other choices of seeds at garden centers everywhere.  Don't sweat it too much.

For some plants, it is often more practical to buy them as seedlings. On our shortlist, tomatoes, basil, chives, and nasturtiums are all good candidates for this approach.

Tomatoes are usually started very early indoors so they have a good start by the time it gets warm enough outside for them. Basil, chives, and nasturtiums are the other things from the shortlist that you might want to buy as seedlings. Chives you will only ever need to buy once anyway, because they are perennial, and when your first clump gets larger, it can be split up into many.  Usually one or two nasturtiums are all you need, too, because they spread quite vigorously to cover a large area.

If you're only going to plant a few of those, or if you have more money than time, or you just definitely want to keep this easy, I suggest just buying the potted seedlings: but later, right when it's time to plant them out in May.

So don't buy seeds for the plants you are going to buy as seedlings.

On the other hand, in this blog I will cover how (and when) to start seeds indoors from seed, so you can do that if you want to. I will cover that (next month) because I do it myself, but be warned that we're straying out of easy territory there, and the results I get at home are nearly always smaller and weaker than the seedlings grown by experts with greenhouses. I just like to do it, and I'm also cheap.

5. Shovel - optional

A full sized shovel is occasionally helpful, but it's only absolutely necessary on one very rare occasion: when you dig a completely new area of garden patch.  So if that's what you're going to be doing this year, you should borrow a shovel or buy one, because it's almost time to start digging.

6. Containers and Potting Soil - optional

If you're planting on a balcony or patio, you'll need your containers and soil. Whatever the containers are, make them deep, and make sure they have drainage.

The main problems with containers are the extremes: they can easily dry out too fast, or they can get too waterlogged. So they should be very deep to hold lots of soil (and thus retain lots of water), but they must also have plenty of drainage in the bottom so that too much water doesn't just fill them up.

If you're using something that doesn't have holes, you need to add them.  A drill would probably be the best way, though a hammer and a nail might work for some things. (So add borrowing a drill to your list if you're in this situation and you don't have one.)

Drainage also means you need to have something for under the containers if they're in a place where the runoff has to be controlled. Water that leaks from the bottom of the pot will be somewhat dirty. Commercially made plant pots usually come with drainage dishes, or you can place a pot that has drain holes within an outer container that doesn't - which is both decorative, and good for your plants, since it will add protection from heat and cold for the roots.

The soil can be any potting soil (which will be light and absorbent, generally), but I'd suggest going for something certified organic, since it's anybody's guess what might be in the unregulated products intended for ordinary house plants.

7. Climbing Support - optional

If you are planting peas, or later tomatoes or climbing beans, they'll all need to climb or be supported. The easiest is to plant against an existing fence, but lots of things will work, as long as it's tall enough - 4 or 5 feet at least - and strong enough not to fall over: tomato plants and beans in particular get pretty heavy.

Garden centres have lots of things for this, like purpose-made stakes, "tomato cages", bamboo poles, or wooden lattice. If you already have a wall or fence but it's not readily climbable, just hanging many twine strings from it is enough for peas and beans to climb. Tomatoes you'll have to tie up more because they don't really hang on for themselves.

I know I say this a lot, but: don't worry too much. Try something, and if it doesn't work... just try something else.


Where to Get Things

You can get everything listed here at a garden centre or hardware store.

Seeds are also in most grocery stores, too. Seeds (and later on, seedlings) will be for sale at local farmers markets too. (As mentioned above, I usually get mine from Urban Harvest - they are always at my local farmers market, and they are organic, and they are local, and they have an incredible selection of seeds and seedlings, and they are nice. But there are other good seed people around, too.)