8 Gardening Tips for Beginners & 4 Must Have Tools

 

I haven't always wanted to grow my own food.  I didn't even really understand where food came from for a while (besides that it came from farmers).  As I started reading about nutrition and started cooking for myself, I wanted to see and be a part of the entire cycle of seed, plant, harvest, eat.  

I read a little about gardening, but any gardener will tell you, the best learnings come from your garden (your success and failures), not from a book.  Every garden is different, as is every gardener.  You may have a patio with a couple pots or an acre of tilled soil.  That dirt could have come from a bag or be rocky clay like mine was.  I wanted to pass on my learnings because failure can be hard to overcome and can kill all motivation to grow your own food.  But with these few tips, hopefully you'll bypass any setbacks and have success from year one!

 

1.  Good dirt is essential!  Our yard is rocky clay dirt.  Just awful for growing anything but grass and weeds.  So we knew to start, we needed raised beds with trucked in dirt.  Too bad we didn't spring the extra dollars for some good, dark garden soil.  But over time I've added amendments (compost, peat moss, and fertilizers) and we have good dirt!

2. You can use fertilizer and still grow things organically!  I was so scared to use fertilizer when I started.  Just the thought of whatever the plant eats will be in the vegetable which I will eat... ick!  Well, my plants didn't grow because they didn't have enough nutrients in my awful dirt.  I grabbed some organic fertilizer the next year and had much better results!  Now I add it once when I'm planting and once mid growing season.

3. Don't neglect your garden halfway through!  This one is still hard for me... I put it quite a bit of energy in the beginning; planting, weeding, watering, observing.  Then summer comes and I want to do other things.  The dirt dries up, the weeds take over, and the vegetables that are growing are forgotten.  So pick a day of the week and spend 30 minutes watering and weeding.  You'll know what's going on in your garden and harvest a lot more.

4. There are good and bad bugs.  Some bugs can eat away at your entire garden if they invite their friends... others make your garden possible.  Worms, ladybugs, fireflies, and pollinators (bees, butterflies, etc) are all garden friends.  Slugs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, aphids, and most beetles are all trying to eat things in your garden before you do.  Spray them off with a hose or use an organic insecticide (but not within one week of harvesting), I use diluted neem oil.

5. Most vegetables need one inch of water per week.  If you have your plants in pots, it dehydrates faster, so water at least twice a week.  And fully saturate the soil you're watering.  The deeper the water grows, the deeper the roots grow.  The deeper the roots, the bigger the plant.  The bigger the plant, the more veggies you'll get!  Also, if the water is underneath the surface, the sun can't zap it away. 

6.  When planting, dig deep.  Especially with clay or rocky soil, when you dig out a hole that is deeper and wider than the plant actually needs, you have loosened up that soil so its roots can easily grow down and out making a stronger plant.  Add some fertilizer at the bottom mixed with some loose soil... and those roots will reach down for it!

7.  You might need a fence.  If you have deer, rabbits, or dogs in your yard, you have just planted a buffet.  I tried scarecrows, shiny items, noisy stuff, fake snakes, dog fur... so many things to keep the deer away.  Nothing works quite as well as a cheap wire fence.

8.  Know how much sun your garden will get.  If your garden location doesn't get much sun, chances are good that you won't have much luck with tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant.  If it gets full sun... you're lettuce and cabbage will bolt before you can harvest anything leaving bitter greens (but your tomatoes will be prolific!).

Now that you have the tips, you'll need some tools.  Gardening should be a "cheap" hobby.  As with any hobby, it's easy to spend more money than necessary.  Here are four tools you will need to start...

link to my shovel (which I looove)

And a couple that come in handy...

Gardening is great for giving you time to think and reflect.  It's almost like meditation, but you're getting your hands dirty and fresh food.  The past several years I have spent gardening has really made me feel closer to my food.  Not just the stuff I grow myself, but knowing and understanding how the whole cycle works increases your appreciation of all food!  

 

   

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Weekly Menu

It's been a fun packed weekend and of course it eventually had to come to an end.  My in-laws and their friends were in town and we were showing them around Columbus... well... really just eating and drinking at some of our favorite spots.  (Which may be inspiring a future Cbus post for a fun day in each of the Cbus neighborhoods.)  And then today we went for our obligatory annual visit to ComFest with our jerk chicken tradition.  I really love the meaning behind ComFest, bringing together community, supporting local, free spirits, and no trace!  The meaning gets lost in the massive crowd that descends on Goodale Park every year, but it's still fun.  :)

I made kale chips to snack on throughout the weekend (they were gone in an hour).  RECIPE HERE  Kale chips really are the ONLY way I can eat kale... I can't quite understand how something that tastes like grass can taste so good after 25 minutes in the oven!

I skipped a week or two of planning out our menu and it certainly made me feel unprepared and less motivated to cook anything (despite having a fridge full of ingredients).  So this week... back to meal planning.  Here's what's on tap for us...

broccoli frittata with roasted potatoes
pizza night
burgers and salad
sloppy joes with roasted fennel
zucchini latkes with green beans

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May & June Reader Questions

Here are some reader questions that I received in May and June that I think might benefit you, too! Enjoy!! :D

Q: Through last few years I've been constantly coming back to idea of starting a blog... I did read through your post about how to start a blog.. and I know my content, I also know what I want my label to be and almost decided on a platform... 

the part that I'm struggling with is that what if nobody's gonna read my blog at all.. what is normal and what is not, I know that I will not get tons of people as I start, but how do you promote your blog and if you could share how did it go for you, how many people read you when you just started, how many people are reading now? 

I guess I wanted to ask you to please share the story of your blogging with me. 

Things like how did you start doing it, how did you decide that that is what you want to do, what did you struggle with what were your mistakes?

A: At first, I was having about 15-30 readers a day visit OC. I had think I hit 1,000 pageviews around my first month or two of blogging. Just watch your stats in the beginning: What are people reading? What are they not reading? Keep refining your content to fit your specific readership. 

Additionally, always check where your traffic is coming from! One of my tumblr posts was lucky enough to be reblogged by the Organized College Student (who had many more followers than me). This helped OC grow a lot very early on! As far as promoting posts, most of my traffic comes through Pinterest! 

So building up your Pinterest account is one of the best things you can do for your blog! Another great thing to do is to share smaller amounts of content and more photographs on Tumblr. Because Tumblr. uses hashtags, you can get your content in front of people who are already searching for it! 

Pinterest and Tumblr are great resources because they're easy to build up even if you don't have a ton of your own content yet... so you can kind of build your brand by reblogging and repinning content that's relevant to your niche (just be sure to always link back to the original content creators)!

Finally, for mistakes- I still don't promote each post as much as I should. Blogging is not my full time job, you know? So, it's hard to justify taking the time to share every post across every social media channel every time. You can never promote your content enough! 

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Q: I am going to be a sophomore in high school next year and I was wondering if you had some tips on my organization of my notes and handouts. This year I took six classes and did 1 inch binders for each class. It was a bit bulky to have all of those binders along with textbooks in my narrow locker and then into my backpack when I had to take them home.

A: For notes and handouts, I would suggest following the systems in this post:

http://organizedcharm.blogspot.com/2014/04/class-folder-organization.html

And for note organization, I would suggest following the system in this post:

http://organizedcharm.blogspot.com/2014/10/note-organization-checklist.html 

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Q: Most of my classmates do a folder and notebook for each class. I like that idea but I like to go home and rewrite my notes in colorful pens. I am afraid I would run out of pages in my notebook quickly and it would be unorganized because I would have the class notes and then the notes that I rewrote at home. 

A: Get a folder and a notebook for each class. Keep the handouts on the left side of the folder and your graded assignments on the right side. Take "sloppy" notes in mechanical pencil in the notebook. When you go home, rewrite the notes the way you want them to look. Then put them in a "study binder". Save all of your neatly, rewritten notes in this binder, use tabs to divide the different classes, and refer to this organized notebook when you're preparing for a big test! 

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Q: I am entering college as a freshmen in 2 months, and Im terrified. I need amazing grades to get into graduate school, and amazing grades come with organization. 

A: Don't even start worrying about grad school until your senior year! Once you get into the rhythm of semesters, college won't be scary at all! Just have fun, relax, and work hard.  

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Q: I noticed your post on Top 10 Semester essentials, and I was wondering if you could elaborate on your "4-calendar" "color-coded" "obsessive organization" system. 

A: For the sake of "college life", I would only suggest 1-2 planners. 1 for normal everyday life and one for schoolwork. I like to be veeeery detailed when planning out my study time, so that's why I have an academic planner just for that! My husband and I also have a calendar in our house (the Post-It one), where we keep track of each other's schedules and social commitment, etc. The 4th one I use is my lesson planner for teaching.  

More about → May & June Reader Questions

Pork Chop A La Kilawin

I made this from my leftover fried pork chop yesterday, it was so good. The method in preparing this is the same with the kilawin that I knew. Mmmmmmm all my friends enjoyed it with hot rice but I chose to eat it with my bahaw ( leftover rice). 

Ingredients:
3 fried pork chop
2 tomatoes ( sliced to your desired size)
1 purple onion or you can use white onion (sliced to your desired size)
2 tablespoons calamansi or lemon juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce or according to your taste
2 tablespoons sliced spring onion
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:
1. Slice the pork chop to your desired size then combine with all the ingredients and mix well.
2. Put in a serving dish with chopped chili pepper then serve with rice and enjoy.

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Giniling with Egg

Giniling or ground meat is one of my favorite ingredients in cooking and this recipe is perfect for hot steamed rice or leftover rice. There is no available carrots when I cooked this, but you can add to the recipe if you want.

Ingredients for 6 servings:
1/2 kilo Ground meat ( either Pork, beef or chicken)
3 cloves garlic
1 onion ( minced)
1 cup green peas
2 big potatoes (diced)
1 red bell pepper (diced)
1 cup tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste
6 hard boiled eggs (de-shelled)


Procedure:

1. Saute the garlic and onion then add the ground meat 

and simmer until the pinkish color is gone.

2. Add the tomato sauce, bell pepper, soy sauce, salt and

 pepper then give a good stir and simmer until the ground 

meat is almost cook then add the potatoes and simmer for 6

 minutes or until done.

3. Add the green peas and eggs then simmer for a minute 

and turn off the heat.

4. Serve with a smile :-).

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How To Make an Easy Dessert

Simple yet delicious and very easy to prepare. Affordable and enough for the whole family.

Ingredients for 15 servings:
500 grams white small sago (cooked and drained)
1 sachet green gelatine powdered (unflavored)
1 sachet red gelatine powder ( unflavored)
2 cans condensed milk or  add according to your taste
2 cups fresh milk or evaporated milk
1 litre All purpose cream(Nestle, Alaska, Magnolia, Etc)

Procedure:
1. Cook each gelatine then set aside and diced.
2. In a mixing bowl combine all the ingredients then mix well.
3. Refrigerate before serving.

I recooked today (August 1) for a friends birthday and everybody likes it. I used green and orange gelatin

I dropped some raisins to my bowl and it's superb!

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How to Cook Sotanghon Perfectly

Sotanghon or cellophane noodles are a type of transparent noodle made from the starch of mung bean, cassava or potato starch. It is one of the noodles that I like, that's why  I cooked this for our breakfast today, tastes so good, mmmmm I want more. In cooking this noodles no need to simmer it for a long period of time or else it will be gooey.

Ingredients for 4 servings:
1 onion (minced)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
150 grams sotanghon
1 small head broccoli ( separated)
6 cups boiling water
4 leaves of cabbage ( sliced)
1 medium size carrot
100 grams de-shelled shrimps
100 grams chicken breast (slice to your desired size)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

sotanghon

Procedure:
1. Saute the garlic and onion then add the chicken, stir until the pinkish color is gone then add the shrimps and continue to saute for few seconds then add salt and pepper, soy sauce and the boiling water then simmer for 2 minutes. 
2. Add the carrots and broccoli then simmer for 2 minutes then add the sotanghon and cabbage and simmer for 2-3 minutes and turn off the heat.
3. Sprinkle with chopped spring onion then serve. Yummy!

More about → How to Cook Sotanghon Perfectly

Study Tip Sunday: Spend 20 Minutes Creating

More about → Study Tip Sunday: Spend 20 Minutes Creating

Ginisang Ampalaya

Bitter melon or bitter gourd is known for its medicinal uses, but it can be serve as food too. Although it has a bitter taste there are still lots of people who love it, and I am one of them. One way of neutralizing the bitter taste of it is cook it with egg. It is the most common dish for it and easy to do too.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo bitter melon ( ampalaya) sliced thinly
2 eggs ( beaten)
3 cloves garlic
salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Saute the garlic then increase the heat and add the bitter melon, mix it well then put some salt
2. Stir in the beaten eggs then stir until done.
4. Serve it hot and with a smile :)

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Chinese Cabbage Salad

Chinese cabbage or Napa cabbage is one of the common ingredients in Asian cooking but I want to share my recipe of raw Chinese cabbage salad. Easy to make yet nutritious and delicious.


Ingredients
1 piece Chinese cabbage ( Slice thinly)
2 tomatoes
1 can corn kernel
1 cup frozen green peas
1 medium size onion
1 lemon or according to your taste
salt and pepper to taste

Chinese Cabbage

Procedure:
1. In a mixing bowl combine all the ingredients then mix well and serve.

When I served it, I  added some parsley for extra aroma and a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil will make it extra yummy :)

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Introducing, the OC Academic Planner!

Y'all! I am so excited about this! I have been working so, so hard to get this together for you and it's finally happened. I have created THE academic planner that I wish I had in college. 100% ideal! 

This will officially be available on Friday, June 26th. I'll have a limited quantity of paper copies available for $25 and PDF downloads available for $12! Plus a giveaway next weekend, too! SO excited! 

Ok, let's take a tour, shall we?  

First of all, I like to plan big to small. That's why the year at a glance is here in the front... It covers the entire academic school year: July-June! Use washi tape or post it's here for tentative planning! 

Next up is the daily routine page! You know all those OC posts you read on daily productivity and routines? This is where you put them into action! There are two of these sheets: fall and spring! 

Next is the weekly routine page. This is so perfect for planning out your weekly schedule during the semester! Use post-it's to switch things around until it just "fits" (read: Time Management System)! There are two of these pages: Fall and Spring! 

Then come the weekly views! Each one has the month name and year, as well as a "Do This" section for monthly to do's or goal checkpoints. (You know I LOVE those!) Plus plenty of space to decorate! 

You can also write in your own dates to go along with whatever color scheme you choose for each month! I like to use the Feng Shui seasonal colors, but you might like to do something different! 

Here is a Birdseye view of the weekly layout! There are two "anti-procrastination" days or "just get it done" days: Wednesday and Sunday. They are subtly marked with darker lines to remind you! No excuses! 

Finally, my favorite, the weekly spreads! 52 of them! From June 28, 2015-June 25, 2016. Each week has correlating OC study tips and even tells you which posts to read when! Yay for school organization! 

There are 4 designated categories for each week to use however you want! You can make one for each class, designate them for different times of day, one for each area of life. This is where YOU really make this planner work for you! 

Finally, not pictured here, is a 2016-2017 school year planning section for your goals and plans for next year! And even a little place to write what you did well this year and what you'd like to improve for next year! 

I'm actually writing this from the Atlanta airport on my way to Mexico (so please excuse allll those autocorrect errors I know my phone "fixed" for me!) so everything will be available on Friday, June 26th! WOOHOO! :) 

More about → Introducing, the OC Academic Planner!