Sustainable Solution #4: Organic Vegetable Gardening- Join the “food not lawns” movement.
Hello spring gardening! I have very little experience with gardening but I recently decided I wanted to try it out.
Why is organic vegetable gardening important?
Aside from being a great way to save money, growing our own food can reduce our carbon footprint and keep us healthy. In addition, it is a wonderful way to create a better relationship with our Earth, learn how it works and how to take care of it. Below is some basic information I’ve gathered from the National Gardening Association website and other resources, that could be especially useful to gardening beginners, like myself.
A few basic tips from the Old Farmer’s Almanac:
1. The date of last spring’s frost is important in determining the best planting dates for seeds. There is a 50 percent probability of a frost-free New Paltz after April 24. Also, there are different days to start the seeds in the ground for different vegetables. For those dates go to: http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/NY/New%20Paltz.
2. Vegetables require, at the least, six hours of sunlight each day.
3. Vegetables need fertile and well-drained soil, which should be determined by soil experts.
4. The placement of your garden is important. For example, a garden too near a tree will lose its nutrients “to the tree’s root system.”
5. Vegetables need at least one inch of water a week.
To learn more about sustainable efforts, Sustainable Action Week will be from April 25 to May 1. For more information on Sustainable Action Week, go to
www.npsustainability.blogspot.com