Organic Gardening: A Beginner's Guide
- Evelyn Nguyen
- Aug 5, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 24, 2020
On a 32sq. ft balcony in Manhattan.
Gardening is not my newfound venture, nor was it another COVID-enabled hobby. I started gardening in the summer before my college senior year, then again at my Boston apartment (which comes with a large garden and a farmer landlord). I would start a garden if there is sun-lit window, an open space, or a balcony facing South/East. The inspiration started simple for me: to grow rare-to-find herbs.
Asiatic herbs happen to be much more diverse than the commonly found scallion, cilantro and ginger. Vietnamese flavors are more dynamic than pho, fish sauce and lime. In Vietnam, we serve duck/muscovy duck (ngan) or organ meats with Thai basil, clams or chicken with Vietnamese coriander, and snail and green banana stew with red shiso leaves. We grill meat patties with betel leaves, pan fry eggs with mugwort, and blanch shiso in egg congee. In many parts of the country, these herbs are considered medicinal. Their fragrance permeates through local cultures and shapes the diverse flavors of Vietnamese foods. So naturally, I couldn't resist incorporating them in my gardening practice.
Today I'm going to share little steps and tips on how I started a mini garden on my balcony. These are tips, not guides (since I'm no expert), but they include where to get seeds, timing, and some easy-access resources. Gardening is a rewarding but challenging process, but I hope we accomplish each little step towards self-sufficiency and sustainability.
Seeds
There are two ways to start your garden: from seeds or from baby plants. Personally, I prefer seeds since I like my vegetables to be completely organic (that means organic soil, organic fertilizers, no pesticides/herbicides, etc...). If you buy baby plants from your local nursery, Home Depot or online (i.e.Etsy), there is no guarantee that they were started organically. If you don't care whether they are organic or not, this shouldn't matter, but there is also no way to know which kinds of species/inter-breeding that have happened. In the realms of eugenics, agriculture takes a huge benefit from genetically engineering of plants, fruits and vegetables to make them sweeter (more like super sweet), seedless, weather resistant (very important!) or smell like cotton candies.
Below are some types of edible plants I found easy to start from seeds (I'm going to exclude those commonly found in grocery stores, i.e. scallion, cilantro, mint, parsley, oregano and basil).
Herbs
1. Korean Perilla: Perilla is an umbrella name (aka genus) for this herb, mainly cultivated in Korea, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. The variety in Korean cuisine (i.e. wraps in K-BBQ, or perilla oil) is termed "Perilla frutescens" or P. frutescens. The leaves are HUGE and look much rounder than the shiso variety used in Vietnamese/Japanese cuisine. But similar to shiso, they come in either green only or red/green varieties.
Find them here: Jeok Ssam Ip, Korean Perilla
2. Shiso/Tía tô/Kinh giới (beefsteak shiso): Called "Perilla frutescens var. crispa." , these varieties smell different from each other and distinct from the Korean perilla. The plants look bushier, their leaves more triangular, and the fringes more serrated. Like Korean perilla, they come in green only (kinh giới) or red and green (tía tô). Their seeds take 60-70 days to mature and can be planted in late spring/summer. Find them here: Red Shiso, Hojiso, Ao Shiso
3. Mugwort/Yomogi/Ngải cứu ("Artemisia princeps")
This herb is highly weather resistant and can survive in almost all climates. It is also perennial, meaning you can harvest it all year-long, and takes only 45 days to mature. But, like perilla, mugwort is an invasive species so be prepare to pluck it soon.
Find them here: Yomogi
4. Thai Basil ("Ocimum basilicum")
In Vietnam, I mostly see the Siam Queen variety: smaller, straighter leaves and more pungent (I believe we have mostly the Sweet Large Leaf variety here in the US - although they have the same scientific names). These herbs have an intense licorice flavor with medium green leaves and compact clusters of deep red-purple flowers, which should be pluck frequently to preserve nutrients and prevent bitterness. 70-80 days to mature in warm season.
Find them here: Siam Queen
Other vegetables (+ recommended variety) I have grown, ranked according to maturation time:
Cải xanh: Summer Hybrid (short 21 days till maturation, resistant to heat & disease)
Cải cúc: Oasis (Glebionis coronaria, short 40-50-day maturation, very productive)
Mồng tơi: Malabar Spinach (60 days to mature, green vine, tolerate heat and humidity)
Rau đay: Egyptian Spinach (Corchorus olitorius, 60 days till maturation)
Cà pháo: Thai Round Eggplants (55-65 days till maturation, disease-resistant, adaptable)
Mướp: Luffa Smooth (80 days till maturation, harvest as young fruits)
Bí: Mokwa Long (hairy skin, 80 days till maturation, harvested at 10-12")
Ngò gai: Culantro (short-lived perennial, harvest before flowering, 80-90 days to mature)
Bầu: Calabash Long (smooth skin, 100 days till maturation, harvested at 14-24" long)
Notes: I have also bought seeds from Ebay or Etsy, so you can totally diversify your seed sources. I personally found Kitazawa seeds to be reliable, and the packages comes with thorough seeding instructions, but heads up: it costs $4/pack of seeds and $5 shipping.
Soil & Water
The foundation of a plant home, but what constitutes good organic soil? Typically, soil blends contain the following:
Peat, Coco coir, or Rice Hulls: provides structure
Perlite: keeps soil aerated for root development
Sphagnum Peat Moss: retains water for plants
Aged Compost: provides organic nutrients
Yucca: a wetting agent to absorb water
Forest products: provides structure
Here are the blends I have used, which have all of the above ingredients. They all work well, and you can find them at your local Home Depot:
Miracle-Gro Organic Potting Mix ($11.97 for 25 qt.): https://thd.co/30sxFZz
Miracle-Gro Organic All Purpose In Ground Soil ($9.97 for 1.3cu. ft): https://thd.co/2EQXgDh
For Houseplants only:
Water: I often water my vegetables once a day, either early morning or late, late afternoon. My balcony is East facing, so it receives bright direct sunlight throughout the morning, and the rest of the day indirect light. The more sun you have + "exposed" your soil is (that means loss of hydration), the more you would need to pay attention to your watering schedule. With flowers, I often water twice a day. Houseplants, 1-2 times/week.
But if you need to take away anything from this post, ALWAYS have drainage holes. Be it a fancy planter or plastic container executed with a knife, water should be absorbed into soil, not sitting in the soil. It would cause root rot, presented as brown spots on the tips of the leaves, and your plants will die once the rot spreads.
At the early phase of growth, as sprouts are developing root systems, you should water from the top-down, and keep the soil moist always. However, once the plants have relatively matured, you could water from top-down or bottom-up, meaning with a self-watering pots, as shown below. Then, the top soil might be dry but plants still have access to water.
Self-watering Grower Pots
Let's make our lives a bit easier: parents would all love it if kids just feed themselves...
Here is what you would need: an Earth Box or a Growbox. I have three Grow Boxes and highly, highly recommend them. They are big enough for leafy vegetables, deep enough for fruits (i.e.cucumber, gourds, squash, tomatoes...) and sturdy enough as the base for a staking system (i.e. plants that grow as vines).
The top chamber is built with a lot of drainage while the bottom acts as a "river" and water source. This "gate," as you see here, is filled with soil, allowing plants to access water from the bottom chamber. The box is filled half-way with moist soil, watered thoroughly, then mixed with an organic fertilizer, then packed all the way to the top and watered again. That's it: a compact, simple gardening system for preschool gardeners like me.
Waiting Game & Some Final Tips
Now you wait and watch your babies grow day by day. Be patient. Be watchful. Trust their independence. I mean, just be responsible parents.
1. I mostly always germinate the seeds indoors, where there is fixed temperature at ideal germinating temperatures of 70-90 degrees.
2. If the seeds have hard shells (i.e. gourds), soak in warm water for 24 hours.
3. If you germinate outdoors, consider covering the pots/seedlings in plastic wrap/water bottles to trap humidity and CO2, which both promote faster germination.
4. Always seed in moist, well-fertilized soils. Keep soil moist throughout germination and early growth periods, until plants have developed root systems. Then you can start watering once a week from the bottom wells of the self-watering grower pots.
5. Keep soil aerated. Most soil mix sold in the US have perlite blended in, which keep soil light and aerated.
6. During grow season, which is typically summer for the Northeast, fertilize every 3-4 weeks until the plants have matured.
7. If harvest, cut diagonally about 2-4 inches from ground, which would promote bushier plants and reserve hydration.
8. For your expectation: herbs are beginner's level. Leafy vegetables are intermediate. Fruit-bearing and vine vegetables are advanced. But expect a sharp learning curve!
Here are some pictures of my first grower pot:
As inspirations, pictures of the organic garden in my old Boston apartment:
I hope this article inspired you to start gardening and enabled you to do so with tips and resources. Start small, dream big, take small steps along the way. Good luck, my friends!
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