How To Start A Patio Garden

Part 1: Sowing & Planting

Health Benefits of Growing Your Own Food

There are many health benefits to growing your own food. Growing your own fruits and vegetables not only can improve your nutritional health, but also your physical and mental well-being.

As a gardener, you’re in control of what you eat, what you grow, and how you grow it. Home grown vegetable gardens often have less harmful chemicals than that of the produce you would typically find in the store, which may be contaminated with pesticides and fertilizer.

Additionally, some studies have found that immersing yourself in green space and being around plants can improve your mental health. Tending and caring for plants from seed to fruit can be very rewarding as well, resulting in a sense of accomplishment for the gardener.

Everything You Need

Here is a list of everything you need to start your very own patio garden:

• Seed starter tray and cells

• Seed starting potting mix

• Heating pad

• Hand trowel or gardening gloves

• Containers or planters

• A sunny spot inside and outside

What I chose to grow this year on a Patio

• Sugar bon peas

• Radishes

• Amana Orange Tomatoes

• Cherry Tomatoes

• Thai Red Chili Peppers

• Jalapeno Peppers

• Komatsuna

• Cilantro

• Basil

• Mint

Planting Timeline and Process

I began planting most of the seeds indoors around the end of March, which is the recommended time frame in Colorado. I used a seed starting soil, which is different than the soil you want to use when planting your plants in containers. I can’t remember the brand of the seed soil, but I bought the mix at Home Depot.

After the seeds were planted in 3 inch cells, they were placed onto a heating pad and watered daily. If you don’t want to by a heating pad, you can place your stay on the top of your refrigerator or somewhere else that is warm.

There were a few seeds that did not sprout and had to be replanted. I learned that seeds do not need much soil at all to form roots and sprout, and the starter containers may have been too big for some. For the plants that failed, which were the peppers and herbs, they were replanted in egg cartons, which were smaller cells and successfully began to grow.

Once the plants had sprouted and were ready to be transferred, I used the Miracle-Gro potting mix, which was purchased at Costco. I bought two bags of Miracle-Gro soil and used about a bag and a half, so 75 quarts of soil for our patio garden. We moved plants outside in May.

Next Steps

Water plants daily and adjust them if necessary depending on if they need more or less sun.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my patio garden where I’ll share the results of this summer’s garden and go over some lessons learned.