12 Tips for the Home Garden

I have been growing my own food in some form or another for almost 20 years. I started with containers on a patio then upsized my growing operation with each house I moved to. I don't know everything about gardening by any means, but I've experienced and learned a lot. So here's some tips I want to share with you as you start planning your next garden. I hope it helps!

• Grow beans on your tallest trellis because they grow the fastest
  
• Plant small squash and melons at the base of your sturdiest trellis because they weigh the most. Hammocks might be needed later on for the fruit.
  
• Place a pea seed in your finished compost. If it sprouts, the compost is ready. If it doesn't, more time is needed.
  
• Use row cover over your cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, romanesco and brussels sprout plants to prevent an infestation of cabbage worms.
  
• Never, ever use hay as mulch in the garden; it's filled with seeds and will turn your garden into a field of grass in no time. Use straw instead.
  
• Peas are the first crop to be planted in the garden. When the soil is no longer a frozen rock (aka "workable") and reaches roughly 45F, you can sow those seeds.
  
• Never use bamboo poles for pea plants. They can't grip the poles and will sag.
  
• Rotate crops always. If you're stumped on where to rotate plants to, follow the adage, "Beans, then roots. Greens, then fruit".
  
• When you walk past your tomato plants in the summertime, give the blossoms a tap with your finger. It'll help distribute pollen and increase your crop yield.
  
• Got aphids in the garden? Add ladybugs. They'll eat the aphids and leave when the aphids are gone.
  
• Water motion sprinklers are the best deterrent for garden intruders. A deer or gopher will happily circumvent a fence if they can find a way. But they won't like a blast of water.
  
• Plant radishes around cucumbers to prevent beetles.

There's so much more I could share but we'll call it good for now.