By Helen Kobek | From BayLines Express, April, 2021
Is anything (besides chocolate) more satisfying than chowing down on a hearty, healthy, fresh salad? Yes! How about chowing down on a salad made of just-picked vegetables from your own garden? Whether it’s grown in your community garden plot or in space around your house, it’s fun and satisfying to plant seeds, care for what you plant, and nurture it all to harvest time.
But some blind folks find it daunting to consider growing our own vegetables. “How do I do it?” “How can I reach my whole garden easily?” “How do I pull out just the weeds and not the plants I’ve planted?”
I’ve been growing my own vegetables for over ten years, by feel, and am happy to share with readers how I do it, and to assure you that, you, too, can grow your own vegetables.
I use the Square-Foot Garden method, created by Mel Bartholomew. This method makes the most of your gardening space, all set within distinct, square-foot portions of your garden. It delineates exactly how many plants grow best in each square foot, how many seeds to plant in each hole (to minimize the need to thin and/or transplant), how much fertilizer to add for each succession. You can find more information at:
Your Ultimate Guide to Square Foot Gardening, Gardener’s Path
Here are a few Square-Foot Gardening density examples: In one square foot you can grow 4 arugula plants, 2-4 basil (depending on the species) plants, 9 parsnip plants, 5 parsley plants. The list is quite complete. There is really no guess work in this method.
So now you have the idea of how much to plant in the square-foot spaces, but what about reaching and finding plants? I encourage the use of fully raised beds. I’m not talking about beds built up on the ground, but beds built on stilts or some other structure that brings the working area to just below your waist, and narrow enough that you can reach into the middle of the bed from at least two sides. Our beds are 4’ by 3’. They are made of pine, so, yes, they will rot and need to be replaced after a few years, but they are not chemically treated. They are on stilts with meshing underneath to allow for draining. And there’s handy storage space underneath. Do note that, if your beds have no contact with the ground the soil dries out faster, so you need to be heedful of sufficient watering.
Once you have your raised beds, or other delineated gardening space, do some soil testing for lead, other contaminants, and soil fertility/health. For these tests, you can use your local university agricultural school. Here’s one resource:
Soil and Plant Nutrient Testing Laboratory: UMass Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment
You can also test soil fertility/health – including Ph, potash, nitrogen, etc. – with home test kits. (You need sighted folk to read the color comparisons.) Once you get your results, if you need to replace lead-laden soil, now’s the time. If your soil is lead-free, amend your soil according to the other results: Add compost in any case, and then you might need to add lime, kelp, etc. Amend and compost soil between successions. (You don’t need to test between successions.) Between successions, add 1-2 cups of compost per square foot, work it in to about two inches down. (Rain/watering will work it deeper.) Here is a good web site for information on soil amendments:
How to Improve Garden Soil With Amendments
Now that you’ve amended your soil, you can start putting into place your Square Foot spaces. You do this by measuring exact square feet across the whole bed/area, using a true one-foot ruler and demarcating it with twine or lathing strips nailed into the edge. Anything to help you tactilely know where one foot ends and the other begins. Then you get your seeds and/or baby plants and put them in place. You’d plant two seeds per hole to maximize the likelihood of a viable plant, but not create a need to thin and transplant, which is a sometimes-lethal stress on young plants.
Water diligently, often twice a day in hot months. And WEED WEED WEED to keep down the competition for water and nutrients. So what about weeding?
Find out what weeds are most common in your geographic region and learn how they are shaped, leafed, and textured. Then weed by feel. You might think it takes longer than for a sighted person, but, with practice, it’s a breeze. Move your hands around the beds square-foot-by- square-foot, gently. When you find a weed, follow the stem down to the soil and pull it straight up and out. Most weeds have shallow roots, especially if you catch them young. And many weeds are highly nutritious and tasty, so you might want to pluck them and add them to your meals. Some weeds, you might not be able to identify, but you know it’s not your parsley, celery, etc. Pull those and do not eat them. Better safe than sorry!
Here are two of the most prolific and common weeds on the coast of Massachusetts where I garden, and how they can be detected tactilely. Note that I’m not describing flowers, as you’ll likely pull them before they flower:
Chickweed: Low-growing, intertwined, like a vine, delicate, shallow roots, easy to pull. Leaves grow in various numbers, are different shapes and lengths, and cluster like a flower, so it’s easy to detect. Lower leaves are spatula to egg-shaped, 1-3 to 2.5 cm long and.5-1cm wide, and the upper leaves are elliptic to oblong. Stems have fine hairs. I just identify them by their leaf clusters and vine.
Gallinsoga: Grows stiffly upright, with pointed, oval yellowish-green leaves in pairs opposite to each other that are toothed and pointed with hairs on the margins. The stems are also very distinctly hairy. I just identify them by their hairy stems.
There are many more weed species that pop up persistently in many geographic areas, including clover, goosefoot, and plantain. All of which have tactile features. You can read online about their characteristics.
So these are the getting-started basics of how to garden by feel. There are lots of online resources and some otherwise accessible resources available for us. Enjoy your new, creative, healthy adventure! You can contact me at mailto:helenkobek1@gmail.com