So you want a backyard garden...
Suburban Composting
A good garden needs a constant supply of nutrient-rich soil. The recipe for soil is 2/3rds dead leaves, grass clippings, shredded paper, and otherwise "brown material"... 1/3rd banana peels, coffee grounds, decomposing organic matter, otherwise "green material".
Composting is stinky business. At my home I use a simple covered trashcan. You can buy special composting tubs, but the important thing is to keep flies from congregating in biblical proportions in your back yard, and rats from feeding on and nesting in your compost heap. Make sure your compost is covered, and you won't have these problems.
There is a great amount of popular support for aerobic, or "hot" composting. This is appropriate for UC Berkeley, which produces tons of compost daily, but is entirely inappropriate for your back yard. That's because hot composting requires dumpster-sized heaps of rotting matter, piles large enough to generate heat, supporting an oxygen/bacteria ecology within the heap that accelerates the breakdown of nutrients.
Another high-speed alternative to a dumpster-sized pile of rotting fruit in your backyard is a worm-bin, which is a three stage process that allows worms to act like a living garbage disposal, and converts your compost into worm casings... a nutrient rich and plant-ready fertilizer.
These systems require extra resources and labor... they are intensive composting systems. There is the added disadvantage that 85% of the nutrients present in your organic waste are consumed during the breakdown process. Compost that has that rich, earthy texture we consider garden ready, actually possesses a fraction of the nutrients that it had. So I advocate returning these materials to the soil of your garden as soon as possible, so the worms doing the digesting aren't under your sink but in fact are the same ones aerating your garden soil.
Here are two FSR-approved composting systems:
Convert your yard into fertile garden bed over a winter. Revitalize your annual garden bed before next spring. Sheet composting requires leaving the land alone for a couple months, and is officially the laziest kind of composting invented.
- Spread the "green" raw organic material in a 3-4" layer over the top of your garden space.
- Flatten some carboard boxes and put a layer of cardboard over the top, held down with some rocks or stick-pegs.
- Cover the cardboard with a cosmetic layer of "brown material" like pine needles or leaves so the neighbors won't think you've gone crazy.
The cardboard layer will cut off sunlight, killing weeds and grass underneath. It will also hold in any off odors, and protect the raw organic materials from rats and flies. The additional "cosmetic" layer simulates the leafy top layer in a forest, helps retain water, and promotes healthy soil ecology by harboring beneficial insects and bacteria. After a few months, you can disturb the bed with a shovel and you will find healthier, richer soil.
The easiest time to do this is when you are building a raised bed. It is far more labor intensive to bury organic matter, but the advantages often make it worth the effort.
Basically, you want a layer of pure organic material such as banana peels or kelp, buried 2 ft below the surface, and about 6" to 1 ft thick. This layer lasts for the whole year, as it slowly breaks down, and provides the additional benefit of retaining water like a sponge. I have watched my sponge-supported rows weather a drought while the unsupported neighbor rows withered.
If you are starting a new bed, you can rehabilitate poor soil simply by burying good fresh compost underneath it. The worms act like miners going down into the compost, and returning to the surface with the nutrients. So although it may be labor-intensive in the spring... it ensures less labor to provide for your garden year-round.
STEP TWO : THE HERB GARDEN
If you are just beginning, the first thing I would grow is an herb garden. Below, in the links, are several sites devoted to herb spirals, but don't get bogged down trying to make your garden pretty or perfect. When it comes to herbs, think volume. Bushes of oregano will transform the weekly pasta into gourmet marinara. I have never grown too much thyme, parsley, cilantro, or chives. Be warned, if you have only one scrubby plant of each one you will be loath to cut it and years will pass before you start spicing up the wednesday night pasta. Plant with harvest in mind.
Here is a list of the quintessential culinary herbs:
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Basil
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Basil won't grow in the Pacific NW... too cold and damp. This delicate, picky herb needs sun and a steady cycle of watering and drying out. If you live in California or Hawaii, I envy you this tasty, fresh italian herb. Thai basil, which also won't grow here, is a variant that belongs in every sunny garden.
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Chervil
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Chervil is an excellent parsley-like green. Easy to grow and reseed, hot and cold tolerant. Chop the leaves as a lively garnish to any meal.
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Chives
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Chives are the slim straw-like stems of a species of onion. You can grow a patch of them and cut them back, let them regrow, and harvest continually throughout the year.
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Cilantro
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Cilantro is appropriate for hot climates only. Here in the pacific NW, I don't plant it. But if you've got lots of sun and warmth, this is a necessity. Make homemade salsa jump out of its bowl. A ubiquitous herb in South American and Central American cuisine.
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Dill
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Dill is a niche herb appropriate for certain chicken dishes, dips, and salads. I don't care for it much so I don't grow much. This is a classic herb however so I encourage you to put in an honorary bush.
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Mint
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Mint will make you feel like a good gardener, because it grows no matter what you do. My big quarrel with mint is that I only need a couple handfuls a year... how often do you marinate porkchops in mint and brown sugar? How many nights do you muddle your own mojitos? If this sounds like you, plant a lot of mint. You can propagate easily from cuttings. For most people, a single pot under a leaky tap somewhere is all you need. Mint in flower is a beauty, and the bees love it.
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Oregano
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Oregano grows into great bushes, and I still can't get enough of it. Judged by sheer quantity of consumption, this is my favorite herb. A delight in pastas, on meats, and in marinades. There are three or four popular varieties in cultivation. Grow them all.
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Parsley
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Noone eats parsley alone, but there is the feeling that it goes on everything. Want to add a touch of class to the meal? Sprinkle chopped parsey on it. Besides, it is a good grower and reseeds itself very well. A must have for your garden.
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Rosemary
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In my neighborhood there are giant rosemary bushes everywhere. If I want to season chicken I just go for a short walk and come back with whole branches of the stuff. I rarely cook with rosemary myself but my mom loves it, and it is a classic. Rosemary likes to dry out periodically and is an "oily" herb preferring lots of sun. Somehow it thrives here in Seattle, where it gets none of those things.
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Sage
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Sage is right up there with lavender in the category of herbs I don't use. Isn't this the stuff they burn for incense? What can you make with it? Some soups or something? In my opinion, you are better off planting oregano. I have a few lovely sage plants and all I do is look at them.
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Thyme
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Thyme is a nutritious and delicious addition to your garden. This is right up there with oregano as a plant you can not have too much of. It is also an "oily" herb and likes lots of sun. Here in the NW, it tends to crawl along more than thrive, so plant several of them and make mushroom risotto that will curl your toes.