Reaping the rewards of a home garden

The dismal economy is boosting sales at garden centers throughout the country as families till their backyards to plant tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables.


"There is a growing interest throughout the Sheboygan area for households to produce more of their own fruits and vegetables," said Michael Ballweg, agricultural agent for the UW-Extension in Sheboygan County.

This is consistent with the findings of the National Gardening Association that reports that nationally a total of 43 million households plan to garden in 2009, up 19 percent from 2008.

"More people are enjoying the benefits of backyard gardening," Ballweg said. "Improved quality and taste, cost savings and the leisure/recreational value are most often sited for why people garden."

Even the White House has gotten in on the action, breaking ground last month on a 1,100-square-foot organic vegetable garden.

"All indicators are that this will be a heavy purchase year for vegetables and fruit sales," said Craig Harms, co-owner of Restoration Gardens in Kohler. "Seed companies' sales have been on an upswing."

Investing in some of the basics in supplies and soil is worth the rewards. "If you are going to save some money, you need a good garden with good production," Ballweg said. "If you don't have a garden that produces, then you just have expenses."

Reportedly, the average return per garden, when taking into account the market price of produce and the gardener's investment, is about $500 per year.

Nathan Perkins, 30, of Sheboygan has had vegetable gardens most of his life. "It's really generational," Perkins said. "If you get started young, you do it to keep the tradition alive in the family. I don't want them to lose that love of growing and awareness of the things you grow."

Perkins enjoys teaching his children about the joys of planting and allowing them to pick their own fruits and vegetables for meals.

April is National Garden Month and now is the perfect time to get started on planning your summer vegetable garden.

Whether planting seeds and putting the planters on your window sill or gathering seedlings, experts suggest waiting until Mother's Day before planting outdoors.

Harms recommends taking time now to plan and layout the garden, not planting too early. "I pushed it last year and lost plants. The secret is trying to learn from mistakes," he said.

To help new gardeners, Restoration Gardens offers complimentary garden design templates in several sizes to aid people in planning.

"They have apprehension and think it will be a lot of work. We will have basic designs" giving a potential layout of what can be included in a 10-foot area, Harms said.

Another way to get ideas on a garden layout is to visit the herb and vegetable gardens of friends and neighbors, or tour the garden at Restoration Gardens. The food grown there is used in the restaurant there.

"We take people out to our vegetable garden and show them how it works; how to properly plant; how to seed," Harms said. "That is why we have that deck garden set up with wider paths, because we use it as an educational tool."

If you're looking to start growing vegetables but don't have enough green area for a garden, consider planters.

"There are a lot of vegetables that can grow in containers," Harms said. Some worth trying are cherry tomatoes, as well as herbs, including rosemary, basil and oregano.

"Oreganos and thyme come back year after year; sages are better as annuals. We usually put those in pots; there are a lot of those things we use in our cooking and deli," said Harms.

If using pots, invest in good potting soil.

"You can start them a little earlier," Ballweg said. The important thing is … to use soil with mixes or commercial potting mixes. If you use soil from the yard you won't have much luck because it won't drain very well. It's too dense; use a cloudy potting soil."

One of the new plants in many local gardens will be a Sheboygan tomato. "It came from Lithuania and it's out of Iowa," Harms said. "We are growing a lot of Sheboygan tomatoes."

If fruits are more your thing, consider planting blueberries, cranberries or lingonberries, Harms suggested.

"Those need acid soils, with a lot of peat moss, sandy soil, worm castings," he said. "They have shallow roots and we like to mulch it with pine needles."