Brian Wells Of The Homestead Journey Podcast: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Successful Vegetable Garden To Grow Your Own Food
An Interview With Martita Mestey
You need to know are the basic components of a successful vegetable garden; good soil, quality seed and/or transplants, the appropriate amount of sunlight needed for the crop you’re trying to grow and adequate water.
As we all know, inflation has really increased the price of food. Many people have turned to home gardening to grow their own food. Many have tried this and have been really successful. But others struggle to produce food in their own garden. What do you need to know to create a successful vegetable garden to grow your own food? In this interview series, called “5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Successful Vegetable Garden To Grow Your Own Food” we are talking to experts in vegetable gardening who can share stories and insights from their experiences.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Wells Sr..
Brian is a fourth generation homesteader and the host of The Homestead Journey Podcast. He has been an avid gardener for over 15 years and has recorded many episodes on the topic on his podcast. He and his family live on a little over 2 acres in beautiful upstate New York.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”?
I never dreamed I would be doing what I’m doing today. While I grew up in a family where raising and growing food was just a normal part of the rhythm of our lives, my mom will tell you that out of her three sons, I am the one she least expected to become a homesteader. As a kid, I was more often than not found with my nose in a book. I never really was one that enjoyed the outdoors.
Right after college, my wife and I spent six years in the Cayman Islands as teachers. In 2007, we realized that my grandfather was getting to the place where he needed someone nearby. And so we relocated to upstate New York to be near him. Our plan was to spend about 6 months living with him while we looked for a house to purchase. But, because of the recession, we ended up living with him for about 18 months or about 2 full garden seasons. That 18 months really became a huge blessing to me as working with my grandfather in the garden really reconnected me back to this way of life. I discovered how much joy and satisfaction raising and growing food brought me. Over the past 15 years, I have experimented with different gardening methods and different vegetable varieties. In fact, I like to say that I’ve never gardened the same way twice. I’m always looking for a better way to do things. Sometimes my experiments work out well. Other times, not so much. Either way, I really enjoy sharing my story with other people. I started out doing a YouTube channel but quickly realized that wasn’t for me. In 2019 I started the Homestead Journey Podcast and so far have released over 130 episodes.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I’m not sure if it’s the most interesting story, but it’s a very satisfying and gratifying one. On my podcast I talk frequently about the importance of doing the best you can with what you’ve got and not allowing great to get in the way of good. A couple of weeks ago a listener tagged me on Instagram in a post showing her garden saying how I had inspired her. All she has to work with is an 8×10 concrete patio. And so she’s started a container garden using Rubbermaid totes and some pots filled with dirt. She found an old pool ladder for free and then was gifted some lattice which she attached to the ladder, turning it into a trellis for watermelons and pumpkins. Her bio simply says this, “I have an 8×10 patio and can’t plant in the ground. There are big obstacles in my teeny space, but I’m homesteading anyway! Some dreams start small.” (@start_small_homestead) Reading those words were such an encouragement to me. It’s humbling to know that I’ve had the honor of making a difference in her life. And hopefully I’m making a difference in the lives of others.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
I think the three character traits I’ve found instrumental to my success are dedication, honesty and passion. When I started my podcast, I treated it like a job. From November of 2019 until November of 2021, I released an episode every week. And with the exception of two episodes, the episodes were consistently released every Monday at 12 AM. Also, for three or four months in 2021 I released a series of episodes on Fridays that I called Five Minute Fridays which were meant to be more motivational in nature. I think my dedication to being consistent in putting out content really resonates with people, especially in the podcasting space where “podfade” is a real problem for podcasters.
I also try to keep my podcast honest. It’s really easy to talk about the fun and happy times of homesteading. But, things don’t always go according to plan. Animals get sick and die. Crops don’t produce or are killed by pest pressure. Sometimes things happen that are outside of your control. I had a pig contract tetanus and had to have it euthanized. I cried. But, I also realized there wasn’t anything I did wrong. To this day I have no idea where or how she got it. But, that day was a horrible day for me. There are also times when things happen that are because you screwed up. A great example of that are the many “surprise” litters of pigs we’ve had because our boar got through the electric fence I’ve failed to keep energized. I think that sharing all of that; the good, the bad and the ugly is so important. People respond and connect to someone who is genuine. And I really strive to be that.
I am also very passionate about the topic of homesteading. I love hearing about it. I love learning about it. I love talking about it. I love demonstrating it. I love experimenting with it. And I think (or at least I’d like to believe) that that passion is infectious.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I probably have said “Do the best you can with what you’ve got” more on my podcast than anything else! Probably a close second is “Don’t let great get in the way of good.” They are really similar in nature but the point of both is that we just need to get started. I honestly believe that everyone can do something, today!! But, many times we wait for the perfect situation to roll around. We want the best gear. We want the best garden location. We want the best garden soil. We want the most land possible. While we wait for the stars to align and give us our dream situation, life passes us by. That’s why the story I shared earlier of @start_small_homestead resonates so much with me. She is not waiting for the perfect situation. She’s started her homesteading journey, her gardening journey on an 8×10 concrete patio, doing the best with what she’s got. And if she can do that, what can those of us that have far more room than she does accomplish?
Are you working on any interesting or exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I am currently releasing a series of free printable guides called, “Just the Basics”. One of the things that I have found for many people (including myself) is that they want to learn a new homesteading skill but as they research it and learn more about it they become overwhelmed with the sheer number of options and they’re not sure where to start. Sometimes we refer to this as paralysis by analysis. My goal is to give people a starting point that they can have confidence in. Each printable has a check list of basic supplies needed as well as the instructions on how to get started as easily as possible. Each printable also has a QR code on it that will take them to a resources page that gives more in-depth information as well as links to the supplies from the supply list. My hope is that as I release these, people will print out the ones of interest to them and put them in a binder. That way they’ll always have a reference guide available to them that they can write notes on. And they can confidently take those initial steps toward learning that skill.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about creating a successful garden to grow your own food. Can you help articulate a few reasons why people should be interested in making their own vegetable garden? For example, how is it better for our health? For the environment? For our wallet?
There really are a lot of reasons why I think growing some of your own food is a good idea. First, it’s good for you. It’s good for your physical health. Gardening is not a sedentary activity; it gets you off the couch, out from behind the screen and outside moving around. It’s good for your diet. The things you grow I guarantee will taste better than anything you buy at the store. And if it tastes better, you’re going to want to eat it, which is a good thing. Gardening is also good for your mental health. There is something very soothing and calming (at least to me) about being outside in your garden. As you plant things, tend to them, and then harvest and eat them, there is a sense of satisfaction that is unparalleled.
Not only is gardening good for you, but gardening is good for the environment. It is said that fruits and vegetables on the average American plate travel an estimated 1500 miles to get there!! Every tomato, pepper and ear of corn you grow cannot help but reduce your carbon footprint! Whether it is extreme uses of herbicides and pesticides or farming practices that can lead to erosion, the environmental impact of large scale commercial vegetable farming can be environmentally unfriendly. Even if organic practices are followed, most of the time the approach is one of a monoculture instead of the biodiversity that comes along with backyard gardening. This can lead to pest problems and can be unfriendly towards wildlife and pollinators. A backyard garden will have many different varieties of vegetables that if rotated correctly can replenish the soil with certain nutrients that the subsequent crop can use. All of this is beneficial to the environment.
Finally gardening can be friendly to your wallet. To be fully transparent, it may take some time for you to realize a return on your investment. Depending on how you choose to garden, there can be some significant upfront costs. With the current price of lumber, building raised beds isn’t cheap! Filling them with a quality garden soil will also cost some money. If you plan on gardening in the ground, you may need to buy or rent a tiller. You may need to build some fences to keep wildlife out. Depending on what you grow, you may need to purchase trellising. Seeds, transplants, hoses for irrigation and garden tools all cost money. And if you plan on preserving any of the harvest; freezers, dehydrators, canners and jars can require a significant financial investment. Certainly there are ways to source some things for free or at a reduced price by buying used on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. But, there is no denying that there is a real cost to growing real food! However, over time you begin seeing a return on that investment, especially if you get to the spot to where you are saving your own seeds and starting your own transplants. And while it is tempting to compare what you grow to the prices of vegetables in the normal grocery store, remember that what you are growing is a much higher quality product. Compare what you are growing to what you might purchase at a farmer’s market. When you do that, you’ll begin to see the savings.
Where should someone start if they would like to start a garden? Which resources would you recommend? Which plants should they start with?
Would it be too self-serving to say that someone interested in gardening should start by listening to the Homestead Journey Podcast?!! Ok, besides listening to the podcast, there are a lot of really great YouTube channels dedicated to gardening. Charles Dowding, MiGardener, Gary Pilarchik (The Rusted Garden), Lazy Dog Farm and the Hoss Tools Row by Row Garden Show are some that I have found helpful.
There are also a number of gardening podcasts that I enjoy. The Bootstrap Farm Podcast, the Epic Gardening Podcast, the Joe Gardener Podcast and the Urban Farm Podcast are ones that have helped me and I highly recommend them.
If you’re looking for printed resources, there are many, many great books about gardening. One of my favorites is the All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I highly recommend raised beds and in particular, raised beds using the square foot garden method for new gardeners. That book is THE book on the topic. If you’re looking for a very basic, quick start guide then I would recommend you check out my free printable Just the Basics guide available to help people get started with gardening.
As far as what plants someone should start with, my recommendation is always start by growing what you like to eat. Now obviously, there are some caveats with that. Certain things may not be able to be grown in your area. As much as I love bananas and citrus, without a serious investment in infrastructure, I won’t be growing them in upstate NY. But, within reason, start by growing what you LIKE to eat, not what you think you SHOULD like to eat. Several years ago as kale became a popular vegetable, I decided that we should eat kale. And so I planted 9 square feet of kale. While we found that we did like kale, we didn’t like kale THAT much. I’ve found that about 3 kale plants produces enough kale for us. And then some.
While I highly recommend that you start by growing what you like to eat, don’t be afraid to experiment with vegetables that you think you don’t like. It may be that it was the way it was preserved or the way it was prepared that you didn’t like. My Uncle Tom thought he hated asparagus because until he married my aunt, he had only ever had it from a can. Fresh asparagus looks, feels and tastes MUCH different (and much better). One serving of steamed asparagus that had been harvested minutes earlier from my grandfather’s garden changed Tom’s mind forever. Now, he loves asparagus and can’t get enough of it. Also, keep in mind that varieties that are grown commercially are grown to transport well, to have a long shelf life, and to look “pretty”. Taste is really low on the list of priorities. Not only that, but most of the time the vegetables at the store have been picked while they were green and then have been “forced” to ripen. A great example of this are tomatoes. When you stand in your garden, enjoying a vine ripened and sun warmed tomato with its juices dripping from your chin, you will close your eyes and think that you are in heaven!! You’ll never want to eat a grocery store tomato again!
Can you please share your “5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Successful Vegetable Garden To Grow Your Own Food”? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
The first thing you need to know are the basic components of a successful vegetable garden; good soil, quality seed and/or transplants, the appropriate amount of sunlight needed for the crop you’re trying to grow and adequate water.
Starting with good soil is paramount to your success. You want a soil that is well draining and loose. If it has too much clay, it will retain too much moisture. If it has too much sand, it might not retain enough. The pH of the soil is also important. Most plants will tolerate soil between 5.5 and 7.5 pH, but the optimal number is in the middle. Finally, you also will want to be aware of the levels of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus in your soil. While there are other nutrients your plants might need, those are considered “the big 3”. All of that information might seem daunting and overwhelming. But, there are really easy ways to get that information. You can buy home test kits or you can send soil samples away to labs directly or through your local extension office where they can test for all of those things, helping you know what you might need to do to ensure you have quality soil in your garden. However, there is another option (and it’s what I recommend for people new to gardening). Try some form of container or raised bed garden where you start out with a known good soil that you don’t have to test or amend.
Using quality seed is also important. Avoid buying your seeds at dollar stores, discount retailers, EBay or Amazon. Instead buy from home and garden centers, hardware stores or directly from seed companies through their catalogs or websites. Also keep in mind that certain crops should be direct sown (planted right into the garden). This would include beans and root vegetables like carrots, beets and turnips. Other things (tomatoes and peppers for example) should be started indoors and then transplanted outdoors later on. The good news is that you can buy already started plants at home and garden centers and big box stores. I strongly encourage people new to gardening to start by buying as many started plants as possible.
When it comes to sunlight, for many crops, the more sun they can get, the better. Crops that require full sun (tomatoes, peppers and eggplant for example) need a minimum of 6 hours of sun each day and 8 hours is even better. If you don’t have an area that gets that much sun, don’t despair. Some vegetables have varieties that are shade tolerant. Or you can grow a vegetable that tolerates (or maybe even prefers) shade. This would be things like lettuces, kale and some brassicas.
The final basic component is water. Some crops need more water than others, but ensuring that you can supplement the water that Mother Nature provides is critical to your success as a gardener.
The second thing you need to know is where you’re going to put your garden. You may have limited options. Or you may have many options available to you. Keeping in mind the basic components of a successful garden, you will want to select an area for gardening that has 6–8 hours of sun each day. Also, keep in mind the proximity to water. If you have to drag 300 feet of hose to get to your garden area, you may want to rethink the location. You also want to place your garden in a place in your yard that you visit frequently. Otherwise, as the old adage says, out of sight, out of mind. I made this mistake a few years ago. I have a section of my yard that gets a great deal of sun. So I built a raised bed there. But, because it’s a part of my yard that I rarely visit, I’m embarrassed to confess that that raised bed is over run with weeds. I would have been better off putting the bed in an area that gets less sun, but that I frequent more often. Finally, just because you don’t have a yard or much of one doesn’t mean you can’t garden. Container gardening on a back porch or patio is very doable. And, if that’s not an option, try raising some herbs in a pot on your windowsill.
The third thing you need to know is how you’re going to garden. There are many, many different garden methods. Like anything else, they all have their plusses and minuses. When many people think of gardening, they think of the in-ground method used by their grandparents where they would get out the rototiller every spring to till up the soil and they would plant directly into the ground. While that certainly is an option, it can take some time (think years) to get a garden bed established. You will need to break up the current sod (preferably do this in the fall) and probably add some amendments to get the soil quality and nutrients so they produce well. More recently, what are referred to as “no till” methods have been popularized. As the name implies, the soil isn’t tilled (or may be tilled one time to get a bed established). One of the most popular no-till methods is called “lasagna” gardening. The ground is covered with a weed barrier (usually cardboard) and then topped with compost and then covered with a deep mulch. Other no-till methods include the Back to Eden method (which uses wood chips as a mulch) and the Ruth Stout method (which uses hay or stray as deep mulch). While all of these are great methods, just like “traditional” in ground gardening, it does take several years to establish a successful garden bed. That is why for people brand new to gardening (or those who lack any ground to plant in at all) I highly recommend container or raised bed gardening. While it can cost more in materials to get started, you will realize success quicker which means you will be more likely to stick with gardening for a long time. This means that your upfront costs will pay for themselves in bountiful harvests, year after year.
The fourth thing you need to know is when you’re going to garden. If you are gardening outdoors, when you plant will be dictated by the climate in which you live. Those of us that live in areas that get hard frosts and experience long periods of cold need to be aware of our last average and first average frost dates. Planting according to those dates will ensure that you aren’t planting too early where young plants could be killed by a frost. And you’re not planting too late to where you won’t realize a harvest because the plants will be killed by a fall frost before the vegetable has had time to mature. If you live in a warmer climate, you may need to plant certain crops in the fall, winter or spring and avoid the extreme temperatures you experience during the summer. To help you know when you should plant, visit the Farmer’s Almanac website or see if you can find a local gardener who is willing to help you out.
The last thing you need to know is what you’re going to plant. I always recommend that people start by planting what they like to eat. However, don’t be afraid to experiment with things you haven’t tried before or things that you think you don’t like. It could be that what you didn’t like about a particular vegetable is the way it was preserved or prepared. Also, keep in mind that the “fresh” vegetables that you may be used to at the store are anything but fresh. Many times they have been picked weeks before and were picked green. They were then shipped and “forced” to ripen. Also, those varieties have been developed for their ability to withstand commercial picking and transportation. They have been developed for storage longevity and looks. Taste (or nutritional value) isn’t a concern. What you grow at home will be picked at the peak of freshness and have been developed over years for flavor. So while your focus should be on growing what you know you like to eat, always leave a little room for experimentation. You may find out you like turnips. Or you may confirm that you don’t!!!
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a garden? What specifically can be done to avoid those errors?
The three most common mistakes I see new gardeners make is planting in the wrong place, planting at the wrong time, and going too big. I think understanding the four basic components of gardening that I mentioned earlier will help people with the first two issues. When you understand the sun and water needs of the crop you’re trying to grow, that will help you plant it in the right spot. Knowing your growing season and frost dates will help you know when to plant.
Going too big I think is a temptation that you never really fully shake. There is always a temptation to expand your garden size. Or to squeeze in just another tomato. Or grow more kale than a small army would ever eat. (Yes, I’ve done that.) But, when people are just starting out the temptation is to go from no garden to a huge garden. Gardening is not a “set it and forget it” proposition. While I’m all about trying to minimize the amount of work needed to keep a garden growing well (I love using intensive planting methods and mulch to crowd out weeds), there is a certain amount of time that you need to dedicate to caring for your garden and then using or preserving the harvest. If you go too big, too fast not only will it cost you more money to establish your garden beds and buy seeds or transplants, you may find yourself overwhelmed and giving up which means all of that money, time, effort and energy will be wasted. So start small. Achieve some success. And expand, bit by bit every gardening season.
What are some of the best ways to keep the costs of gardening down?
There are a lot of great ways to reduce the costs of gardening. One is to make your own compost. Instead of sending your grass clippings or leaves away, create a compost bin. Add your vegetable scraps to it during the year and you’ll be well on your way to making a great resource out of waste products. If you need more compost than you can generate, many municipalities have free compost available.
If you are using a deep mulch system, it is also possible to find free materials. Sometimes can get woodchips through your town or village. Tree trimming companies are also always looking for a place to drop woodchips. I have also seen horse farms at times needing to get rid of hay and many times they’ll just give it away. Just make sure that the hay has not been treated with any kind of herbicides as they will be detrimental to the garden.
When doing a container garden, you can repurpose many things for gardening purposes. Food grade five gallon buckets, totes and other containers are great options and can be found many times for free. Stock tanks, IBC totes, cement blocks and pallets are things that can be repurposed into raised beds and can be found for reduced prices or even for free through Facebook marketplace or Craigslist.
Finally, if you grow heirloom variety vegetables, saving some of the seeds each year is another great way to cut costs. Saving seeds from some vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, broccoli and onions can be a bit challenging. But, saving seeds from things like beans, corn, okra, squash and peas is relatively easy. If you’ve found a variety that you really like, I’d recommend you try saving the seed. But, keep in mind that this only works with heirloom or open pollenated varieties. While you can technically save the seed from most hybrid varieties, they don’t “breed true” which is a fancy way of saying that the vegetables produced from the plants started from that seed won’t look or taste as you’d expect.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
My goal is to help as many people as possible get started growing some of their own food. It doesn’t matter if you live in an urban area with just a balcony or patio or if you live in the suburbs in an HOA or in the country on 20 acres, everyone can grow something! Gardening is an activity with so many benefits. I think everyone should give it a try. You may not like it, and that’s ok. But, you just might like it!! You might fall in love with it. I think our society and our environment will benefit greatly for every person who does!
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would love to have breakfast or lunch with Congressman Thomas Massie. Not only is he a homesteader himself, he has been fighting for food freedom for people across the United States. Right now there is a huge movement towards buying and eating local, in knowing your farmer and where your food comes from. Many people are unaware of the onerous rules and regulations that are in place that keep small scale farmers from being able to sell things they produce. In particular the rules and regulations are setup in ways that disproportionately affect poorer people and minorities and keep them from being able to purchase good, wholesome food directly from small producers. The regulations force farmers to transport animals and produce long distances to certified processing facilities which not only adds to the cost of the food being produced, but also increases the carbon footprint of that food because of the miles being transported. Congressman Massie has been working to change that through things like the PRIME Act and I really appreciate and admire him for it.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
The Homestead Journey Podcast can be found on all of the major podcast platforms. Or they can visit http://www.thehomesteadjourney.net for links to the Just the Basics printable guides, the podcast, my blog and all of our social media accounts.
Thank you so much for the time you spent on this interview. We wish you only continued success and good health.
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