Cory Tanner Of Clemson University: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Successful Vegetable Garden To Grow Your Own Food
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Don’t give up. Like any skill, gardening takes practice and trial and error. I hate to see new gardeners get discouraged when a crop fails, pests have their way, or weeds take over. In my 43 years there has never been a season where I didn’t have a garden failure of some sort. Learn from your mistakes and keep trying!
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 Cory Tanner, Horticulture Program Team Director at Clemson University.
Tanner is well versed in all things gardening and horticulture and serves as a Master Gardener trainer. As the Horticulture Program Team Director for Clemson University Cooperative Extension, Tanner provides statewide programmatic leadership to extension agents working in horticultural food crops and urban horticulture. He also delivers educational programs and consultation services, shares home gardening advice and teaches Master Gardener courses.
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 am a lifelong vegetable gardener who is passionate about all kinds of horticulture. I grew up on a small family farm in the rural south where growing fruits and vegetables was a part of everyday life. I had my first individual garden plot when I was five years old and my interest in horticulture was inherited from my parents and grandparents. You could say that gardening is in my blood. I studied horticulture at Clemson University where I received a Bachelor of Science followed by master’s degree. I spent several years working at a large ornamental tree nursery before following my passion back to Clemson to become a Horticulture Extension Agent in 2007.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Every day in Cooperative Extension is interesting! I remember one phone call early in my career when a gentleman wanted to know why his “basil plants grew tentacles and attacked my tomato plants.” That was a real head scratcher. He thought he had somehow bought genetically modified basil seed off the seed rack at a large retailer. I knew that wasn’t possible because there are no genetically engineered garden seed approved for retail sale, then or now. I asked him to describe to me exactly what happened, and he explained that yellowish “tendrils” grew off of his basil plants and onto his tomato plants. Well that triggered something for me. What he was describing was the growth of a natural, parasitic plant called dodder. Dodder is a leafless vine that gets all of its energy from parasitizing other plants, therefore it doesn’t have chlorophyll (the green pigment that allows green plants to photosynthesize). What most likely happened was that a bird deposited a dodder seed in its poop onto the basil plant. From there the dodder grew from the basil onto the tomato. While this started out sounding like the plot for a Sci-Fi movie, it turned out to have a natural and very plausible explanation.
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?
Listening. Whether I’m helping a gardener solve a problem or mentoring a team member it’s imperative that I listen for understanding.
Open-minded. Plants, much like food, bind society in ways few other things can, and everyone brings different experiences, skills and knowledge to a situation.
Heart of a teacher. Like all Extension professionals I am a teacher. My role is to meet people where they are, with whatever tools and resources they have, and empower them with knowledge to grow plants successfully. Sometimes that’s in a classroom like our Master Gardener training, and sometimes it’s walking a gardener through a situation or challenge one-on-one.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
This is a tough one because there are so many. One that’s relevant here might be:
“The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow.” — Author unknown
It reminds me that simply being present, in the moment, taking notice, is often the difference between success and failure. That’s true in the garden, it’s true in marriage, it’s true in raising a child, and it’s true in leading people. It also reminds that gardening takes effort!
Are you working on any interesting or exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I’m currently working on a Ph.D. in Entomology. My research is on a pest of muhly grass, a native ornamental bunch grass that is widely used in landscaping. In 2018 a new pest was discovered on the grass near Charleston, South Carolina. The pest is a mealybug species that we know very little about. At the very least, infested plants are unattractive in the landscape, but it’s yet to be determined how damaging the pest is to the grass’s health. Hopefully, my research will result in sustainable methods to manage the pest in landscape settings so that people can continue to enjoy this beautiful native plant.
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?
First, I think everyone should grow some of their own food to get a better understanding of what it takes to produce food. Understanding the challenges of growing food will hopefully lead to a better appreciation of farmers and those whose job it is to produce food.
Second, I find it personally fulfilling to know that I have the ability to feed my family. That’s a skill I don’t take lightly. We’re certainly not self-sufficient but knowing that I can grow a crop of sweet potatoes, for instance, that can feed us for several months is empowering.
Third, there is nothing that beats the flavor and quality of homegrown produce harvested at the peak of freshness. Produce from local farms and farmer’s markets can come close, but those are still often harvested a day or two ahead of time and stored before they reach your table. A vine ripe tomato that goes from the garden to the plate in a matter of minutes can’t be beat!
Certainly, that last point extends to health and environmental benefits as well. Well-grown vegetables from the home garden can’t be exceeded in nutritional quality and obviously nothing has a lower environmental footprint than calories “shipped” by your own two feet.
Can growing your own food save money? Yes. Especially in times of high inflation and soaring food prices like we are experiencing lately. However, you must be smart about it and watch your costs. Costs for garden inputs like seeds, transplants, tools and fertilizer are going up. Also, don’t undervalue your time and labor. Not to brag, but I’m somewhat locally famous for my okra pickles. I insist on growing all of the okra and many of the spices (peppers, dill, etc.) myself and only the best okra pods find their ways into the jars. People often want to buy jars from me. My response? ‘You can’t afford to buy them, but I’ll give you a jar.’
Where should someone start if they would like to start a garden? Which resources would you recommend? Which plants should they start with?
If you’ve never gardened before, start with a container garden. Purchase a good quality container, larger than you think (see below), with drainage holes (add them if you have to) and fill it with a high-quality potting mix. Start with plants you like to eat! Salad greens like lettuces and kale are easy to grow in containers. Radishes produce quickly. Swiss chard is a beautiful edible to incorporate in a container garden.
If you want to start a little larger and have the space, a raised bed garden is an excellent option. Many people start with “Square Foot Gardening” in raised beds made popular by Mel Bartholomew’s book of the same name.
Become familiar with the services offered by your local Cooperative Extension service through your state’s Land-Grant University(ies). Most offer gardening classes, soil testing, plant problem diagnosis and more.
You can find your state’s Extension service here: https://www.nifa.usda.gov/land-grant-colleges-and-universities-partner-website-directory
The Home & Garden Information Center (HGIC) at Clemson University offers hundreds of free fact sheets and blog posts on all sorts of gardening and food topics. These are written specifically for South Carolina growing conditions but much of the information will be valuable to gardeners anywhere. Here are a few that will help beginning gardeners:
- HGIC: https://hgic.clemson.edu
- Planning a Garden
- Soil Testing
- Container Vegetable Gardening
- Raised Beds
- Composting
- Watering the Vegetable Garden
- Fertilizing Vegetables
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.
- Find a full-sun site. Most vegetables need at least six hours of direct sunlight every day to produce a good crop. If you can’t provide that much sun, then grow leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, kale and Swiss chard which will yield better in shady spots than fruiting plants like tomatoes and squash.
- Love your soil. Gardening all starts with the soil. The better the soil, the better your garden. Start with a soil test from your local Cooperative Extension service (there’s one in every state). That will give you the baseline you need to start making improvements. Add as much organic matter (compost) as you can afford up to 20 percent by volume (roughly two inches of compost in six inches of soil). Use organic mulch (dead leaves, straw, wood chips, etc.) on the surface. Cover crop (grow a non-harvested crop) whenever the soil would otherwise be bare.
- Make use of vertical space. The air from the soil surface to as high is you can go is free to use. Use it! Take advantage of vining crops like cucumbers and pole beans to grow up vertical surfaces including trellises, arbors, fences and porch railings. This can multiply your production per square foot of soil exponentially. Vining crops can also provide shade for seating areas in the garden.
- It takes work. Society (and brands) try to sell an image that gardening is easy. As a result, people often get frustrated when their plants don’t “just grow”. I won’t say gardening is hard necessarily, but there’s a lot more to it than plants “just growing”. I know I have a larger garden than most, but I try to spend about 30 minutes every day in the garden, all year, and at times that’s not enough to do all that needs to be done — planting, mulching, fertilizing, watering (I do a LOT of watering), training, pruning, weeding, harvesting. But to me, every moment is worth it. Gardening is my self-care. It’s when I think, decompress, re-evaluate, and perhaps more than anywhere else in my life I can see the direct results of my actions in the garden. I hope you find similar purpose and joy in the garden.
- Don’t give up. Like any skill, gardening takes practice and trial and error. I hate to see new gardeners get discouraged when a crop fails, pests have their way, or weeds take over. In my 43 years there has never been a season where I didn’t have a garden failure of some sort. Learn from your mistakes and keep trying!
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?
In no particular order:
- Purchasing transplants that are too large or overgrown. Bigger is not always better. When I shop for transplants I usually look for the smaller plants. They’re often in smaller containers that cost less, but more importantly, they tend to be more vigorous. It is tempting to buy plants that already have flowers or fruit on them, but definitely avoid those! That indicates that the plants’ have already transitioned from a vigorous, juvenile state to a mature, reproductive state. In other words, the plant is now putting all of its energy in to producing fruits and seeds, not into growing. When you put a plant like that into your garden it won’t establish itself and production will be short-lived.
- Gardening in containers that are too small or overcrowded. Excellent vegetables can be produced in container gardens, but the plant roots need a soil volume proportional to the plant itself. Small vegetables like lettuce or radishes can be grown in fairly small containers, but a large vegetable like non-patio tomatoes or peppers need significantly more soil. In my experience the larger the better. Also, don’t skimp on potting soil. You definitely get what you pay for. Good potting media should be relatively light weight, have excellent drainage, and hold nutrients.
- Gardening in straight compost. This is one of the most common mistakes I see, particularly in raised beds. Compost is excellent stuff, but it is a soil amendment, not soil itself. In other words, compost makes soil better but is not a substitute for soil. Compost provides organic matter, also known as soil carbon, to soils. This feeds the beneficial microbial community in the soil which in turn does all sorts of amazing things to make soil better. Most compost is relatively low in plant nutrients and does not have some of the other qualities of soil on its own that plants need. A great garden soil has not more than about 20 percent organic matter.
What are some of the best ways to keep the costs of gardening down?
Start from seed when you can. I’ve noticed the cost of vegetable transplants rise significantly recently. Transplants are grown in greenhouses which require fuel to heat, then they’re shipped by truck that requires fuel to reach the garden center. All along the way there are labor costs and overhead. Much of that cost (and environmental impact) can be eliminated by ordering seed and starting your own transplants or directly sowing in the garden.
Taking out the cost of land/space to grow on, fertilizers and water are the highest costs associated with gardening. Conventional fertilizer costs are linked to the costs of fossil fuels and get more expensive as fuel costs rise. Costs of organic sources of plant nutrients tend to be a little more stable (but not always less expensive per unit). Producing your own fertility through composting, cover crops, or recycling animal manures is more work, but can save money. If manures are used, be sure to follow appropriate food safety practices to avoid foodborne illness.
Depending on where you live, water for your garden may be a limiting factor. Adding organic matter to your soils (compost, cover crops, etc.) and using mulch around your plants will help to conserve the precious resource in your soil. Use drip irrigation instead of sprinklers to apply the water only to where it’s needed — the soil at the base of your plants. Capturing rainwater for irrigation with rain barrels and cisterns can reduce costly water bills.
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. 🙂
Everyone should take some of the responsibility for feeding their self and at least one other person through vegetable gardening, raising livestock or some other means. If everyone were to do that one simple act, so many of our world’s problems would be diminished — hunger, poverty, poor health, climate change and the list goes on…
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. 🙂
Matt Damon — We need to have a little chat about growing potatoes on Mars. He claimed to be a botanist in The Martian, but everyone knows that horticulturists grow food.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Clemson Extension Home & Garden Information Center: https://hgic.clemson.edu
Clemson Extension Horticulture on Facebook and Instagram: @cuexthorticulture and @cuexthorticulture
Thank you so much for the time you spent on this interview. We wish you only continued success and good health.
Cory Tanner Of Clemson University: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Successful Vegetable… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.