Hillary Swetz Of Homegrown Hillary: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Successful Vegetable Garden To Grow Your Own Food
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Prepare for disasters. After getting certified as a master gardener, I just assumed that because I had all the head knowledge, all my gardens would turn out perfectly. (Ha!) I know now that each year, every gardener will have their own problems, including you. Prepare yourself for bad storms, plagues of locusts, or simple beginner mistakes, and that will help you from getting too discouraged.
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 Hillary Swetz.
Hillary Swetz is a frugal living expert who writes about saving money on food and raising a family on a budget at Homegrown Hillary. She’s also a certified master gardener and has grown food in community gardens, home gardens, and many random containers, both for her family and to help fight food insecurity in her community.
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 started my professional life teaching English, economics, and other social studies topics in an alternative public high school program. I wanted to give my students a more hands-on experience however, so I became certified as a master gardener. This brought an agricultural spin to a lot of my units, tying gardening lessons to things like book studies on Of Mice and Men. Many of my students were food insecure, and I wanted to give them tools to improve their situations.
When I became pregnant with my second child, I left the classroom and pivoted to a home-based business. I started freelance writing for other clients and learned the tricks of the online content creation trade. Finally, I used both my writing and gardening know-how to start Homegrown Hillary, where I now write about feeding a family and parenting on a budget.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
What’s most interesting to me is how in my experience, a ”career” is not a singular thing. I’ve had dozens of jobs, certifications, and interests that have all blended together to create the business I run now. My professional life is nothing like I expected when drafting those “what do you want to be” projects in childhood.
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?
First, I’d argue against the label “successful leader.” I hope to be someone who can make a difference in the lives of individuals and inspire others to do so, but there are people far more deserving of such a title. However, in the interest of sharing what character traits have brought me to where I am, I can think of three:
Persistent dissatisfaction and a constant desire to improve have led me to write and rewrite and rewrite for years. It’s also led me to find the most bizarre ways to save money on groceries (like having a second freezer just to prevent food waste and stock up on sales), because I know I can always save just a little bit more.
I’m also easily excitable. It’s not hard to get me interested in a project or a shiny new idea, and I’ll jump headfirst into doing the research, making plans, or setting up discovery calls. My list of topics to tackle on Homegrown Hillary is nearly 100 items long, and I add to it every day.
Finally, being grateful greases all the wheels of life– in both professional and personal spheres. I have found people are much more willing to collaborate with you and offer assistance when you made a point to thank them sincerely for help in the past. I can’t exactly prove that my success as a writer or gardener comes down to this trait, but I know it’s made my life smoother.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
This might sound ridiculous, but the best life advice I’ve ever received is, “it’s never too early to start dinner.” Challenging popular notions (like ‘you need to cook dinner right before you eat it’) and planning ahead have both laid the groundwork for a less stressful and more productive life. Who cares if I’m boiling the rice for tonight’s stir fry at 9 in the morning?
Are you working on any interesting or exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I’m really excited about building up Homegrown Hillary. I know with the rising costs of food and greater food insecurity (not to mention looming famines), people need accurate information to creatively feed themselves and their families with nutritious food. Ramen and $1 frozen burritos won’t get you far in the long term, so I’m aiming to give people skills and recipe ideas to eat better on a budget.
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?
I am not a nutritionist or an environmentalist, but I can speak to the cost-saving nature of growing your own food. People joke about home gardening being the equivalent of a $64 tomato, but there are so many misconceptions. Using economical growing spaces and strategies, planting a reasonable amount of food, and knowing how to not waste the harvest all means you can have gourmet-quality food for a fraction of the cost.
Where should someone start if they would like to start a garden? Which resources would you recommend? Which plants should they start with?
Start small. You’ll waste gobs of money trying to create a Martha Stewart garden in your first year. Instead, look into getting some containers or create a single garden bed. I’d start with hard-to-kill peas, beans, cucumbers, squashes, and zucchini. As for resources, check out anything Eliot Coleman has written (including my favorite, The Four Season Harvest) or any youtube video of him speaking. Square Foot Gardening is another great book for growing maximum food in a small space.
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.
There are literally hundreds of things I could say, but here are the five basics I’d boil it down to:
- Know your location. If you’re growing in the ground, spend some time observing your potential garden bed before planting anything. How much sun does it get in each season? (The term “full sun” means roughly eight hours of direct sunlight, FYI.) Does it flood easily? Is it a windy spot? The answers to all of those questions will determine the kinds of plants you can grow best there. For example, I’ve planted my raspberries close to my house to act as a windbreak, because they wouldn’t withstand some of the gusts on the more open part of my property.
Regardless of whether you’re growing in the ground or containers, it’s still important to know the USDA hardiness zone you live in (which determines how long a growing season you have). - Know your soil. Check with your county’s cooperative extension office (just type [your county + state] extension office) about free or low-cost soil tests. They’ll send you home with a small box and instructions to collect soil samples which they’ll ship off to the affiliated university to test for you. This will help you know what kind of fertilizer your specific soil needs, instead of randomly throwing something you found at the home improvement store on it.
- Plan your plants. Be sure you’ve chosen plants that will be happy in the space you’ve chosen for them! For example, tomatoes don’t want to be in the shade, and zucchini wants tons of space to run around. (Though if you’re short on space, you can make climbing or vining plants a vertical trellis for them to grow up.) Make a little drawing of your garden before planting time and check to make sure you gave them enough sun and space, according to their seed packet.
- Keep notes. Having a little gardening notebook can prevent you from making the same mistakes year after year. Note things like what you planted, when you planted it, any unusual weather or pest problems, whether you fertilized, and when and how much you were able to harvest. You can also do this digitally by taking lots of pictures of your garden’s progress and arranging them in a chronological album.
- Prepare for disasters. After getting certified as a master gardener, I just assumed that because I had all the head knowledge, all my gardens would turn out perfectly. (Ha!) I know now that each year, every gardener will have their own problems, including you. Prepare yourself for bad storms, plagues of locusts, or simple beginner mistakes, and that will help you from getting too discouraged.
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?
- Starting too early. Sometimes, you get carried away in the excitement of beginning, and you’ll start seedlings indoors too early or plant outside before the soil is really ready. Instead, just stick to the directions on your seed packet, and don’t assume “just a little earlier will be ok.”
- Watering problems. Some people drown their plants, while others forget about them and leave them to die of thirst. Instead, you can get a cheap drip irrigation system with a timer, or set an alarm on your phone to remind you to water your garden deeply once a week. Water early in the morning or late in the evening to reduce evaporation. As a general rule, plants need 1–2” of water per week.
- Not spacing correctly. Follow the seed package like you follow the law. If it says space 2” apart, don’t assume 1” is fine. If it says you’ll need to thin seedlings (pulling up baby plants before they get big to allow for adequate space), do it. Crowded plants are more susceptible to disease and low yields.
What are some of the best ways to keep the costs of gardening down?
Learn! Read as much as you can and make friends with experienced gardeners, because every mistake you don’t make is money saved. (Plus, other gardeners share extra seeds and plants.) But there are plenty of good ways to save:
- Make your own compost.
- Save your leftover seeds from packets in a cool, dry place from year to year.
- Grow heirloom plants so you can save the vegetable’s seeds and grow them next year.
- Grow perennial plants (asparagus, rhubarb, chives, etc) that you only need to plant once and they keep self-sustaining for years.
- Purchase native plants with better local disease and pest resistance, so you spend less on treatments.
- If the laws in your area permit it, save your rainwater to water your plants.
- Only grow things you’ll actually eat.
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. 🙂
As a deeply religious person who’s seen the fruits (no pun intended) of a life of faith, I firmly believe that each individual’s life is made more meaningful when lived in relationship with God. If I could inspire a movement, it would be one seeking for Truth, looking in all the hidden places of the world. (Including gardens. Gardens are a great place to seek for Truth.)
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. 🙂
John Green. I’ve followed his work every week for nearly fifteen years, and much of my own life has been inspired by his philanthropy, honesty, and ability to foster communities. And I hear he grows a mean cherry tomato.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
HomegrownHillary.com is currently the one and only spot where I’m creating content.
Thank you so much for the time you spent on this interview. We wish you only continued success and good health.
Hillary Swetz Of Homegrown Hillary: 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.