Instead of foraging for leafy greens under supermarket fluorescents, why not try your hand at growing your own produce at home? After all, it can cost a lot more to fill up a cart than sowing some seeds, and the experience is so much better.
If you’re one of many people who are reluctant to jump into gardening due to a lack of know-how, I’m right there with you. That’s exactly why I wanted to write this story. To help guide us newbies down the right path, I sat down with local gardening expert Stephanie Szkolnicki. She gave me plenty of valuable insight on everything beginners should know about growing produce just in time for spring.
Stephanie is the owner of Southern Garden Solutions and has been growing in the upstate for well over a decade. She says learning how to grow any plant always starts with determining your goals. “Are you trying to replace some of your food? Are you trying to replace all of your vegetables that you eat? Or are you just trying to supplement? Having a goal can make a difference in how you grow,” Stephanie says.
After some goal setting, make a plan. If you’re hoping to grow a full garden, be diligent about where you decide to build it. Some areas will have direct sun for hours, which will be too harsh for certain plants such as leafy greens. Other plants, like tomatoes, will crave that direct light. Build your garden depending on what you want to grow.
Next, decide when you want to start. Stephanie says fall is the easiest season to plant in thanks to its consistent temperatures and lower disease and pest pressures. The season you decide to plant in will dictate what you can grow. “If you’re afraid of failure and willing to wait, then wait until fall and start lettuces, because those are some of the easiest ones to grow. More of those vegetables like broccoli, kale, cauliflowers, and collards, they’re all easier to grow,” Stephanie says. Still, experimenting is part of the process, and while things will be hardest in July and August, Stephanie says you can start a garden at any time.
With your goals, ideal start date, and a plan in mind, it’s time to think about what you want to grow. The fruit Stephanie recommends for beginner planters to start with during spring is a season fan favorite: blueberries. “They are one of the best, and you can just put it in your landscape. For the most part, you can plant it and it will grow.” Stephanie says blueberries do best in the Upstate’s acidic soil, but they’re also known to be good patio fruits– as long as you look after them properly. “One of the biggest things for containers is providing enough water because they dry out much quicker than in the ground. It’s a much smaller surface area, so it’s just gonna dry out quicker.”
Stephanie says herbs are another great choice to start with. “A lot of the herbs are evergreen. Oregano will stay green in the wintertime. Rosemary I have as a landscape plant. A lot of these are Mediterranean herbs, so they grow in the same conditions and don’t need a lot of love. They can usually handle what we have going on.”
Kale can also survive summer, as well as other classic summer vegetables such as cherry tomatoes or cucumbers. Still, Stephanie has a personal favorite vegetable of her own to grow in spring. “I love okra. It does so well in our heat, and it tastes phenomenal when you grow it. My kids would not eat okra until I started growing it and now they love it,” she says.
Once you’ve settled on your first plant, it’s time to buy the seeds. For beginners, Stephanie actually recommends trying starters first. “If you’re just starting out, I would honestly go buy your starts from a local nursery or from someone who has a greenhouse and grows. I wouldn’t do Lowe’s or Home Depot or other big box stores. They will set their plants out early, and it does make a difference how they’re started,” she says. “A strong, healthy stem and root system is what you’re looking for.”
To make sure your plant is thriving from the start, shopping local is usually best, and Stephanie has some recommendations for places to start. “The closest one that I would go to is Staggs Garden Center. I also like to get my plant starts from Blue Oak Horticulture, which is out in the Taylors area. You could also do farmer’s markets like the TR farmer’s market.”
How to grow your produce successfully
Once you’ve picked your starter, Stephanie says you really only need to pay attention to three big things when growing any plant. “Sun, soil, and water. Those are the top three things to grow healthy plants. If you can nail those down and get those tuned in, then you can pretty much grow whatever you want.” Do your research to discover how much sun, water, and the soil type your plant needs, and care for it accordingly.
To know what’s inside of your soil, you can do a soil test. Before you balk at the idea of figuring this out, Stephanie encourages newbies to persevere as plenty of resources are available. One of the best for locals is something called the Clemson Extension— an online space full of local research on all things agriculture, community, environment, and health. “They have a home garden website that’s really good. I’ll send pages from there to DIYers and tell them to look at this information and go from there,” she says.
Aside from their online presence, the Clemson Extension also has an office in Greenville, so online and in-person help is available for all your gardening needs.
Growers can also talk to the farmers at the TR Farmer’s Market, or call on Stephanie herself for help. While larger gardens can take three years to build and eventually thrive, Stephanie kickstarts the process with completely customizable coaching programs, consultations, garden installations and designs, and even by giving simple advice. “We go in your garden and we get into any subject that you want to get into. You can gather as much information from me in that timeframe. You have questions and I answer ’em,” she says.
Now, if you’ve read this guide and are excited to get your hands dirty, it’s time to gather your tools and get growing. Still, if you can only picture a garden and can’t fathom digging in the dirt to build it, Stephanie can do that for you too.
No matter what you decide, Stephanie tells beginners to embrace failure, learn, and adapt. Beginners might be overwhelmed by all the different plants, techniques, and tools it takes to garden, but experimentation can be fun. Don’t take the process too seriously and just see what happens. “I know people want to just be able to grow, right? Like, ‘I should be able to just put this plant in the soil and grow.’ But there is a lot more involved. It is an experiment. I think some people are just so afraid to fail and need to know it all going in, but there is a learning curve with everything,” she says.
So don’t be afraid to start, and know that there is always help around the corner. “Just try. You’ll learn every time you grow something. I can still grow lettuce and still learn something from it after all these years. If you just get out there and start small and experiment, you’ll learn from it. You’ll learn how to grow the bigger plants and the better plants. Just use the resources that are around you.”
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This is a great starter guide to learning how to garden and grow in the Upstate. To get personalized help with your outdoor space, Stephanie at Southern Garden Solutions can help.
