Posted on 03/21/2011 5:51:03 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Eager to join the grow-your-own-food movement and don’t know where to begin?
Tried your hand at gardening with less than satisfying results, while your neighbor’s front yard overflowed with beans and cabbage?
With the start of the traditional gardening season just around the corner — and four-season gardening offering never-ending opportunities — the time is ripe to formulate a plan of action that nurtures mind, body and spirit.
Here’s a pack of tips to help you plant the seeds for growing your green thumb:
1. Cultivate your inner gardener
Gardening is about so much more than simply growing vegetables, flowers or herbs. Part of its magic is discovering what gardening brings to your life, where it takes you and the many metaphors it unfurls. But be warned: Gardening has been deemed a gateway to numerous obsessions, raising backyard chickens and vermicomposting in your basement among them.
Allow space in your mind, as well as in your gardens, for surprises — an unexpected moonflower, or a volunteer tomato seedling or 20. But also think about what you’d like to get out of gardening aside from groceries, and let it evolve.
2. Don’t try to do it all, at least not all at once.
Nothing will discourage you more than becoming overwhelmed — by the amount of work required to prepare your plot for planting, the number of weeds that just won’t stop multiplying, and endless other garden chores. If you aren’t enjoying what you’re doing — the feel of the soil, the warmth of the sun, the physical workout, the clearing of the mind — make some adjustments.
Consider starting small. Instead of setting out to grow everything from asparagus to zucchini, take square-foot gardening to an extreme and plant a single square-foot garden with just one tomato plant, and add on next year. Or you can container garden, though you’ll have to water more to keep the soil from drying out and choose varieties best suited for pot dwelling.
If you really want to go all out, do it!
3. Decide what you want to grow.
If you never want to have to buy another tomato, you can easily grow enough to freeze, can, dry and eat fresh in season.
You’ll need more than a square foot of growing space, but you can get a lot of mileage out of varieties that are uber-productive as well as tasty. Tommy Toe cherry tomatoes are big and bountiful and can be frozen whole, then popped under the broiler to top pasta. Ditto for Principe Borghese, a variety traditionally used for sun-drying, that can also be dried in an oven or dehydrator.
High-yielding San Marzano paste tomatoes virtually melt in a pan, not to mention your mouth. Freeze or can sauce, or freeze tomatoes whole to add to winter soups, stews and pot roasts. Jaune Flamme and Peach Blow Sutton are also especially delicious and productive.
Don’t forget Genovese basil for pairing with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, as well as for making pesto, which also can be frozen for pasta and pizza.
4. Read seed catalogs, many and often.
Even if you don’t start your own seeds — though you’ll be missing half the fun — you can glean a wealth of information about the incredible number of varieties of vegetables, flowers and herbs available, as well as when and where to start, transplant, nurture and harvest them.
Some good ones to start with are Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.org), Johnny’s Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.org) and Richters Herbs (richters.com). Look for sellers that have taken the Safe Seed Pledge not to knowingly sell genetically modified seeds.
5. Grow heirloom seeds.
Along with helping to preserve our food heritage and the genetic diversity of plants, these seeds have a story. Cherokee Trail of Tears beans were carried by the Cherokee people on the winter death march of 1838-39 that left a trail of 4,000 graves. Unlike hybrid seeds, the seeds of these open-pollinated varieties that have been passed down through generations of gardeners can be planted the following year to produce the same delicious vegetables or edible or decorative flowers.
6. Grow (almost) instant gratification.
Give your gardening ego a boost by reaping quick and easy rewards. Start by planting fresh seeds (old ones may disappoint) for lettuce and other salad greens as soon as the soil can be worked. They’ll pop up pretty rapidly if you keep them moist, not soggy, and before you know it you’ll be snipping baby greens for fresh salads and sandwiches.
Keep them watered and they’ll keep on coming after you cut them. Choose heat- tolerant heirloom varieties or give them a somewhat shaded spot where they won’t wither in full summer sun. Keep planting more seeds for a continual supply of organically grown (no chemicals) greens.
Some types are pretty enough to use as edible landscaping. And don’t forget to grow edible flowers (again, no chemicals!) — including colorful nasturtiums, pansies and calendulas — for salads and garnishes.
7. Have the most fun for $40, or so.
Get a jump on seed starting in your very own walk-in greenhouse. Farm and Fleet sells one for about $40, less if it’s on sale. It won’t last forever but should give you a season’s worth of enjoyment.
You might want to take the cover off if strong winds are forecast, especially if it’s not staked down.
Farm and Fleet, Jung Garden Centers and others also have more costly and sometimes sturdier options, or you can piece together your own creation with old windows and screens your neighbors are getting rid of.
8. Raise it up.
While you’re out scrounging, look for untreated wood to make raised beds, or invest in new (cedar’s the best). Plan dimensions so you can put a window, or two or three, on top for an instant cold frame to jump start seeds and seedlings — as well as extend your season into the fall. Screens can also be used to foil those pesky squirrels. A raised bed will help you contain your plot, and you can add good soil and compost that will warm up sooner than the ground.
9. Get the poop on soil.
Compost. Compost. Compost. Whether you get it from your backyard bin, worm farm, a friendly farmer or in bags from the store, add plenty of compost to create a rich, loose bed in which to tuck your seeds or seedlings.
10. Pick up a copy of the Wisconsin Garden Journal.
Published by the Madison Area Master Gardeners Association, it will tell you what to plant when. To be safe, wait until at least Memorial Day weekend for tomatoes, peppers and other frost- sensitive plants. It also will give you a place to record your garden activities and results to build on next year, and it supports the crew of master gardeners who provide information and assistance to budding growers.
You can pick one up for $14.95 at Jung Garden Centers in Madison and Sun Prairie. For a list of other outlets, or to order online for a $3 shipping fee, go to mamgawi.org.
Famous last words ...
Don’t even think about striving for perfection. Let yourself go and grow with the flow, and don’t allow perspiration to drown out inspiration.
Good for starting seeds indoors? Make/model name is?
We’ve had wild temp swings this spring. We had 7” of snow last Monday and 80 degrees forecast today.
This week is going to be cold and rainy, here. That’s OK. most of the snow is gone - let Mud Season begin, LOL!
I’ll e-mail you soon. Lots to catch up on! :)
Bookmark
I don't think posting this article was meant as a personal attack on you.
Show me the exact text, in the bill itself, that says that.
Specifically.
Looks like they only ship this model, which is the Top-O-The-Line one for $850.00! The smaller one has 4 shelves, too, but is half as wide. Runs about $429.00, I think? I’ll get the model number for you when I go into work today. Remind me if I forget!
http://www.jungseed.com/dp.asp?pID=52975&c=660&p=Seedling+Light+Cart
Wow! You must be a psychic!:)
We also bought seed starter trays, starting soil and seeds. She is putting them in today and I will rig the grow lights this evening.
We are also building raised beds for the garden and bringing in new soil as the old soil is worked out. I will build the bed out of 4 by 4 corner posts and 2-by sides, with a rabbet on two adjoining edges of each corner post and assemble using pocket screws.
She brought out her small, powered cultivator to use in the raised beds. Got to put in asparagus this spring as well. A tradition with my gardening!
Fondest memory is going down the path at grandmas to the swing at the half way point. Grape vines on their trellis dripped with green and purple baubles on either side of the path. At the swing, I sat with grandma as she shucked peas for dinner.
There was a problem a few years ago with Clopyralid (lawn herbicide) coming from grass clippings and surviving the composting process. Hopefully that is no longer the case.
” It only applies to farms making greater than $500,000 in income. “
It helps to actually read the language in the bill (now law) — the original language did not differentiate between corporate farms and hobby-gardeners, but an amendment was offered which gave the ‘under-$500,000’ crowd an ‘exception’ - which is different from an ‘exemption’, in that, in the language of the law, the FDA may, by bureaucratic fiat, rescind this exception for anybody, at any time, for any reason, without benefit of ‘due process’, whenever it sees fit....
But, that’s okay - you’re gonna believe what you want to beleve, and if that makes ya happy, you have my blessing... ;)
I always try to grow basil and tomatoes. Next I need to figure out how to grow olives in zone 6 and find a place to get one of those elusive mozzarella trees...
Your really tall tomatoes are indeterminate- they produce til they freeze. If well staked they are very manageable. If you want shorter plants, go the determinate route-they will produce til they are done, then they really are done. But they are also a manageable height, although they will like a bit of staking as well. Then you can get between and pick easier.
When we lived with my Italian grand parents vegetables were picked from the garden all Summer long. My grandfather’s secret weapon was to put a Smelt under each plan as they went in.
Well, I guess I'm in for a diet of plastic ;^) Although I've never tried taters, I've never had luck with carrots LOL!!!
You will need a Pasta tree eventually.
>> “with a rabbet on two adjoining edges of each corner” <<
.
Aren’t you worried that the rabbets will eat the veggies? :o)
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