Materials Matter

Conitnuing with the topic of starting a garden in the fall is the choice of materials for your garden beds. The simple solution would be not to use any materials at all, to simply till the soil, ammend the soil and plant. It is a completely viable and very cost effective solution.

I would recommend, however, that you consider using raised beds. Depending on your soil, you can easily spend a lot of time, energy and money ammending your native soil. By selecting raised beds, you can combine your native soil with a more loamy mix, peat, sand and compost to create a plantable bed almost instantly. In addition, by giving the bed more height, you make it easier and more comfortable for you to tend to your garden!

Think about it...and Happy Gardening!

Fall is the Best Time To Start A Garden?

I know it sounds like I've gone crazy, but hear me out. Last year I talked about how I fertilize just before putting the garden beds to bed for the winter. The same principles apply. The best time to create a garden, ammend the soil, etc. is the season before you plant. Since the ground freezes here in Ohio over the winter, that leaves the fall season to prepare ahead of time.

I decided to share my nutty theory in multiple posts. The first is about selecting a site in your yard for a garden.

The thought for the first time gardener is to start small....at least at first. A small garden will take less work and materials and frankly, if done well a 4X4 foot garden will provide enough vegetables and fruit for a family of 3 to enjoy during the standard growing season.

Once you get the hang of gardening and get hooked (and you will!) you can expand your garden to incorporate more crops, varieties and to experiment.

The first consideration in locating your garden is light. A vegetable garden needs anywhere from 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day, so select a site that has that amount of exposure to center your garden.

If you will be using native ground only, you will need to test the soil and ammend it appropriately for nutrients and drainage (adding compost, peat, sand, etc.)

We will continue the series talking about other methods of creating a garden...until then, let the thoughts of your garden perculate!

Happy Gardening!

Raindrops On Roses...and veggies and seeds!

Raindrops are definitely some of my favorite things. With such a dry late summer, I have been concerned that my plants and especially my freshly planted seeds would suffer. Even though I collect rainwater for such an occasion, I try to let mother nature tend to my watering as much as possible.

It was so nice to have a gorgeous light and long rain this afternoon here in Columbus, OH. While I am sure the Buckeyes and the fans at the game probably weren't too happy, but this gardener and especially his plants were!

Happy Gardening!

Better Late than never

I have to admit, this spring and summer were rough on my schedule. Among some other things in my life that distracted me from my garden were new responsibilities at work and the completion of my education. That left precious little time for gardening and even less for blogging :-(.

And while I wasn't the best steward of my garden, nature must have known what was going on and decided to take extra special care of me. The beautiful bounty of the garden came through even the little bit of neglect I inflicted upon the garden. The heirloom tomatoes were glorious all the way through. The multi-colored swiss chard has been bountiful and my summer squash ended up the size of king penguins...just amazing. Not to mention beans, potatoes, cucumbers and a host of other vegetables that ripened and provided nourishment for my exhausted body this summer.

As for my soul, when I did have time to tend the garden, it brought such peace and sense of well being, it is hard to describe. Nature and in particular my garden provides such a refuge for the city weary, I want to run up to every city dweller and give them a plant so they can feel just a little of the energy that nature can provide.

Now that summer is waning, and I am about two weeks late in doing it, I headed out to the garden to put in my late summer plantings for late fall and early winter harvest. Carrots, Parsnips, Spinach, Mesculin lettuce and though it is late, I am going to put in a few beet plants. I think with a row cover, I should be able to squeak out a small harvest just in time for Thanksgiving! And in a couple of weeks, it will be time to put the garlic and shallots in the beds to over winter.

This post is short on instruction, I know, but I wanted to send a little bit of garden love and energy that I have recieved into the world to share.

Happy Gardening!

Wonderful Fabulous Asparagus!

Asparagus takes little more than a bit of planning before you plant it...but the rewards are immense! A pinch of weed control, a dash of patience and soon you will enjoy two solid months of deliciousness each spring!

There are a myriad of reasons to grow asparagus, but here are the 5 reasons I chose to make room for asparagus in my garden. 1: if I plant it once, I can enjoy it for 20 years!, 2: I love clean, organic food vs. food that is soaked in chemicals and trucked in from who knows where. 3: I love to entertain in the spring so asparagus = fancy finger food! 4: I know the price of organic asparagus at Whole Foods and finally 5: I can have an excuse to eat more hollandaise sauce!

So let's get started. As soon as the soil is workable in your area, till the area you want to plant asparagus (I was a couple of weeks late this year, but I think I will survive :-). Then dig a trench about 8 inches wide by 12 inches deep and as long as your garden can tolerate and in a place that gets mostly sun. Back fill the trench about 6 inches with a combination of the soil you just dug up, compost (heavy on the compost), peat moss and sand, mound this back fill slightly.

As far as selecting what medium to grow, I am just going to say go with crowns, don't do seeds...they take too long and they are really tempremental. So get crowns and you will have Asparagus at least a year earlier. Splay the roots so when you place the crown in the trench, it lays flat, back fill with more of the soil mixture and water well. Keep the crowns watered and fed well throughout the first year and leave the ferns to grow in the fall. Next year, do not harvest the spears, let them grow and die back. The next year, harvest for 3 weeks only, each year you harvest you can add a week until you are harvesting for 8 weeks.

For each adult in your household, you should grow a dozen crowns, this will provide enough to eat and perhaps freeze a few.

With a little planning and patience, you can grow gorgeous, flavorful asparagus!

Happy Gardening

A Fine Spring Day For Planting

You would think a grey rainy day would be miserable in the garden...but for the avid enthusiast (or completely obsessed garden nut...either title works), it is a prime day for planting. According to the farmers almanac and my gut feel, today put us past the possibility of a hard frost. We have had a remarkably warm spring and I was itching to get the seedlings I have nurtured for the last two months into the ground.

This year's garden is a mix of seedlings nurtured on my sun porch and some that were ordered from the nursery. Since I am focusing more on the special varieties of produce this year, heirloom seeds would be very expensive for the number of plants I plan. Plus, their viability year over year is not what a conventional seed would be. So I ordered some heirloom variety seedlings from a local grower.

This year, I am planting four varieties of tomato; Cherokee purple, Brandywine, an heirloom cherry and Jubilee (yellow). I am also planting two varieties of heirloom cucumber; one that looks like a lemon, and the long seedless english. Of course my garden would not be complete without brussel sprouts, brocoli, squash varieties, beets, eggplant, radish, carrots, chard and spinach.

I will be planting carrot seeds as well as a few other items in a day or so when I decide where to put them.

There is so much to do and so much to write about...the coming weeks should be very exciting in the garden!

Happy Gardening!

Let's Go!

The 2010 Garden is underway!!! Last weekend I started many of the vegetable seeds that will be growing in the garden. If you plan to grow your garden from seed (and I highly recommend it), you need to start your seeds 6-8 weeks before the last predicted frost date. Here in Columbus, I won't plant tender vegetable seedlings until after May 1st and will not direct sow seeds until after Mother's day. Lettuce and some other cold weather crops are an exception, but a rare one. I am using a new product for seed starting...many of you will recall the disaster from last year's product from Burpee...ugh...enough about that...anyway, I purchased a new product from Jiffy at the store closing sales at Smith and Hawken last year...since I will use only two of these trays per year, I should have enough for 5 years!

Starting seeds is easy, it is simply giving the seeds a headstart germinating and growing to a seedling stage before transplanting in the garden.

I separated the two types of crops into the two trays. One tray will be used for "above ground" crops such as squash, peppers, tomatoes and such. The other tray is for root crops such as beets, leeks, carrots, etc. Next, make sure that the peat pods have an opening to insert the seed. Sometimes in manufacturing, the netting covers the entire top, cut that away before planting your seeds.

Next, add water...now prepare yourself...these pods take a lot of water...mine took approximately 1 gallon per tray to be the right consistency for planting...this will take time, adding water a bit at a time until all pods are expanded and ready. When you plant your seeds, make sure the seeds are planted twice their diameter in depth and ensure good soil to seed contact by pressing them in and fluffing over the seed with soil. Next, you should label your seed pods. You can use anything, try re-purposing something. I found an old pack of computer business card sheets with an awful graphic that I have no use for and wrote on the backs of each card what the plant was. These are natural papers and inks so if they break down, they can be composted :-)

Once the seeds are planted, watered and labeld, cover them with the planting lid and keep moist and covered until the seeds germinate and small seedlings emerge. Then the can be kept uncovered in good light and kept moist until they grow enough to be transplanted!

Happy Gardening!!