Garden Week: Start With Produce to Eat Fresh

*Readers, would you please leave me a comment today and let me know if you already garden or not?


And if you would like to see this series continue?


Thanks!

The results of much hard work!

"...Now blackberries were ripe, and in the hot afternoons, Laura went with Ma to pick them.  The big black juicy berries hung thick in brier patches in the creek bottoms.  Some were in the shade of trees and some were in the sun, but the sun was so hot that Laura and Ma stayed in the shade.  There were plenty of berries.

Deer lay in the shady groves and watched Ma and Laura.  Blue jays flew at their sunbonnets and scolded because they were taking the berries.  Snakes hurriedly crawled away from them, and in the trees the squirrels woke up and chattered at them...."  

--from Little House on the Praire by Laura Ingalls Wilder

***

There is little doubt that children in America's past knew where their food came from and did their part to help in the family in bringing the good food to the table.  Perhaps that is why there is so much obesity now, we are not eating enough real food, and we are not working hard enough to get it where it comes from.  

There are good memories to be made in the garden.  My son will remember stuffing his face full of juicy raspberries he picked off our bushes.


All the kids will remember the big pumpkins dad helped them grow, and the pride when it was time to load up the wheelbarrows with the giant, smooth, cool orange orbs to display proudly in the front of the farmhouse.


When we work in the garden...there are sounds to hear, quiet to listen to, and dirt to smell.  Growing things are a pleasure to look at and enjoy for their season.  There are leaves to learn the shape of, mud to get between your toes, and of course, weeds to battle.


Gardening is love...

There was also a work ethic instilled in the children, especially of the pioneers and they grew up to be quite productive citizens.  Very few could stay lazy and still have something to eat. 

Now we may not need to go back quite to those sort of days, but I really think we do a disservice to our children to be "too busy" for a back yard garden.  


If, for nothing more than them to learn and realize what wonderful results from growing plants from seed, and that work is required to get that delicious fresh produce from the garden to their tummy, and that we truly need to pray sometimes for rain.  Right?

If you want to know where to start, start small.  Grow your successes and add something and increase the size each year if possible.  Your confidence increases with each success.  Conversely, if you have things that don't work out, you remember after a couple tries not to go there again.

You will also learn that gardening is truly hard work.

You have to bend over, so your back hurts.  You get callouses from the rake or the hoe. It can be hot.  Yes, the bugs bother you sometimes.  You might see a snake.  

But...there's nothing like the satisfaction of sitting down to the table with all the food on it from your garden.

Is it worth it?  YES!  


And if there's extra, you can always freeze or can it!




("CAN DO" is an attitude a gardener needs!)

When you decide to have a garden, sit down and figure out what you'd like to grow.  If you start out small, you're going to decide just what it is you like to eat fresh in the summertime and early fall?  What is it you find yourself buying at the farmer's market or in the grocery produce section?  


Choose your favorites and make a list.


A good list of basics:
Tomatoes
Green beans
Corn
*Cucumbers
and for fun...a *pumpkin plant!
*these starred items spread when they grow and will need a little extra room


The above items are all WONDERFUL to eat fresh.
Of course, if you buy a lot of eggplant in the summer, then put those on your list!  They're easy to grow!

And don't forget to put ONE FUN ITEM on that list for fun and frivolity, and for the reason that it makes going to the garden fun and fine to look at.  


One of my favorite items just for fun is ZINNIAS!  They are little showoffs and put out plenty of blooms for lots of wonderful color in your yard and garden.


There are so many varieties, so many colors of zinnias, and little girls and boys love to pick a new bouquet for you every now and then!  As you can see, the bees love them, too and you will have lots of pollination going on in your garden!  That's a good thing!

Choose a spot with plenty of sun and a well-drained location (meaning somewhere that does not hold water in puddles).  Make your area clean for planting.  Stake out an area and cut into and then take up the sod.  Turn the soil and rake it out.  Pick up rocks and break up dirt clods.  Buy some bags of manure, or better yet, go to a nearby farm and ask for some poo....if it's aged a little, then all the better.  Turn the manure into your soil.  
(*Fresh chicken poo can be too hot.  It needs to be aged.)


Let the manure sit for a few weeks after turning it into the soil.  (Do all this about a month before planting.)


Buy your plants from a good local greenhouse, preferably NOT your local BIG BOX.  The reason? The plants you buy at the greenhouse are a whole different quality than those huge trainloads of mass-produced and ill-treated plants at the big box stores.  I view those plants as seconds:  something the greenhouses didn't want to sell themselves.  


Also, the big boxes dictate to the grower what price they want the plants to come in at.  Therefore, the grower will take whatever cuts are necessary to get those plants to the price dictated to it by the big box.  Maybe they cut back on the quality of seed, or soil, or fertilizers...you just don't know.


Most big box stores do not have the proper amount or kind of help that even cares or are properly trained to care for your plants while they wait for you to come and buy them.


BUT...if big box is your only source, then by all means get those plants and treat them like gold once you get them home.  There may be hope for them yet.


BUY LOCALLY if possible.  We want to keep growers local, don't we?  If we lose our local growers, we lose a wonderful resource of knowledge.  The gum-popping, texting, droll-faced teen at the local big box has probably not worked with plants and may not even care what the names of them are or what they like!


Also, most greenhouses or your local mill will offer good quality seeds for crops that are usually only grown from seed.




***
BASICS for a back yard garden
SHOVEL
HOE
GARDEN RAKE
GARDEN HOSE
GOOD GARDEN GLOVES
OLD SHOES, GARDEN CLOGS, or BOOTS
(something you won't mind getting muddy)
A FENCE if possible (chicken wire will do!)
Stakes and kite string to make straight rows
All purpose plant food, such as Miracle Gro
Cages if you are growing tomato plants
*If your garden will be large, a rototiller is a handy tool, but not necessary.  Hand cultivators work well, too.

***

To grow from seed:
corn
beans
pumpkins




To grow from plants already started:
tomatoes
peppers
squash
cukes


To buy in "sets":
potatoes
onions
garlic

Peonies that have been on this old farmyard forever,  line up against our garden fence,
and raspberries stand in rows along each side.




The best thing to do between now and spring if you're thinking of a garden, is to order a couple seed catalogs online, BURPEE offers a nice one, and I'm sure there are others.  Read and learn.  Garden reading is my bedtime reading this time of year!

You need to buy this book!

Also, there's a handy and SIMPLE easy to use book that won't throw you for a loop with too much techno-talk, that is sold fairly cheap on Amazon.com--used, as it is out of print, but I've found it to be a very valuable resource for gardeners, and have bought many copies to give to beginners.


It's done by Reader's Digest and is a simple, alphabetical dictionary for the gardener.   Usually, these can be found for less than $5 on amazon!  It will be a worthwhile investment, I promise!  If you want to know about growing carrots, look in the "c" section and learn all you could possibly want to know!  


Please let me know any questions you may have about gardening.  I may be preaching to the choir and don't want to waste my time either, so if all my readers are already gardeners, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.  It takes time to compose these posts and I only want to continue if they are USEFUL!


Have a wonderful day!

Serenity can be found in a garden...we can all use more of that!