Gardening, Vegetables, Seeding, Tomatoes, you name it, the how-to is here.
Welcome to hands-on gardening. Here we share tips for low-cost vegetable gardening; information we have learned with our 30 years of experience using drip tape, plastic mulch, hoop houses and greenhouse seed propagation using organic practices.
Our garden grew from a small backyard kitchen garden to over six acres of vegetable cultivation. On these six acres of intensive garden, we provide enough produce to supply seven farmers markets. We have learned how to use drip irrigation for water conservation. We use plastic mulch to control weeds, maintain soil moisture and raise soil temperature. We also have learned how to use row-hoops to extend our season, control pests and protect our crops from frost.
Like the greatest agriculturist of our country, George Washington Carver, we have discovered the benefits of simple innovation, recycling and using organic methods.
We seeded the lettuce March 15th in a small tray. These trays are perfect for a small amount of one variety of seed. If seeded sparingly the little plants can stay for a good month in the tray. Now is recycle time. We use a disposable foil tray that is generally used for cooking a 9 x 9 inch cake. Poke holes in the bottom with a large nail. And for a bottom to hold the water a plastic lid from your favorite cookies at the grocery store. They fit nicely together.
I’m going to write down the ‘secret recipe’ for our Dill Pickles. Actually this recipe was given to us by our good friends and customers the Balances. It is a ‘No Fail’ recipe and very easy, too. With this recipe you can make one jar at a time or as many as you have cucumbers ready to pick. Sometimes in a small garden you may only have enough to do a few jars, so this is the perfect cure. Just fill your jar with the dill, garlic cloves, mustard seed, salt etc. and the cucumbers, add a 1/2 cup of vinegar, fill will hot water and seal. Easy, easy.
The cabbage is planted in the garden. He was able to get 8 rows done and had to finish covering it in the dark. Our days are long this time of year but the rewards of early cabbage are worth it. Last year Ken decided that there must be a better way to dig holes than being on your knees all day with a little trowel, wearing your shoulder muscles out digging all those little holes for the plant starts.
I’ve heard for years that the best time to plant your potatoes is on Good Friday. Now I’m not really sure why it’s a good time. Maybe they actually do come up in a shorter period of time, or maybe it’s just finally warm enough to be out there planting in the garden. Well this year, we finally had a moment to plant and we did it right for once, because it was Good Friday. I’m usually appreciating the sacrifice and gift that God gave for us through His son Jesus on Good Friday, and this time, I was able to contemplate that while enjoying the first warm day outdoors seeding potatoes.
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The cabbage is ready to be transplanted into the garden, but the weather is not cooperating. All the plants are just waiting to bust out of the greenhouse, but it is still snowing just nine miles away, and with it being 23 degrees at night, we must keep waiting. I’ll go ahead and update you on the progress of the cabbage. Let’s start on day one, and we will show an easy way to get lots of starts. While working with the flats, we drop the little round seeds in five rows to a tray and set them on the heat table to begin their season of life.
We trimmed our grape cuttings and put them in a jar around the middle of January. It is now time to transplant them into their own pots, or in this case, we will be holding them for a while in 16 oz. foam cups. Some plants like the foam cups because they are warmer for the roots, and grapes are one of these. Grapes do not like to be cold and soggy.
It is time to get some seed in the ground. Last year Ken used the Corn Jabber to seed beets, and it worked well on the small seeds. We thought that the seed might be too deep in the ground, but they came out real nice.
So first we set the depth to about ½ inch. Shallow for spring and the cold weather, later when your moisture is deep, the seed needs to be deeper.
Zucchini does not stop growing for anyone. While we’ve been busy seeding melons, cucumbers, cooking dirt, building tables in the greenhouse, plowing the garden, pulling up last years plastic mulch and laying down the mulch, the zucchini just keeps on growing. In Part One, we covered seeding. Now at two days, they are up and ready to be moved from the heat table to the lights to let them harden a bit.
We are up against a cold spring again, and the farmers market begins in four weeks, so it is time to get a move-on. The planting calendar says to seed the zucchini. The zucchini seeds will start and transplant very nicely in foam cups. I will be transplanting these zucchini to the garden in two to three weeks so I am seeding them in small 8-ounce foam cups. If I wanted to hold them longer, I would be seeding directly into 16-ounce cups.
OK, let’s get the shovel and head for the garden. Our soil is very sandy unlike the dirt that most people have. When we first moved here from rich dirt and cedar trees to sand and pine trees, I felt like I was living in the desert. Little I knew then how much I would come to love the sandy soil and even the tall pine trees. Continue reading
A photo of our garden