Garden!!

I am getting so excited for our garden this year. I am determined to make it work and I hope we can be successful this year and get lots of good stuff out of it.

We are changing it around and making more space for planting. We originally had two 4x8 foot raised bed boxes out in the back of our yard and that was okay but I felt like the ground space between and around them was being wasted and I want to try to plant more this year. So we moved the boxes down close to the house for our herbs, lettuce, carrots, onion, garlic and broccoli. I wanted to try some square foot gardening and stagger planting with them too so I used some brightly colored twine and nails and marked a grid.



Joseph got in on the action. His favorite thing was to throw handfuls of dirt out of the box.



I planted some lettuce, carrots and onion a week and 1/2 ago and so far the lettuce has popped through!

We also have a bunch of seedlings already started in the house, one of the 4 trays is pictured above, and so far they are doing well. We plan to turn over a large garden bed in the back for some of the larger plants as well as peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. We’re also going to try corn this year. I would love to be able to harvest corn from our garden!

Tonight we had a RS activity on gardening. One of the brethren from the ward came and taught us about it and we had a really great Q&A session. I learned some great things and will use this space to record it so I don’t forget! It’s not in any particular order. Just as it came up in the discussion:

First of all, if you don’t have space for a garden but are willing to drive to another location to garden, your community may have plots you can rent. There is one here called Pennington Farms. You can rent a little garden plot for $20 for the year and can rent up to 3 plots. That’s great! I remember my mom doing that when we were young and driving over with her to work on the garden.

To take care of insects, such as aphids: dust the plant’s leaves with flour. It smothers the insects! Wow! No need for a pesticide. I know tomatoes tend to get aphids. Also, sunflowers will attract birds and birds, of course, eat bugs. And marigolds also chase away bugs. Will keep all this in mind!

Peas – it’s not too late to plant peas but really they need to go in within the next couple weeks.

Old seeds – he’s planted some as old as 5 years old. To test them out, roll them in a damp paper towel and see if they germinate. The ones that do can be planted. Good to know. I’ve got a bunch of old packets of seed in the garage.

Most herbs are perennial and will come back up again. Some I already knew about but also learned tarragon, chives and oregano do so too.

Growing herbs indoors – put them where they can get sun and keep them watered. Just like a house plant.

Garlic – can be planted in the Spring for a Fall harvest and in the Fall for a Spring harvest. Interesting. Year round fresh garlic. I like! One of the sisters had some extra garlic from her garden and brought it to share. I am so looking forward to planting it and having some of our own!

Potatoes tend to get bugs but if you want to try, start them low to the ground and then mound the dirt on top as the plant grows.

Tiller is not necessary. Turn the ground over with a shovel, break the clumps with a hoe and rake the roots and weeds out with a garden rake.

Mulch the garden with a layer of newspaper around the plants and then place straw or hay over top of that. The newspaper can be turned over into the garden at the end of the season. Rake away the straw.

The place where I can get straw/hay is Agway down 130. It sounds like a great farming supply store. I can also get pinto beans there. I’ve been wanting to grow pinto beans so that’s great news. I can also get pole beans there. Which brings me to the next thing.

Sunflowers – grow the tall ones and then plant pole beans at their base and they will climb the sunflower stalk. I’m so trying that!! Especially since I’d already planned to plant Sunflowers this year.

Pumpkins – need lots of space but move the vine to where you want it as it grows. Train to grow up a trellis and then I imagine the pumpkins would need their own sling as they grow to support their weight. May try one year but don’t know that I have the space for it yet.

Fertilize – 5-10-10 fertilizer or Miracle grow. Powdered fertilizer spread on dirt in circle around the plant but don’t put it on the plant. Liquid fertilizer can be sprayed on, i.e. Miracle Grow. Fertilize every two weeks once the plants start flowering. Also, old fertilizer sitting in your garage is still good. It doesn’t go bad.

Black Seeded lettuce variety is a good one. Tolerant to the heat.

Spinach can be planted in the Fall, over wintered and then harvested early Spring just when other things are getting planted.

Grapes - buy one plant. bury one of the branches and it will root. Once the second plant starts to grow you can cut the runner and make them two seprate plants. He grows concord grapes. Just the ones I want to try.

Excited! Our garden bed needs to be turned over pronto because there’s already a lot that can be planted now!