Well, I do believe that I'm doing better at posting on my blog.... hopefully at least some of you are interested in gardening....but if not, oh well, I'll write this out for my own future use. :)
I'm actually not going to have a lasagna garden. I've been reading about an even better way. I guess I could kind of do it, but that's not my whole plan. I've been reading the book, "All New Square Foot Gardening". A really amazing book!!! It has really been inspiring me!!!! It's truly a must-read for gardeners, I think. It gives you another way to garden. More effective, simple, and it's a new thought to a lot of us who've grown up on planing our gardens in a row, fighting the weeds for all we're worth, or just letting them take over. This method makes it so that you have minimal (if any) weeds, lots of produce, in less space.
I highly reccommend the book. I'm renting it from my library.
I'll be posting pictures of my gardening adventures soon!
Tomorrow, the plan is to get the wood to build eight 4x4 boxes, and get old cow manure for a rich form of nutrients for my plants. This week I want to plant, lettuce (a lot), raddishes, spinach (lots of it....I LOVE spinach!!!!!), swiss chard, and any other spring vegetables I have seeds for that I can't remember at the moment. I have my tomatoes, tomatillos, and bell/jalapeno peppers I planted inside last month, and I just started my thyme and oregano inside. In a week or so, I'm planning to start my eccinacea, marigolds and basil inside. The tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers are looking so healthy and strong! It's my first time starting any plants inside. So far it's been very successful! I just transplanted them into bigger containers because they were falling over because they were geting so big!!! :) They look quite happy now, and I'll post pictures of them sometime, too.
I'm still going to try companion planting. It will work so well with this method, too! It's so cool! The guy that wrote the book has been doing square foot gardening for over 10 years, and has had tons of success. Also, what's really neat is that he's totally into saving money and finding the least expensive way to do everything. He's very passionate about enjoying the gardening experience. He explains that it doesn't have to be as hard as everyone makes it.
I know two families who've done it now, though not in raised beds, and both have been successful! :)
Fact about Summer (me): I DO NOT like weeding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anything to have less weeds is a plus for me!!!!! Also, I would like to work at a great camp I've worked at for the past three years, and if I have to weed all the time I either have to choose to give up camp, or give up weeding the garden, and let it get overrun. I don't want to have to choose. I want to get rid of all of those nasty weeds! If that is taken care of, I can ask one of my brothers to water for me and then I can go without worrying about what my garden will look like when I get back.
So, that's pretty much been my main focus on choosing a method of gardening, but, with this method comes other great benefits that make so much sense.
Well, that's probably enough for now.... I'll have more info for you soon I'm guessing.... And pictures for sure! =)
I would love to hear about your gardens and how you grow your fresh produce!.....and about preserving garden produce. It will be my first year in that as well! :)
What has worked for you?
What has not?
What would you do again?
What would you advise against?
I'm actually not going to have a lasagna garden. I've been reading about an even better way. I guess I could kind of do it, but that's not my whole plan. I've been reading the book, "All New Square Foot Gardening". A really amazing book!!! It has really been inspiring me!!!! It's truly a must-read for gardeners, I think. It gives you another way to garden. More effective, simple, and it's a new thought to a lot of us who've grown up on planing our gardens in a row, fighting the weeds for all we're worth, or just letting them take over. This method makes it so that you have minimal (if any) weeds, lots of produce, in less space.
I highly reccommend the book. I'm renting it from my library.
I'll be posting pictures of my gardening adventures soon!
Tomorrow, the plan is to get the wood to build eight 4x4 boxes, and get old cow manure for a rich form of nutrients for my plants. This week I want to plant, lettuce (a lot), raddishes, spinach (lots of it....I LOVE spinach!!!!!), swiss chard, and any other spring vegetables I have seeds for that I can't remember at the moment. I have my tomatoes, tomatillos, and bell/jalapeno peppers I planted inside last month, and I just started my thyme and oregano inside. In a week or so, I'm planning to start my eccinacea, marigolds and basil inside. The tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers are looking so healthy and strong! It's my first time starting any plants inside. So far it's been very successful! I just transplanted them into bigger containers because they were falling over because they were geting so big!!! :) They look quite happy now, and I'll post pictures of them sometime, too.
I'm still going to try companion planting. It will work so well with this method, too! It's so cool! The guy that wrote the book has been doing square foot gardening for over 10 years, and has had tons of success. Also, what's really neat is that he's totally into saving money and finding the least expensive way to do everything. He's very passionate about enjoying the gardening experience. He explains that it doesn't have to be as hard as everyone makes it.
I know two families who've done it now, though not in raised beds, and both have been successful! :)
Fact about Summer (me): I DO NOT like weeding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anything to have less weeds is a plus for me!!!!! Also, I would like to work at a great camp I've worked at for the past three years, and if I have to weed all the time I either have to choose to give up camp, or give up weeding the garden, and let it get overrun. I don't want to have to choose. I want to get rid of all of those nasty weeds! If that is taken care of, I can ask one of my brothers to water for me and then I can go without worrying about what my garden will look like when I get back.
So, that's pretty much been my main focus on choosing a method of gardening, but, with this method comes other great benefits that make so much sense.
Well, that's probably enough for now.... I'll have more info for you soon I'm guessing.... And pictures for sure! =)
I would love to hear about your gardens and how you grow your fresh produce!.....and about preserving garden produce. It will be my first year in that as well! :)
What has worked for you?
What has not?
What would you do again?
What would you advise against?
We did the square foot method right after I read the book, and we discovered an even better way that saves even more space. We plant most our plants in 4 foot wide rows instead of lots of 4x4 squares that need walking space on all four sides. Doing so saves us lots of weeding since we'd have to weed all the paths between the 4x4 squares and it makes more planting space too. :D Our white and sweet potatoes we just plant like the commercial people do with out any rows, since they don't need weeding and just get dug up about the same time. We've done the same with our corn since it ripens all at once and shades the ground pretty fast or it can get mulched. We've just been careful and stirrup hoed between the plants set 1 foot apart till we could mulch it and that has worked for us.
ReplyDeleteOur tomatoes since we plant hundreds of them we just plant in long rows 4 feet apart, and our cucumbers and peas we plant that way too.
Oh and our winter squash and melons get planted in patches since they spread so much. Our summer squash just gets planted in one long row, since the plants take up a whole 4 foot wide area. We grow the bush varieties of those, so they don't crawl. :D
So I'd say follow lots of the things in the book, but expand it more don't stick to it.
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your information, and advice!!! That totally makes sense!!! :)
How do you keep the weeds off of your paths?
Do you trellis anything, and if you do, what do you use?
Could you send me some pictures of your garden this summer sometime? I would like to get a visual of what it looks like. =)
I hope I can have a garden like yours someday! My goal is to have a lot of fresh vegetables,and be able to can tons of stuff for the winter months, eventually. It's not possible right now, but someday that's what I want!
Right now I don't even have a canner, so I'm going to can a little this year, with a neighbor's canner, and hopefully next year I'll be able to buy one and do much more!!!!! :)
Thanks again! Miss you!
Love, <3
Summer
my little brother has started a garden and he is so into it! it's really cute, actually.... he gets all excited when his plants start to shoot up out of the earth! recently his tomato plants started producing tomatoes. almost every day he comes inside all excited, "my tomatoes are growing!" he has made little waterways between his plants so they all get water. i thought that was really ingenious of him! anyway, i could go on... i'm really glad he enjoys gardening so much.
ReplyDeleteand i enjoy reading your blog too! i am learning a lot! =)
I don't have a garden. (wish I did though, will have to get my Dad to cut some trees down first)
ReplyDeleteBut...my Grandma Laycock who lived in Wisconsin kept a completely organic garden. She used food-grade diatomaceous earth. It is the fossilized remains of diatoms, which are hard-shelled algae. You shake up DE with water and spray it on the plants. Basically, when the bugs eat the DE, it slices them up inside (they die) and the bugs will avoid it like the plague. My basil, oregano and mint were completely bug-free last year.
My family also takes it internally every once in a while, and uses it in our facial wash and toothpaste. Just remember to find Food-Grade, the other stuff could potentially hurt you.
We mulch the paths with old hay or grass clippings. Straw is better than hay if you have it as it doesn't put weed seeds in your garden like hay does. Straw just puts wheat or oat seeds in your garden, and they don't come back like weeds do.
ReplyDeleteWe treliss our tomatoes, cucumbers, and peas. I'll have to ask mom what the stuff is we treliss them on when she gets home. Cattle panels work the best though, but cost a lot. We had to take them and use them else were on the farm when funds were tight which is why we don't use them in the garden right now.
Squash is better left to crawl that way they can root along there stems if they want and hopefully not die from vine borer damage.
I'll try and remember to take pics of our garden this year and post them on fb.
If you ever want any canning recipes, just ask. We might have them. We even have some that our government won't allow to be printed anymore due to having sone old canning books.. We also have a ketchup and salsa recipe that aren't loaded with vinegar, so it tastes more like store bought stuff. It doesn't last in the fridge quite as long, but it tastes tons better without the high levels of vinegar.
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteWe have several cattle panels, and that's what we're planning to use. I'm trellising my cucumbers, peas, green beans and tomatoes.
That is understandable! Cattle panels are quite expensive!!....but they do last a LONG time!!!
Thank you! :)
I'd LOVE canning recipes! I'm sure I'll be asking later this summer! :) Thank you so much! It will be very helpful! Trying out recipes is kind of risky I think, unless they are tried and true. =)
Thanks for all your help!!!!
Love you! <3
Caroline, that's so neat!!!! He sounds very creative!! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing, and for reading my blog! I really didn't even know if anyone actually read it.
Miss you!!.....will I see you this summer?
Kendle,
Thank you for your information, but a friend told me that DE kills good, and bad bugs, so it's not the very best to use. I'm going to try to use BT this year and keep some of the worst bugs away.
I really hope you can have a garden someday! I'm sure you'd love it!!! You should read on some plants that like shade. Maybe you could have a very small garden.... just a thought.