save a little time, save a little money, save a little planet
Here’s what I’ve been up to lately:
Planting radishes and carrots. . .
planting potatoes in boxes, an idea I got from Chiot’s Run. . .
watching the strawberry plant bloom. . .
getting the garden annex ready and planting corn.
Have you been in your garden?
You’ll be hearing a lot about my square foot garden as warm weather gets nearer. Last year was our first run with it and we had so much fun, we’re expanding this year. While things weren’t entirely perfect, I learned a lot, and am eager to begin again. Several people have asked me how to get started. I’m certainly not an expert, but I’d love to share with you some of the resources that have been helpful to me.
◊ All New Square Foot Gardening
◊ Just recently, I found the website My Square Foot Garden. Emily does an amazing job of walking her readers through step by step tutorials. She even sends out a weekly newsletter based on your climate zone that tells you what tasks to do that week.
If you need more help, she’s just published two new ebooks, Gardening for Beginners and Planting by Color that look really useful. Emily has a great video on her site detailing exactly how the ebooks can help you.
◊ One Green Generation. There’s a wealth of green goodness over there, but especially helpful for beginning gardeners are the extensive resources available in the Organic Gardening 101 series.
Free from Littlehouseinthesuburbs.com
◊ Little House in the Suburbs has put together a wonderful free spring planner that you can print and fold into a little booklet. It’s really terrific. And did I mention that it’s FREE?!
Good luck as you create your own organic garden. Please let me know if you have any questions about getting started. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll do my best to get it for you.
I’ve been spending a lot of time going through my seed catalog and marking possibilities for this year’s garden. Pretty soon, I’m going to need to go ahead and place my order. I can hardly wait to get started. We had so much fun with our first year of square foot gardening last summer, that not only are we going to garden again, we’re expanding. We’ve already marked off what I’m calling the “garden annex.”
But first, the seeds. I buy nearly all of my seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I like to buy local whenever I can and although they ship seeds nationwide, their company is located about an hour and half from where I live. They also have a no-GMO policy and carry many heirloom varieties. I love the history that goes with these seeds. My grandmother, who is 87 at this writing, remembers a cornfield bean her family grew when she was growing up in the “hills” of Eastern Kentucky. Southern Exposure has a variety of cornfield bean this year that dates back to pre-Columbian times; they believe this particular bean was “one of the oldest beans cultivated by the Iroquois.” I can’t wait to grow some to see if they are what my grandmother remembers.
We were pleased with what we grew last year, but want to add to it. This year, we’re planning to switch from bush beans to pole beans. We’ll grow the cornfield beans, but also a row or two of Kentucky Wonders. We’re also going to add corn, watermelon, zucchini, and pumpkins to the mix.
The annex. We’ve decided to keep the three boxes in the square foot garden area. There we’ll grow our tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, herbs, carrots and radishes. We’re going to plant the corn, beans, squash & zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe and pumpkins directly in the ground in the annex. As soon as the ground dries out a bit, I’ll get some pictures of this area and post them on the site.
Our helpers in early summer 2009
As I’ve grown increasingly concerned about the pesticides on our food, and the cost of organic produce, and the emissions involved in shipping vegetables all over the country, our own garden has seemed like a better and better idea. It’s also a lot of fun. Last year, it was a great learning experience for our two young helpers and I think it will be again. They’ve already been naming all of the things they want to grow.
I’d love to know if any of you have plans for a garden this year. If so, what will you plant?
