Have you planned your garden yet? If you have, have you given thought to adding nutrients to the soil? You can buy topsoil, humus, fertilizer, whatever you want or need in bags from Home Depot, or almost any other big box store and or garden center. Also if you are planning a big garden what about ordering your fertilizer by the truck load? You can get it from almost any soil company in the book. They usually do charge a delivery fee however. We used to get ours that way. It ends up cheaper than buying by the bag if you plan on using alot.
.Ace Hardware carries some awesome stuff, so if you haven't thought of them, go check it out. I always find neat things there, including gardening tools and seed, and other odd stuff you usually won't find anywhere else. They also sell all of the equipment necessary for canning, if you plan on putting up your produce. Remember if you want to can your vegetables you need a pressure canner, if you don't have one then freeze or dehydrate your veggies.
Root vegetables can be saved in a basement or crawl space. Carrots for example, will last a long time in a fifty gallon drum or new trash can. You simply lay them in the sun (for about thirty minutes)after harvesting to wither the small roots that hang off the carrot, then you must put them into ice water to chill them. Then with a clean towel you dry them and put them in alternate layers with clean play sand inside the drum. Make sure your sand hasn't been left in the sun and is retaining heat because it will cause the carrots to rot. Cool sand, cool carrots. You will have enough to last all winter.
If you use organic topsoil or fertilizer, then go organic, get organic seed. It has become so popular that you can find organic seed just about everywhere. Look for the sales too because seed can get pricey. Don't buy too many in your excitement. For example you definitely will not need four or five packages of zucchini squash. One package will usually suffice. And remember, zucchini plants get big, so space your garden accordingly.
Also, cucumbers grow great up a chain link fence or wire, otherwise the vines take up a lot of room in your garden so if space is an issue consider allowing the viney stuff to grow upwards, including peas.
Have you started your tomatoes and peppers from seed? You should have by now. If you have, you must pay attention daily or in some cases hourly, or they will dry up and wither. As the weather warms and we have some nice sunny days you can take them outside to get acclimated to the sunshine, but be careful not to forget them out there. Hopefully you have great lighting in the house and have them near a window. If so you need to pay attention to the weather, if it gets too cold up next to the glass they may get too chilled and have to be moved just a bit away from the glass.
Gardening is so important, please use this opportunity to teach your children where food really comes from, teach them that inside each tiny little seed is a package, a veritable grocery store, if you will, of food just waiting for you to grow. And as your garden begins to come up get excited and share that with them. It gives a great sense of accomplishment to you and your entire family. You can say, "We grew this garden", and gain joy from all of your hard work.
No comments:
Post a Comment