Fall Gardening

Strawberry Bed

Check out my latch!

New "Fence" for My SFG

 











I'm doing fall gardening this year. I think I started too late last year, plus I had a serious lack of time to put into it since I had a steady job. This year I got bedding plants of spinach, collards and Brussel sprouts. My son and I are the only ones excited about the last one! I also got strawberry plants. Last year our strawberry plants all died last fall due to lack of rain and lack of watering. I've stayed vigilant this year and my son is great to help me when I can't water the plants and our little trees. One of my garden covers just came all apart so after mulling it over I got some stakes and nylon mesh and fashioned a "fence" around it. You can see I got real creative with binder clips! I later went to Mayo's and got some wooden stakes for the four corners. I got part of my plants at Ace Hardware in Halls, a few more at Home Depot and the strawberries from Knoxville Seed Co. on Rutledge Pike.

Before I planted I took the grids off and added a bag of manure compost to each garden. I also am feeding the gardens every 2 weeks. My seeds didn't grow well this past spring and after mulling it over I decided that A - my seeds were old and B - maybe they needed more nutrients. But I really think it was mostly A. I checked the dates and chucked several packets. I have the replacement packets in the fridge in their zip-lock bags.

My first lavender plant! It smells so good!

 Getting Ready to Garden Again!

I'm excited about spring this year. Okay, I'm excited about spring every year!

We are adding to our SFG collection with a new veg garden. Our old herb/flower garden has become a strawberry bed and my son and I moved it to where it will receive more southern sun. With food prices going up we may add another veg garden as well. Busy summer! But these gardens are fun and not as much work after you get them going. I personally do not love weeding. I had a few weeds in my SFG veg garden last summer but that was because the STUPID WEEDS grew through my STUPID WEED CLOTH that was supposed to keep them out. These are very persistent weeds! So this year I'm going to put two or more layers down. And when this stuff is used up I resolve to spend a little more and get better quality weed cloth.

We've already got a list of plants we want to grow. And I've talked to a gardener friend of mine about how to avoid bean bugs. (She puts her beans out early so that when the bean bugs get there, hers are all harvested!)

Hey, it's almost time to plant lettuce!

Square Foot Gardening

This year we abandoned the old garden spot that grew mostly weeds last year in favor of a new (to me) concept: Square Food Gardening. I found a book by Mel Bartholomew at the Dollar Gen. for $5! The more I read the more I liked it. Well, every year my husband begs for soil from my garden but I fuss b/c I need the soil for beans and tomatoes and such. Well, I got the idea to let him have all the soil from the "old" garden if he would help me build 2 SFG. The deal was accepted and we now have a veggie garden and a flower/herb garden! Pictures to follow!

Next I'm hoping to scrounge around in the cellar and find some wood we already have to make a second veggie garden: then we'd have one for eating and one for canning! I've got my garden out the earliest this year I ever have and I'm so pleased. We already have teeny tiny lettuce and carrot sprouts. The sunflowers have sprouted and I'm looking for bean seeds.

I recommend Square Foot Gardening b/c you have less weeds to contend with, you don't have to worry about how suitable your soil is for growing plants, it's smaller and feels more manageable and you have very high yield. After the initial work then each year you only add compost to your growing mix. It can be a fun and educational family project. My son enjoying putting in the screws for the garden frame and the cage/cover and my daughter enjoyed helping with the cage/cover (necessary to protect the future food from cats, rabbits, etc.

There are many links online. The main one is www.squarefootgardening.com

 Composting

Composting is not that hard. I've seen ads for expensive composters but we are doing it the simple way. We keep a small pail with a lid in the kitchen. All our veg scraps go in, along with fruit peels, coffee grounds, egg shells and believe it or not, dryer lint! Every day or 2 (or for as long as he can get away with) our son takes all this out to a far corner of the yard and dumps it. (We live in a rural area so it isn't close to another house, not even that close to ours. Plus a well-kept compost pile has little or no odor.) Every few days it is supposed to get turned. I know it's doing well because underneath there are red worms hard at work. In the fall we want the compost to help us start a strawberry bed!

Keep meat and milk products out of your compost pile so it won't draw animals.

I thought we'd have a huge pile by now but it breaks down quite a bit really. We don't have as much stuff there as I'd expected.

In a few weeks I plan to load it in the wheelbarrow and add it to our garden. Then we'll start all over!