It's Not Too Late to Plant....

Just a quick side note for those of you who have procrastinated planting a garden this year.....   The pioneers didn't get to Utah until July 24th, and they still had time to plant a crop.  Also, now is the ideal time to plant your fall garden... things like peas, broccoli, lettuce, carrotts, beets, and more.  I still need to plant pumpkins too although I think I am a bit late for them.  We'll see what happens.  Happy Gardening!!!

Sunshine Saturday

It has been such a rainy spring that we have not been able to till and plant the summer garden until today.  We were going to try and get it done May 7th, the day before Mother's Day, but Mike went to go get a truckload of compost at the green waste facility where we usually get it and they were sold out.  I guess we weren't the only ones tilling the garden that day.  We weren't ever able to coordinate Dad's truck use with sunny days so, sadly, I did not put any compost into the garden this year.  It did get plenty of leaves early this spring though so that will help.  Mike got the garden tilled and it rested for about a week before we started getting ready to plant.

Today, being May 21st, we finally got our garden mostly planted. I started the day running to Cooks Nursery in Orem to buy plants and seeds.  The place was a mad house.  I got home around noon and started digging furrows.  I totally believe in digging furrows between rows of vegetables for two reasons.  One, for the irrigation water to go down.  And, two, for people to walk in.  I try to keep the soil as light and fluffy as possible by not walking on it.  Mike helped me to dig most of the furrows.  Then the kids and I planted tomatoes, beans, yellow squash, cucumbers, and corn.

Finally by eight o'clock tonight, we went in to eat dinner. (Mike grilled pork chops and bought macaroni salad from the store.)  I had four more half rows still to plant, but from sheer exhaustion, and also because I still had to bathe the kids for church tomorrow, I called it quits.  It will have to wait for the next sunny day.

It is supposed to rain the next couple of days, which is ok now since I have to water the seeds to get them up anyway.  At least if its going to rain, it might as well be for some good.  We have had so much water this year.  I think the snow pack in the mountains this year is 300% of what is normally is.  But for the days that it doesn't rain, I will water the baby seeds and seedlings with my oscillating sprinkler, better known as my rainbow sprinkler.  Until the plants are up and well established, I will continue to water them every day.  Then, gradually, I will reduce the frequency of waterings to about once a week.  I assume the irrigation water will be coming by then.

I should note that I double planted all of the bean rows and corn rows, and I even stagger planted the tomatoes all in an effort to try and get the most use of the space.  I tried to make the rows wider so that there was more room for more plants.  So really in each row of beans and corn is two rows worth of seeds.  This is an experiment I am trying, adapting it from the square foot gardening method to plant things more compactly.  I still need to finish planting the peppers and I will wait another week or so to plant the rest of the corn so that it doesn't all come on at the same time.

I love the way the garden looks now, with a few little plants and softly raked rows of soil.  Soon little baby seedlings will poke their way through the soil to see the sun.  Planting and taking care of a garden is a very spiritual experience for me.  It is like a partnership with God.  He creates the seeds, the sun, and the earth, and when I bring all of those things together, life begins.

How To Get Started....

• SELECTING SEEDS or PLANTS- Think about what you want to plant in your garden. Be realistic. What do you enjoy eating? What veggies do you buy in the store that would be cheaper to grow? What will your kids eat? Start simple by planting only a few different things and try something new each year. Pick things that are easy to grow. Seeds can be ordered from a seed catalog or you can simply go to the store or nursery to select the seeds you want. Keep in mind, some varieties are better than others. And some varieties grow better in other climates but not so well here. 
   
• MAKE A PLAN- Lay out your garden on paper. Figure out where you will plant things. There are several reasons for this important step.
  1. Avoid watering problems. Plant Cool weather crops in the same area of your garden so that you can water them more frequently.
  2. Avoid shading problems. Plant tall things like corn or tomatoes toward the north side of your garden so as not to create shade for other crops.
  3. Avoid over planting. Don't plant a whole row of zucchini unless you plan on feeding the whole neighborhood, which is actually fun to do.
  4. Spacing for certain vegetables is critical. For example, corn needs more space between rows than say carrots or beans. Allow pathways for easy access to your vegetables.
  5. Practice crop rotation. Place vegetables in a different spot of the garden from last year. This will help to fight off pests and fungal diseases.
  6. Your garden should be a thing of beauty. Plan rows so they are neat and attractive.
  • WHEN TO PLANT- Cool weather crops can be started as soon as you can get the ground tilled in the Spring, perhaps as early as March. But you must wait to plant warm weather crops until after the last frost, which for us is usually around Mother's Day, or May 10^th. You can also plant a fall garden with more cool weather crops around July 10^th. These will grow and enable you to keep harvesting things right up through October.
    
    
  • APPLYING COMPOST AND FERTILIZER- Growing vegetables takes nutrients from the soil, so we have to fertilize to replenish and invigorate the soil. Make the soil happy and it will make you happy by growing delicious foods to eat.
    
    
  • TILLING THE GARDEN- Two or three weeks before you plan on planting is the best time to till the garden. Apply your compost and fertilizer and then till it into the soil to a depth of seven or eight inches. Depending on the size of your garden, this can be done with a roto-tiller or by hand with a shovel. Tilling the garden also makes the soil nice and fluffy and puts oxygen into it.
    
    
  • PREPARING THE BEDS- Using your garden layout that you designed on paper, figure out where you will create furrows or pathways and where you will plant rows of vegetables. It is easy to make straight rows if you use two stakes at either end of the row and tie a string between each stake. After your furrows are made, then you can use a garden rake and make your planting surface nice and level. 
     
  • PLANTING- (My favorite part!! :) Pay close attention to the instructions on the seed packets. They will tell you exactly how deep to plant seeds and the spacing requirements between seeds. Every kind of seed has different requirements. A good rule of thumb is to plant the seed three times the depth of its size. So if a seed is a quarter of an inch in size, plant it three-quarters of an inch deep. Remember healthy plants need space and should be given plenty of elbow room.
    Some vegetables are better started as transplants. You will have to go to the store or nursery to buy the plants and then immediately put them into the garden. Things like tomatoes, broccoli, and peppers are easier to start from transplants.
    
    
  • WATERING SEEDLINGS- After you get seeds into the ground water them gently with a sprinkler or a hand held sprayer. This will need to be done every day for 15 minutes until the plants are up and established, meaning three or four inches tall. Then gradually reduce the number of waterings until you are only watering them once a week. Transplants need to be watered after being planted into the ground perhaps everyday for a week, but then gradually reduce watering times. 
     
  • REASONS WHY SEEDS DON'T COME UP-
    1. Soil gets too dry.
    2. Packed soil or hard crust.
    3. Cold weather, slow germination, seeds rot.
    4. Fungus diseases such as “damping off”.
    5. Cut worms and other insects eat seeds or seedlings.
    6. Poor, old seed.