Getting started gardening

[Agilityscots]

Everyone, this is all very helpful information! You all have me so excited to get into this gardening thing!

Mark mentioned canning, dehydrating, etc. I definitely want to try these things. In fact, I was also hoping to make cheese as well (I'm feeling ambitious these days...we'll see where it leads). Mark, thank you for the tip on the book...and thanks to Wegotchickens for the book suggestions too. I did get Organic Gardening for Dummies and it's very helpful...but once again, a little overwhelming. Reading the chapter on pests makes me a little worried!

I recently read a phenomenal book by a favorite author that's inspired this whole thing: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. This is her family's story of deciding to eat local and feed themselves from their own garden for an entire year, and anything that wasn't local and in season wasn't purchased. Anything they didn't raise/grow they purchased locally, from other farmers. I highly recommend this book; it's beautifully written (as all her books are), it's educational and it's entertaining. I know other BYCers would love reading it as I did. She's inspired me to try many of the things I've always wanted to, and some I've never thought of (like making cheese...she says making cream cheese is a snap!).

Amy

 

[chickflick]

To help my soil....last fall I gathered leaves, I actually stole them from the curbs when people put out the yard bags....I layered leaves and grass clippings over winter. Sure did help the soil. Easy to do, too! I don't do seeds.....I have to have instant gratification! I don't have patience for seeds!!! But, it's good therapy to garden, and it's cute when the chickens keep you company!

 

[MarkR]

Barbara Kingsolver's new book is definately brilliant! I've read it twice so far and used three or four of her recipes. The cucumber soup was definately a hit here.

As far as preserving, I've already put up almost three gallons of pickles, four quarts of dilly beans, several gallons of tomato sauce, dried about three bushel of summer squash (fits in about 5 quart jars

), and about 2 pounds of romas (which fills about half a sandwich bag, but you know how much those things cost in the store?!?!?!), and frozen about 10 pounds of spinach and a dozen loaves of zuccini bread. Did I mention you might need a new chest freezer? It's very worth doing, especially when you consider how much produce can run you in the winter. AND, then you don't know about where it came from or what was sprayed on it. Somehow we've managed to get two CSA subscriptions, too (from my working for them last summer, they didn't pay in cash), so I've been doing a lot of putting stuff by.

I forgot to mention, I have a Scottie, too! This is Max before his last hair cut. Love that dog!

Mark

 

[Agilityscots]

Hi Mark!

We must be kindred spirits!

Max is very cute!

I'm eager to try some of Kingsolver's recipes too; having just finished the book a couple days ago, I feel like my head is just swimming with ideas and inspiration. Very exciting.

I tried to find a CSA in my area this year, but wasn't able to locate anyone...I did find an organic farm in June that offers CSA, but all their subscriptions were already sold. I had them put me on a list for next year.

I think I'm going to try making and freezing my own spaghetti sauce by buying some tomatoes at my farmers' market this weekend (we're lucky--we have a very large chest freezer in our basement that's getting almost no use. Time to put it to work!). I'd also like to try making and freezing pesto, like Kingsolver talks about in her book. I don't have a mortar and pestle so we'll see what I can do...

Amy

 

[MarkR]

Jeez, I can't shut up this morning.

For pesto, you can use your blender or food processor. Also, if you're going to freeze it leave the cheese out and add it after you thaw it to use. Tastes better that way.

Mark

 

[usbr]

Amy, go to www.jungseed.com and find where to get thier free catalog, they will mail it to you. That will be your wish book for next year.

Easy: Start with containers to plant a few things. Tomatoes in 5 gallon pails or 55 gallon barrels cut in half. With containers, you can mix your clay soil with manure to make good soil. You can also cover the top of the container with a plastic bag so you dont have to weed it.

Cheap: Get your seeds for next year and start them yourself in the very early spring, started plants from the nursry are much more expensive even if you plant X2 as many to make up for any losses you have. Also now and through winter is a good time to look on craigslist for a used/cheap garden tiller, if you pick up gardening as a hobby you will want one, may as well get one from the start rather than fighting for a few years and then getting one. If you give up the hobby, you can probally get your money back selling the tiller for what you paid for it.

Caution: Gardening is a fairly easy hobby to snowball on you. You dont need to start off with a huge garden like the old guy down the street but over the years, you could easily build up to it. If you start easy with a couple containers of tomatoes you can expand in comming years. Im not sure if it is too late to plant anything this year but in WI it seems to be. With containers, you may be able to bring them inside to finish though, I know my peppers will have to finish up in the kitchen (I started them way too late). Its a fun hobby, you should enjoy it.

HTH

 

[Agilityscots]

Hi usbr,

What's the secret to starting seeds? I started several herb seeds this past April, and followed all the instructions. They never damped off, but they never thrived. I gave them a sunny south window, fertilized them, kept them watered after they sprouted, but they grew spindly and leggy and their leaves just never "took off." Even my MIL, who is a phenomenal gardener, says she just can't start seeds. The entire batch of plants got thrown out a couple weeks ago. By the beginning of July, even though they were three months old, the tallest was the basil...at about 2 inches!

Mark, great idea on the food processor for pesto. (Duh! Why didn't I think of that?)

Amy

 

[BigMama]

This spring one of my better investments was a mini greenhouse (a plastic tray with approximately 30 holes and a clear plastic lid) that I picked up at Walmart. It wasn't very expensive, and every seed I put in that thing sprouted! You could also recylce milk cartons or the plastic jugs, or yogurt containers.

This year is the first that I planted lettuce, I love it. I go out to the garden after work and pick off enough leaves for my family to have a salad and you can't get any fresher than that.

Any one have any suggestions for zuchini, I have a bumper crop! No big suprise there. I think I remember my mom grating it and freezing it for future zuchini bread?

 

[wegotchickens]

A lady on another thread says she grates it fresh and measures it into 2 cup portions, puts it in a freezer bag for zuchini bread. I guess you can just thaw it and use it. Here's the posting...

The post is located at
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=84885#p84885

 

[usbr]

Amy try again with different seeds, some are just not as good of quality. I think soil temp is more important than light, at least at first. Thats why my peppers are so slow this year, I started them in the living room but that room was way too cool ( I later learned that peppers need extra warm soil to germinate and start).

Expect some losses and plant accordingly so your garden is not short, you can always give away if you have too many.

$10 gets you alot of seeds but you cant say that about started plants. I think I spent $32 at the garden center this year on seeds but didnt put a dent in the supply but I wanted to try alot of different tomato varietys. You dont need to use all the seeds in a year, they store fine.

I wish I could be of more help but I dont think its too hard or any secrets.