Anyway, back to my real reason for writing this post. Although I have admitted that I'm totally enjoying this snow, I am definitely thinking about gardening! Anyone who knows me, knows that this is the time of year that I start puffing myself up with grandiose plans! I have so many ideas that I would have to garden full time to carry them all out. I've been gardening on some level since I moved here in 1986. I have not been very successful but I never cease to amaze myself with my enthusiasm. Normally, in other areas of my life, failure sends me running but for some reason with gardening it just makes me dig in and try harder (pun intended). I'm sure that other people just find me annoying. However, my family as always, pulls through and listens with interest. My son, Thomas, seems to be just as oblivious to reality as I am. They even purchased an upright freezer for me in anticipation of all the vegetables I will grow and freeze! Fortunately, I like to buy things on sale and stock up, so right now it's filled with a supply of sale items.
So, keeping in mind that I will not be boring tons of readers with my current gardening plans I am going to write a little bit about what I want to do this spring and summer. Landismom, being the only outside reader, I warn you, you may want to escape now when you can! The following is sort of a record for myself of my insanity when it comes to gardening. It's quite long and drawn out!
I've been reading some gardening blogs because I love to hear from people who have started out with lousy soil. Our soil has so much clay in it that it crusts over like concrete when it dries. It has so few nutrients that two of the three that I tested last year didn't even register as being there at all. There are so many rocks that when you dig them out you are left with a hole that must be filled with something. I love reading and seeing pictures of gardens that a person claims has started out as clay. It gives me hope and gives me ideas. I know about composting and adding organic material. In spots our garden at least looks and feels better. Last year was the first year that I finally tested the soil. I then started the season with a good dose of pellet fertilizer. It gave the garden a good boost to begin with but now I realize that all too soon the seedlings eat up all the goodies and this year I will be using side dressings of fertilizer as well as Miracle Grow. I doubt if I will over fertilize but if I do, I am used to failure and it won't dampen my spirits at all!
One garden blog I read talked about "double digging" and I plan to use my own version in my garden. The real version involves digging down greater than twelve inches and I won't be doing that! What I will do is dig down as deep as I can, add a layer of mulch in the form of semi decayed wood chips and call it a day. I will try to do it as much as I can but won't be able to do it in the entire garden. I read that it really helped with someone's carrots. I've never had much luck with carrots so I'm looking for all the help I can get. I will also add more organic matter and really loosen the soil. I think in the past I've been reluctant to thin my carrots enough to allow good growth. This year I will force myself to thin them to at least three inches apart....okay, I really should go with the four inches that is recommended! Can you see me with my ruler?!
I did have some luck with Swiss Chard last year and got two meals worth so that gives me encouragement to follow my dream of a good crop of spinach! I would love to get enough to freeze some since I've been finding that the store bought spinach now has a weird taste. I'm thinking it's some special wash to kill off any e. coli? Since it's a cool weather crop I can grow it (or not grow it) in the same spot that I plan to grow my green beans - a warm weather crop. The spinach will be harvested just in time to plant my beans...maybe.
I've always wanted to grow pumpkins and watermelon and I have enough room but I don't have enough of the garden prepared for planting. Preparing it means digging out those horrible rocks and adding organic matter and fertilizer. That last part is what has always held me back. I'm bound and determined to do it this year! I will dig out small spots where I will plant the seeds and let the vines ramble over the area that can barely grow weeds.
I have had luck in growing plenty of strawberries but the berries are so stunted and pinched looking that they never amounted to much. I've learned that it's probably from the tarnished plant bug and this year I will be spraying them before the start of the season and during times that the flowers aren't present. I will be using a pesticide with neem oil since I've never been too keen on spraying chemicals and its a natural pesticide. Since neem oil is pretty much non toxic I will spray it a couple of times in the rest of my garden as well. It would also be nice if I could find a spot to plant the numerous strawberry runners that seem to be taking over the strawberry patch!
I'm very good at saving kitchen scraps for composting but I fall short when it comes to turning the compost pile. Last year I had a method of dumping a bucket of scraps in an untilled area of the garden and covering it with a combination of shredded paper, newspaper and sawdust with the hopes that it will break down and form wonderful soil. With my luck I will only succeed in attracting all the worms in my garden to that area leaving the rest of my garden worm free! No matter, I plan to do another version of this and dig a hole (long, wide and about 6 inches deep). In this hole I will dump my kitchen scraps and then cover them with leaves and sawdust to keep down the smell. I will watch as hopefully I eventually have the hole filled with fertile soil. The only problem with this is those ROCKS! Two years ago was the last time I did that kind of digging and the area was only about two by three feet and that took me over two hours!
Since I have other plans for my compost, I will use my compost bin for something else this year. I'm going to try to use it to grow potatoes. This idea came from the old potato that sprouted there last year. Why not fill the top half with dirt (there's still compost in the bottom half) and throw in some organic potatoes from the store?
I plan to buy some two by fours to box off my planting areas. I have a tendency to step on top of areas that I just planted so hopefully this will keep me off those poor seeds. Thomas has also told me that I should get some pieces of scrap plywood to step on since he says he cringes when I compact the soil so much in between the plantings.
I'm scared of the blight that hit my tomatoes last year so this year along with the tomatoes I plant in my garden I will grow some cherry tomatoes in pots on my porch. My next door neighbor grew hers on her deck last year, protected them from the over abundance of rain and had no problems with blight. I will also grow most if not all of my peppers on the porch. Last year I had thrown the two "runts of the litter" (smallest pepper seedlings) into a pot on my porch and they were the only peppers that grew.
I always try new veggies in the garden so besides the spinach I will try cauliflower and possibly some corn. I would also like to try thyme but that's a perennial and would involve preparing a permanent spot....more rocks, sigh!
So I think that is enough to keep me busy for awhile and even if only a little gets accomplished I will be happy! The limiting factor seems to be my poor decrepit body!
