A leap of gardening faith!

These Little Caesar seedlings don't look like much!

In many ways gardening is very similar to practicing some religions. Lots of faith comes into play! When I start some of my vegetables indoors in late winter, I have to have faith that those efforts will pan out somewhere down the road. Some seeds like romaine lettuce come up pretty quickly and so give me hope of a future harvest. Other seeds like peppers and tomatoes can take a week or more to germinate, thus testing ones metal. And, as I like to use seed from plants I harvested the year before, this effort becomes even a bigger leap of faith!

Sweet bell peppers grown from seed are a particular challenge. Not only do they take a long time to germinate, but the growing cycle is long and stretched out. It can be two months before my pepper starts are ready to be transplanted into a raised bed and even then, it could easily be late August before the first harvest! And tomatoes, even though they may germinate relatively quickly, are very finicky when it comes to producing fruit. At least for me they are. As of late, I've taken to growing my main season tomatoes in pots while sowing cherry tomato plants in the main beds! For whatever reason, the cherry tomatoes have always done well, while the potted tomatoes have to be coddled and cajoled into production.

Chives! A harbinger of spring!

One of the earliest growing herbs in my garden, each spring (actually late winter), are small clumps of chives! Even this past very cold winter failed to kill a pot of these hardy little guys from the family Amaryllidacea! Chives are the smallest of edible onions and work well in many soups, stews and salads!

Over the past few years, I've divided them up and spread them around the grounds in out of the way nooks and crannies, so some are always available and close at hand. Even the flowers are edible and add a neat look to any salad! One of my favorite ways to enjoy them is as an addition to beef

broth! I store them over the winter, chopped up and frozen in an ice cube tray for use whenever I need them!

The six forces of nature!

In my limited world view, there are six forces that are at work to help make all plant life grow. To be aware of them and to help where you can will insure that the flowers and vegetable you grown can flourish each and every season.

Three Forces Above

Temperature – In order to grow plant outdoors, the temperature must stay above freezing each night.

Moisture – for seeds to germinate, water must be present in the soil and then must be supplied on a regular basis, either by nature or man.

Insolence – Sunlight is essential for any plant to grow well.

Three Forces Below

Structure – The soil in a garden must contain humus for water retention, organic matter for food and be porous to allow our plants to breath.

PH – The acid to base scale must be somewhere near neutral to allow for cation exchange.

Microbes – Finally, the soil must be alive with billions upon billions of microbes that work at the root zone to supply each plant with the nutrients they need to grow.

When all these forces are in place and in balance, your plants and vegetables will grow well and thrive! Just a thought!

YS3514 onion set experiment for 2014!

Small onions from 2013

Last year, I experimented with planting a bunch of onion sets with some limited success. And, while I was able to harvest some medium sized onions (average weight was 43 grams), I was still a bit disappointed with the small sizes. The good news was that I had a lot of small onions and they served me well on into the fall months.

This year (2014), I plan to use the same raised bed space, but with the following changes; 1) I plan to incorporate soil from one of my older backyard raised bed areas. This soil has a high clay content and onions planted in this soil last year did well, and 2) I plan to amend the soil with additional compost prior to planting. The designation for this experiment will be YS3514 which is an abbreviation for yellow sets planted on March 5^th in 2014. Stay tuned for more details to be added to this post. Right now I'm waiting for a five inch snowfall to melt... The notes from last years effort can be found here.

March 5, 2014 planting!

April 17 update: Here is a look at the onion sets that are located in a small raised bed.

May 21 update: Onions were looking very good!

Initial thoughts for my 2014 garden!

2014 will be an interesting case in point for many gardeners. Drought conditions, lack of employment and the cost of living will affect what many people can put on the table during the spring, summer and fall months!

Seed purchases – I will stay close to home!

I'll want to make sure to get my seed from local sources like the Home Depot. Seed prices I've seen on the Internet are just too high! For instance Burpee Seed quotes $3.95 for a packet of 750 romaine lettuce seeds while the same packet is available locally for $1.99! Park Seed advertises a 200 seed packet of Green Towers Lettuce for $2.25. This is too much money for seed!

Grown from seed vs starts – I'll go with the starts!

Whenever it makes some sort of sense to me, I plan to purchase and grow vegetables like bell peppers and tomatoes from starts that I can get from local sources, rather than go through the trouble of growing them from seed. The exception to that rule would be direct seeded produce like carrots, potato tubers and romaine that I start indoors.

Intensive gardens only, please!

I will be growing all my vegetables, this season in small raised bed areas and other out of the way nooks and crannies. This technique has proved successful for me in the past. I can get a good load of produce while minimizing the amount of physical effort that I have to expend. I'll also be watching for trends in the cost of certain items like potatoes, carrots and bell peppers to see if I will need to double down on them both spring and fall if the prices spike! See my article on California's drought for more!

I'll advertise my crops on FB!

By making my surplus vegetables know to other gardeners, I will be able to trade and barter for stuff I did not or could not grow well. Facebook is a great venue for efforts like this as most of my friends live close by. I'll also make sure to save seeds and use them for trades as the growing season comes to an end. That way, I'll have free seed with which to begin the next year!

Canning - the wave of the future?

Just as in decades past, when times were tough, people grew and canned vegetables for use over the winter. I predict that canning will enjoy renewed interest in 2014 and beyond as Americans ride the rocky roller coaster that has been our economy.

Will 2014 see an upsurge in home gardens?

Drought stricken California

With just about a month to go before the official start of spring, I'm trying to get a handle on what shape my raised bed gardens will take this year.

For sure, my 2014 garden efforts will focus almost exclusively on edible vegetables! I will be looking at anything that can supply me with food that runs close to a calorie per gram. Why? Because the continuing severe drought in Central California is going to drive the cost of produce through the roof as we enter the coming summer and fall months! According to an web article concerning the severity of

the drought there, Emily Atkin commented that, 'If what the tree rings say is true, California hasn’t been this dry in more than 500 years.' And, this trend looks like it will persist for years to come! Not only will the retail cost of produce be affected, but also look for increases in the cost of meat and milk! Ouch!

So, my plan this year will be to really give intensive gardening a go! Planned veggies will include potatoes, bell peppers, carrots, romaine and cherry tomatoes to name a few. Stay tuned for more!

April update: As I was afraid of, the news media is putting out stories about what sort of sticker shock shoppers can expect at their local grocery stores as many vegetables, some dairy and virtually all meats have risen dramatically in price!

Get those harvests in now!

Here in southwest Missouri, October is a time to try and get as much of your 'temperature tender' crops in as quickly as you can. Pictured above are banana peppers, long red cayenne and some basil leaves that will be left out in the sun to dry.