NOFA seminar

Yesterday I decide to get adventurous and sign up for a program at the local library. Bill Duesing came to talk about organic soil. I was definately in the wrong place. It was more like a micro-biology class about why organic soil works. He had slides of microscopic bacteria and fungi eating plant roots. All I wanted to know was "how to" get good organic soil. He had these charts with percentages, but it all went over my head.

That's not to say that I didn't learn anything. I did learn that the most important thing is to cover the soil. NO ROTO-TILLING. All the pictures that he showed had no exposed soil. Everything was mulched with something; whether it was with hay, grass clippings, black plastic or newspaper, it was all covered. I'm going to use grass clipping to be eco-friendly and cheap.

I also bought two really good pamphlet sized books. The best one is Grow Your Own Food Made. Nutritious Organic Produce from Your Own Garden: A Step-by-Step Guide by C. Forrest McDowell & Tricia Clark-McDowell. It is probably the best gardening book I have read so far. Small, but very informative. I have checked out at least 20 books from the library and they are so difficult to get through. This has lots of pictures. Lots of pictures always helps me.

The other book is Home Composting Made Easy by the same authors.

visit http://www.nofa.org/

Busy Weekend

Wow. It was really hot the weekend. I only had Saturday to work on the garden because my daughter had a dance competition on Sunday. The first thing I did on Saturday was go on a nice leisurely walk with my kids and the dog. What a beautiful day. The trees are all in bloom with little white and pink flowers. Tulips and daffodils swayed in the breeze.

The only productive thing I did with planting was with my strawberries. I know that whatever I am doing with them is wrong. I've kept them for two years. I started off with six plants and now I have too many to count. I didn't realize they spread. Last year I put a netting over them. I watched them turn bright red and juicy. Then the chipmunks burrowed under the netting and took one bite from each strawberry. Just enough to ensure that nobody would eat them. I need to find a chemical-free chipmunk repellant.

Since the strawberries have spread I decided to dig some up and plant them in a strawberry pot. (That's what they are for, right?) It was impossible to find. Has to go to 4 stores. Plus, some of them were $50-$100 dollars. I finally found a $32 one (which I still think is expensive). I filled it with Moo Soil. It's a combination of potting soil and cow manure that I bought at the local hardware store. Then, I dug up some of the plants and stuck two on top and one in each hole. Looks good so far. I put this on my back porch and hopefully the chipmunks will be too scared to venture on the porch and take nibbles.

Surfing for Tips

Today I spent some time looking up gardenining on the internet. Love Google news. I found great how-to articles. Also, found out that the White House planted an organic garden on the South Lawn. There was the picture of Michelle Obama planting with her hoe.
http://features.csmonitor.com/gardening/2009/04/23/today-a-garden-at-the-white-house-%E2%80%93-tomorrow-at-50-statehouses/



Also, the USDA is growing a garden on the Mall. I guess everyone is planting this year, not just me. I'm glad I'm planting seeds this year.

Mother Earth News keeps on being a supply of wealth. I think I might make my own worm farm for composting. Right now I through all my kitchen scraps in a garbag can near the porch stairs. Over the winter it turns into a black liquid that smells like death, but I'll pour it over the garden. I think worms might be easier. I saw a couple of places. It seems red wigglers are the best, but can you imagine getting 2 pounds (1000) worms in the mail?

Getting Started

I've decided to start this blog because I want to vent about becoming a gardener.  A couple of years ago I put a garden in my backyard, but I live in the suburbs.  I'm not a farmer.  I really don't know what I am doing.. but I try.  I've read every magazine from Mother Earth News to Hobby Farms magazines.  I've taken every gardening books from the library.  I asked my 87 year old grandmother whose grows 70 tomato plants every year and can look at a plant and make it grow.

I want to do the right thing.  I decide to start an organic garden for many reasons.   The first reason is that I  want fresh vegetables and herbs.  I'm doing and organic garden because I don't want all those chemicals in me and my family.  The bonus is that when you grow your own veggies and herbs they taste better than anything you could buy at a supermarket, and it's much cheaper.

This picture is of cucumbers that I started from seed last week.  I never started plants from seed, but because of the economy I noticed that the price of buying starter plants has gone up.  I planted cucumbers, squash, yellow tomatoes, grape tomatoes, basil, parsley, sunflowers and zinnias. I also planted lettuce in window box containers on my porch.  So far only the cucumbers, squash and sunflowers have sprouted.

In order to recycle I even started seeds in egg cartons.  Those haven't sprouted yet, but when they do I'll post the pictures.

Let's see how this all works out.