While it seems like everyone else miles ahead of us with their gardening plans, we’re just getting things started at our place.
Pick the foods. One of the first, and perhaps most obvious, things that we have done for our garden is plan it.
Simply sitting down as a family, discussing the different foods we enjoy and deciding on what things we want to grow (and are able to grow) on the farm.
After we made our list, we ordered the seeds we needed and got to work on planning.
Create a journal. This year, one of my Homestead Resolutions was to create a journal to document all things gardening.
Since this is the first year we will (maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed) grow all of our own produce, it’s important that we document the process.
Things like how many seeds we planted, which crops did great and which did poorly, notes on gardening conditions and pests, and how much food our garden yielded and how much we were able to preserve.
Even sketching a layout for the garden and keeping track of which areas have been rotated with which crops will be helpful. So, what master gardening journal have I been using? Nothing more than a fancy, schmancy composition book that I bought for around a quarter when school supplies were on sale!
Start plants indoors. Since our growing season will only be somewhere between 70-100 days, we’ll need all the help we can get to get our garden off to a good start. Right now, we’re soaking seeds & planting in containers around the house. This way we’ll be ready to go when the ground finally thaws and our first day of outdoor gardening arrives. And don’t forget to label al of your seeds when planting so there is no confusion as to what is what when it’s time to plant outdoors. We made labels using discarded plastic bottles that we cut into small steaks and wrote on with permanent marker.
Let plants get to know nature. Once plants have matured enough and the temperatures in our area are appropriate, we will begin bringing the plants outside to get used to the different temperatures, the sun, and other forces of Mother Nature. We will be sure to go slow, gradually allowing your plants more time outside. Starting with a couple hours and always bringing plants back inside at night, until they have become accustomed to full days spent outside is a smart plan.
Till & plant! Once the frost line finally frees the soil, we’ll be ready to till and get our garden planted in the ground.
Are you gardening this year? Where are you at in the season & where are you located?
To celebrate the start our garden, even if only in the planning stage, I’ve been given a chance to offer our readers a chance to win their very own Moringa seedlings. If you haven’t heard of Moringa (which I hadn’t until recently), you’ll want to head over to SchneiderPeeps to read their review.
