Growing That Vegetable Garden
Now I am not a farmer by any means but my wife and I have had great success with our vegetable garden the last few years.We have learned how to preserve and can our homegrown food, we even learned how to ferment certain types of vegetables.It's wonderful to have an abundance truly organic vegetables from our own yard. I have canned 20 pints of green beans already and that doesn't count the bunches we have eaten.We have about 10 quarts of tomato juice so far and some wonderful beets and carrots. My wife's favorite hot peppers are looking good as we have canned 10 pints the fiery little devils.The green peppers and cabbages are also looking wonderful. Yep' I ain't no farmer but the green thumb is working.As you can see from the picture the garden itself is not really big at all, measuring about 15 x 30 all raised.If you are going to grow your own vegetables be ready for some trial and error. For example; if you are going to grow radish be ready to plant and harvest early like the end of May.If you are planting some root vegetables make sure that your soil has some sand like mix, this will enable the carrots to have length and not just girth.
If you are planning to grow tomatoes, give them room, in warm weather they will be at least a few feet around so use tomato cages if possible, otherwise you will need to use stakes and string to hold the plants up.Tomatoes do better in warmer weather but need plenty of water.What do you do with all these vegetables? I can't eat them all. The best thing I have found is to preserve by canning them but you can also freeze the extras. There is a canning process for everything, pick up a book on canning and check this resource for more info: http://prepareorganic.com
With the cost of organic vegetables a backyard garden is a good investment. A dollar's worth of seeds can bring 30 times that back in fresh vegetables. Organic green peppers in the winter can cost as much as $3.00 each or you can have a pounds of them from you garden for pennies. Don't use pesticides and fertilizers, pests go after weak plants so compost to make them strong. Do you really want to eat fertilizer and pesticide? You can grow healthy food, just do some homework.
Buy heirloom seeds and you will have vegetables in their natural state and they have more nutrients in them. Stay away from seeds that are (GMO) genetically modified, this is very unnatural and unhealthy, do your own research.
All in all gardening can be fun and it's something you and your spouse can do together, it's a wonderful bonding time that both of you can share. If you are single it's a quiet reflective time planting,cultivating and reaping the harvest.So what are you waiting for start small and add on each year. I have to go now its time to pick green peppers.
Copyright: Robert Micheal Green 2009
